“I could stop right now and be happy, because my mission was to change the hip-hop industry, and I feel I did that in one year,” says the laid-back Swizz, who co-wrote and produced the Ruff Ryders’ 1999 multiplatinum debut, “Ryde or Die,” and is celebrating the release of “Vol. II, " which debuted at number two last week. “I feel I added a power groove to the industry by making my own music instead of sampling. Now people can make money for real because they’re the composer. I did 80 songs last year, and all went platinum. I’ve got nothing to worry about.”
Swizz has managed to write more hits before the age of 21 than most songwriters achieve in an entire career (the albums his work has appeared on have sold 11 million copies). His strategically spare sound has become a trademark of the Ruff Ryders empire his uncles Dee and Waah Dean started when Swizz (a.k.a. Kasseem Dean) was 17. “I kept it real simple,” says Swizz, pulling up in front of the Ruff Ryders’ office, where a street team is preparing to jump into a van and plaster the city with “Ryde or Die” posters. “But my critics say, ‘Oh, his sound is too simple.’ They can’t really talk because most of them are old-school producers, and all they used to do was sample, which is zero percent original. I don’t sample. It’s just me. Nobody can copy that.” That doesn’t stop half of hip-hop’s producers from trying.
