The producer husband of Alicia Keys wants rappers to pay a million dollars each to the hip-hop pioneers like Melle Mel, Grandmaster Flash, and Sugarhill Gang.
- May 14, 2020
AceShowbiz - Swizz Beatz has called on the rap stars of today to pay "taxes" to hip-hop's founders.
The star spoke out on the issue during a chat with Joe Budden on his Beatz's Zone Radio on Instagram Live, where he suggested he wants to "raise a million dollars for each icon that started hip-hop."
"The fact we're not paying taxes on who started hip-hop shows we don't f**king really love hip-hop," he explained, reported the New York Post's gossip column Page Six. "The fact we don't pay taxes as artists to those icons that paved the way took the lower cut for the music that allowed us to feed our families."
The star, real name Kasseem Dean, added, "We need to be paying taxes to the creatives of hip-hop that gave us freedom of speech to go forward."
"Melle Mel, Grandmaster Flash, and Sugarhill Gang, minimum a million a piece."
The "Echo" hitmaker made the comments after saying he wanted to stage a rap battle between Rakim and Big Daddy Kane. He also claimed that a similar face-off between his wife Alicia Keys and singer John Legend, in which they will both play the piano, is also in the works.
