Photo: Hard Rock International
Swizz Beatz loves mezcal. He prefers to sip on a glass of Producer Mezcal neat so that he can enjoy every note of the premium artisanal brand. If you've never tried it before, Swizz recommends trying his mezcal neat before using it for cocktails. Most agave-based liquids have an intense, smoky flavor that can overpower some mixers. Unlike the rest, Swizz says his Producers Mezcal is so mellow even his wife Alicia Keys enjoys it.
"It's unbelievably smooth," Swizz tells iHeartRadio. "I was blown away that this was so smooth that women could drink it."
"I can't keep a bottle of this in my house," he continues. "My wife doesn't drink. This is the only mezcal she'd drink because she's like, 'Everything else is too smoky.' I just think that we just found the right balance."
Swizz Beatz wants everyone to experience Producer Mezcal the way he does. It's one of the reasons why his brand has partnered with Hard Rock Hotels and the Seminole Casino. The veteran hitmaker recently announced the brand's new partnership with the internationally-known hotel chain to bring the drink around the world. You can expect to see Producer Mezcal at bars and restaurants inside 11 Hard Rock locations in the U.S. and Mexico beginning next month.
Producer Mezcal is made in Oaxaca, Mexico by revered mezcalero Juan Pacheco. The drink is created by cooking the agave hearts, or piñas, in earthen ovens over rocks and local wood. Afterward, the piñas are crushed with stone wheels to extract the newly transformed sugars. Swizz and his business partner Snagz got involved after the veteran artist's neighbor, whose family had been in the spirit business for over 100 years, invited him to be a partner in the brand. The Ruff Ryders producer helped launch Producer Mezcal in 2021 with two expressions, Ensamble and Tepeztate. Now the brand includes other flavors like Espadín and Arroqueño.
Swizz Beatz and Snagz have major plans for Producer Mezcal's new partnership with the Hard Rock. The brand plans to debut a series of cocktails at each location with at least five mixtures in the works. In addition, they aim to host mezcal parties on rooftops and other exclusive spots around the world. The partnership a huge step forward in Swizz's journey since he first became an investor in Producer Mezcal four years ago.
"When you think of the Hard Rock, they continuously celebrate the icons," Swizz said. "Look at all the memorabilia that's in there. It just keeps the creativity alive and that's the energy that we want to have with this brand. It's keeping the energy alive, keeping the moment alive. That's why the partnership just made so much sense."
There's a lot more in store for Swizz Beatz in 2025. Outside of his mezcal venture, he and his wife are also focused on their "Giants" exhibit as it travels the country. The couple debuted their exhibition from the Dean Collection at the Brooklyn Museum last year. "Giants" features 100 works of art by Black diasporic artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Amy Sherald, Lorna Simpson, Gordon Parks, and others. Since then, the exhibit has popped up at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and will open at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in March. The exhibit will travel to other locations until 2030.
"We feel that it shouldn't just be for our private collection and storages and things like that. Art should be seen," Swizz says. "The artists should be celebrated and people should have a show like this that they can go to that they feel comfortable with and they can relate to."
As if that's not enough, Swizz is also working on reviving his and Timbaland's battle series Verzuz. The event began as an impromptu song-for-song match-up between two legendary artists on Instagram Live during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, it has grown into a cultural phenomenon that created rare moments between iconic Hip-Hop, R&B and Latin artists that also gave new life to their respective catalogs.
The platform had been on hiatus before both superproducers struck a deal with X, formerly known as Twitter, to distribute the series. Swizz says he and Timbo have "been having fun taking our time making it perfect" since the ink dried on the deal last year. He hasn't confirmed the plans for Verzuz's comeback. However, he guarantees the event will be better than ever and has at least 50 dream match-ups in mind. He also said they "plan on going global."
"There are iconic artists all around the world and we can't leave them out," he says. "We realize the power that we have with that tool and by buying the company back 100% and now understanding the business that we have and the opportunity that we have not only for us but for the creators, we gonna go super hard and I think people are going to be surprised for sure."
Swizz Beatz's Producer Mezcal is set to debut in Hard Rock Hotels on March 1.