Verzuz
Verzuz is an American webcast series created by record producers Timbaland and Swizz Beatz. It was introduced during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic as a virtual DJ battle, with Timbaland and Swizz Beatz facing off in its first iteration through an Instagram Live broadcast in March 2020.
The series invites two musicians, predominantly R&B and hip hop, such as Mario and Omarion, to highlight their discographies in two 10-song rounds during a three-hour session.
Episodes have included battles between producers Teddy Riley/Babyface, singers Erykah Badu/Jill Scott, Brandy/Monica, Gladys Knight/Patti LaBelle, and rappers Ludacris/Nelly, as well as Jeezy/Gucci Mane.
The web series won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Variety Series in 2021.
Verzuz returned for its third season to streaming and the live audience in October 2025, after 3 years of hiatus since 2022.
“Verzuz” is a sensational spelling of the word “versus.”
Beginning of Verzuz
Verzuz began as an impromptu broadcast before taking on the form of a brand, adopting a logo and official social media accounts with subsequent matches. The Verzuz brand gained its official trademark in April 2020, as registered by Timbaland. In August 2020, after a bidding war, the series began a partnership with streaming service Apple Music and social media platform Twitter, integrating Apple's audiovisual capabilities with Twitter's social-engagement aspect, a first for the former.The idea of creating a live battle was conceived by Timbaland and Swizz Beatz in 2017, which led to a 'producer clash' battle during a Hot 97 Summer Jam concert in 2018. The live show consists of two challengers in the entertainment industry who compete with their best hit record. There are no actual winners chosen. In an ABC News interview, Swizz Beatz stated "The people won, the culture won, music won" in reference to the music sales and online streams gradually increasing due to both newfound interest and curiosity. Though no winners are selected, Billboard magazine has released scorecards and breakdowns of the battles and selected winners based on these observations.
The Verzuz webcast became an online streaming show during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first three Verzuz matches surpassed a million views, The Ashanti vs Keyshia Cole Verzuz was the most watched webcast with over 6 million total Instagram viewers, breaking the Jeezy vs Gucci Mane record which held over 5 million in total viewers and Brandy vs Monica record, which was the first live stream webcast to pass the million mark with over 1.2 million concurrent in-stream live views, but totaled with over 4.2 million visitor viewers.
Format
Instagram live streaming broadcast
In its initial inception, the Verzuz battles were performed remotely over Instagram live due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of U.S. states were under strict quarantine to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. Challengers often used their own cell phone/tablet device or web camera to live-stream on Instagram live through their verified artist page. Initially, challengers added or requested each other's Instagram accounts to communicate virtually on Instagram Live. The first time this format changed was in the challenge between Bounty Killer vs Beenie Man, in which both challengers appeared together under the VerzuzTV Instagram channel instead of their own channels.The Verzuz battle may consist of up to 20 rounds of what would be an artist's hit songs or hit features/collaborations to go head to head against each other. During the battle, the artist will play each song one after another, through audio sound systems via computer or recording studio equipment. This format has changed also with the battle of Bounty Killer & Beenie Man who fully performed live with microphones along with DJ's/Sound Equipment, which in turn also provided good acoustics and feedback without interruptions. There was a first attempt by record producer Teddy Riley to perform live against Babyface, but because of technical difficulties, it was unsuccessful.
For the majority of the music tracks selected by the artist, they often share personal stories about the creation of the song and the experience surrounding it before playing or performing the track. Oftentimes, the artist on both sides would gloat or boast themselves to show their competitive spirit along with having the authority of 'bragging rights'.
For many of the live broadcasts, the celebratory competitive streaming went on for an estimated two hours long, with the exception of continuing on their own live feed after the event was over to allow fans and followers to engage with them.
In the past, some technicalities forced a video stream to get booted off due to weak Wi-Fi connection, or a licensed copyrighted song that could only be played to a minimum of 90 seconds before being cut off stream. On occasion, most broadcasts had an allotted time of 1 hour per stream, due to Instagram's rules of live streaming, which cause the artist to restart another live session and continue where they left off. However, during the battle of Jill Scott & Erykah Badu, the live feed stayed continuous for more than 2 hours except for when Badu's livestream stopped because of Wi-Fi issues.
Viewers who are observing the challenges can watch the feed from their electronic device, phone, tablet or computer with their Instagram accounts. It is simultaneously enjoyed as a watch party or listening party with other individuals, whether at home together or as a virtual population over the live stream. Viewers interact by commenting their opinions, judgement, reactions, emotions, and may use special character emojis as a form of expression. Some individuals may try to keep score but ultimately get lost in the rounds.
Technical issues
The streaming service was mired in technical impediments since its inception. Because of the overwhelming response of complaints from viewers, Swizz and Timbaland implemented a new rule on May 25, 2020, that the future participants are required to use equipment kit provided by the brand Roland, who created a new set up to supply the best audio as possible to prevent issues from continuing. The organizers stated, "You cannot do VERZUZ unless you use the technology that we're sending you, because we're sending it to you for a reason."New broadcast
As nationwide quarantine started to loosen restrictions of social gatherings and began to start public re-opening phases, the lineups in the 2nd part of the series broadcast the event live in-person to stream over Instagram as well as Apple Music, which began streaming the presentation live in HD on June 19, 2020. The live broadcast feed presented by Apple Music, is recorded using Television Studio equipment, teleprompters and a simple character generator editing used to display viewer comments from Twitter, also a ticker format of the stylized names of the challengers integrating with the Verzuz 'V' logo, along with providing the sponsors. As with the Instagram live presentation, it continued in the same format as the first series with improvements of the audio quality as a result of using the Roland equipment.The new updated series stayed consistent of having challengers meet face to face sharing one room often with DJs or piano accompaniment while continuing to social distance. The participants gathered with an entourage as the event was held from a selected venue. Locations of the venue included, Tyler Perry Studios, which was used for the Brandy vs Monica broadcast and the Fillmore theater in Philadelphia, used for the Gladys Knight vs Patti LaBelle broadcast. The Bounty Killer vs Beanie Man Verzuz in the first series, was held at a club venue in Jamaica, and was the first in-person webcast stream. The only time the new broadcast reverted to its original "duo split-screen style" streaming was in the Verzuz challenge between Ashanti vs Keyshia Cole, due to high rate of California's COVID-19 social distance protocols. It streamed on Instagram live with the Verzuz and Keyshia Cole's live channels, and on Apple Music live broadcast split-screen side by side; and the Triller/Fite TV broadcast Verzuz featuring Eve vs Trina. where Eve was remote live via satellite from the United Kingdom, while Trina was live on location with full audience in Miami, Florida.
The Verzuz broadcast of Brandy vs Monica broke records in numbers over Instagram with over 1.2 million live viewers on that platform being the first webcast to reach that peak, although during the Teddy Riley vs Babyface broadcast in the first series, it was reported 3.7 million people attempted access to view the live broadcast but was unsuccessful of joining the feed due to Instagram live viewership algorithm never reaching 1 million, forcing viewers losing the place of joining the stream upon exiting and possibly being locked out of viewing the stream. The result of this later began to open the population for more viewership on Instagram.