The new Onyx Collective docuseries on Hulu, “Drive with Swizz Beatz“, Beatz and his son, Nasir Dean, travel to destinations such as Southern California, Houston, Japan and even as far as Saudi Arabia, to experience their car culture and learn about what inspires, or drives, communities.
It’s storytelling through the art of automotive.
“There was definitely a particular moment in my youth that inspired me to be a storyteller,” said Dean, “And it started with me learning to read off comic books. So Stan Lee, all the Marvel comic books like even my father, you gotta read the first Wolverine. Like, when I was eight years old. And since then, I just was inspired to make stories and to incorporate feeling into a narrative so that people could feel it.”
Beatz adds, “My storytelling comes from the Bronx, seeing graffiti on the wall, that was people from my neighborhood telling the story, the music that was being played, was telling the story. Art is storytelling. And I only adapted as much as possible and every day that I live is you get to see and tell a new story.”
Inspired by Disney classics like “Beauty and the Beast” and “101 Dalmatians,” the father and son co-hosting duo understands the importance of storytelling and the potential it has to influence people through its messages.
In the new series, Beatz and Dean venture to U.S. cities like Atlanta and Houston as well as other countries to take a close look at different car cultures and their communities.
The theme of cars is a personal passion for both. Beatz is an avid car collector and Dean grew up surrounded by an array of cars and learned about each of them through his father.
“I feel that the connection between hip hop, art, cars, fashion is brothers, sisters, and cousins, because it’s all art,” said Beatz. “Whether it’s a car that you built by hand or whether it’s a car that you got from the dealership fresh brand new. That’s your expression, and that goes for songwriting, that goes for fashion, you know.”
Beatz says there is no bad way to do art, whether you connect with it or not.
Dean says he learned about the series through his father.
“I was in Miami at the time, and he was like, ‘We’re gonna go on an adventure and it’s not going to be like anything you’ve ever done before,'” said Dean. “It was definitely, definitely organic. And only beautiful [sic] came out of that, you know, and we got to spend so much time together. Yeah, like that was probably the highlight for me.”
The idea of the show began with the concept of taking a deep dive into cars, but the co-hosts say it eventually morphed into something much more.
“You don’t really see father and sons from our culture moving together, traveling the world together,” Beatz said. “You mainly see stories about fathers not being in the kid’s life. And I feel that, you know, although we can show car culture around the world, it’s really a family show and an educational show.”
They are both so excited for audiences to come along for the fun, sometimes surprising, and always adventurous ride around the world.
Watch the whole story in the video above and watch “Drive with Swizz Beatz” streaming now on Hulu.
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