When Swizz Beatz first started making money, he didn't realize he was making money.
On an episode of Angie Martinez's WE-TV show Untold Hip Hop Stories the superproducer explained that he got tripped up by the concept of royalty checks early in his career, leading to a very lucrative and fortunate discovery.
“I thought the checks being sent to my house was Publishing Clearing House checks,” he said. “In the hood, they’re sending you checks from everywhere. Like, every week you won a million dollars… My grandmother used to make me just save them in a shoebox. So, I had $700,000 in the shoebox. I never got royalty checks ever in my life before. Nobody told me. So I’m sitting here eating ramen noodles and I got $700,000 sitting in a shoebox?”
Swizz is certainly lucky to have a hoarder for grandmother.
We imagine Swizz's nine-year-old son, who is already making beats, will be smarter when his royalty checks come in.