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Swizz Beatz Explains Why He Relates To ‘Godfather Of Harlem’ Boss Bumpy Johnson
December 04, 2000
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Swizz Beatz continues his duties as the Executive Music Producer for The Godfather Of Harlem for the highly anticipated third season. The MGM+ series stars Forest Whitaker as infamous crime boss Bumpy Johnson, who returns from prison in the 1960s to find the neighborhood he once ruled in shambles.
In the third season, Bumpy continues to battle for control of Harlem and is trying to recover from a major setback at the end of season two. Swizz says that he can put himself in the mind of Johnson to craft the sound of the series because he can relate to his business acumen.
“I’m more of a Bumpy thinker. I’m a strategist like that,” Swizz Beatz tells HipHopDX. “I know how to deal with multiple sides like Bumpy. Which is why I travel so much and am able to network outside of just being from New York or the Bronx or even America. And Bumpy has that energy. So I feel like that’s my character. I think that if I was a character, it’s probably Bumpy, for sure.”
With Bumpy having to essentially start from scratch at the start of the season, Swizz recruited Jadakiss for the uncompromising track, “Hustle, Repeat.”
“He lost everything at the end of Season 2, when the riots happened and they burn down the warehouse where he had the stash,” Swizz says. “He was about to own the game, and now he got to start it all over. So get money, hustle, repeat, Bumpy.”
Swizz premiered the song in Summer of 2022 on Funkmaster Flex’s radio show as part of his weekly challenge to veteran New York MCs.
“I made it for the show, but I thought it was a great teaser to put it on Flex. Because we was just in that mode in New York City, and just getting the sound back. Because I was telling him, ‘Flex, man, you come back home, it doesn’t sound like New York no more. You’re in power. It’s okay to play new things or other artists from other places. We can’t lose the core of New York, man. It’s ridiculous.’
“So he agreed with that. Then I just was giving him a bunch of records, and I asked the network and the team, I was like, ‘What if we just gave this just so he can get some buzz? So when it comes on the show, people like, ‘Oh, okay, that makes sense. That’s where that record went. It didn’t just disappear into the ether.'”
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