Leading up to the premiere of the new reality series, Drive with Swizz Beatz, Dorkaholics was invited to speak with the father-son duo and hosts of the show, Swizz Beatz and Nasir Dean. During our conversation we discussed emerging markets for music, anime and manga fandom, bridging the gap between different cultures, and of course what made them dorks growing up.
Neil Bui: As a person in the music industry, what are your thoughts on the emerging markets when it comes to global music?
Swizz Beatz: Well I think that the world is a small place now because of technology and I think that a lot of people should be open-minded to discover other cultures of music, of arts period. That’s what we wanted to show in Drive [by] showing the culture that they might see in a movie in Japan, but [also] showing you the real thing that’s not in the movie. And then also in Saudi Arabia where you probably would envision like gold Rolls-Royce [cars] and just all of these things that it is not, to show you the first female racer that’s that’s doing sand dune races, rally races, to show you the first stunt driver that has done over 8,000 film television stunt tricks, and just things that we wouldn’t normally see in in our backyard. This is something important for us to open up peoples’ minds. Although we started with a lot of places that are back here in the States, we also want to let people know that we’re not afraid to travel far as well.
Neil Bui: What types of anime or manga did you guys consume growing up that maybe you guys got a chance to dive into when you visited Japan?
Nasir Dean: First of all, you have to start with Dragon Ball Z, then I went to Naruto, then we went to One Piece which I’m on the thousandth episode and Dad even has started knowing some of the characters too, like Luffy. Now all my little brothers have anime rooms, they have anime pillows, they have anime sheets, it’s a full takeover. I also write my own anime called The 13th Month that we’re excited to present as well so you’ll be seeing that soon.
Catch Drive with Swizz Beatz on Hulu now.
