Swizz Beatz and Timbaland recently hit up The Breakfast Club to discuss a variety of topics, including whether or not Usher could soundly defeat Chris Brown in a Verzuz battle. As it happens, Swizzy actually revealed an interesting tidbit about a Verzuz battle that almost came to be, only to be derailed in the eleventh hour. And unfortunately, it would have been a hell of a battle, were it to have manifested.
Dr. Dre Away From Verzuz">Christopher Polk/Getty Images
According to Swizz, Dr. Dre was looking to try his hand at the Verzuz format, only to change his mind following an unfortunate technical limitation. "When Dr. Dre wasn't feeling the sound from Teddy Riley and Babyface, that hurt our heart," admits Swizz, an admission that sparks a hearty laugh from Charlamagne and Envy. "If you go back, Dre was at the Teddy Riley one, he came at the end. He was supposed to announce that he was going to do Verzuz that night!"
"I don't think he was going to announce who he was battling," continues Swizz, after Envy asks whether or not he was slated to battle Diddy. "He was going to announce 'I'm ready, I'm coming.' Then he got on the phone like 'man, I can't be a part of nothing that sound like that. My legacy is quality.' I was like 'we just lost Dre over the sound? That one felt pretty crazy. But since then, the energy has been pretty good."
While disappointing to be sure, it's not entirely surprising given Dre's reputation as an ardent perfectionist -- especially when it comes to the audio. There's a reason why he's considered to be one of the greatest engineers in hip-hop. Check out Swizzy's reflection on the battle that might have been below, roughly transpiring around the fourteen-minute mark.