Swizz Beatz, Timbaland & Lena Waithe Team For Amazon Documentary ‘Gifted & Black’ Following The Journey Of Verzuz
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Amazon Studios, Hillman Grad Productions, and Good Trouble Studios are partnering for the feature-length documentary Gifted & Black for Prime Video, Deadline has learned.James Adolphus will direct, with actor, producer, and Emmy-winning writer Lena Waithe producing under her Hillman Grad Productions alongside Swizz Beatz and Timbaland.Inspired by Swizz Beatz and Timbaland’s music phenomenon Verzuz, Gifted & Black explores the traditions of Black music to connect, going from the plantation to the Pulitzer Prize.
Set against the backdrop of the pandemic and the recent racial reckoning, Gifted & Black frames those traditions in the context of the collective resiliency fundamental to the Black experience.
While tracking the exponential growth of Swizz and Timabland’s Triller-owned Verzuz music enterprise from its onset, the docu interweaves the roots of Black music, embedding in Black communities and with Black musical artists, through poignant interviews, gripping vérité and magnetic archival footage, offering insights into how Black music continues to be an uplifting and uniting salvation that endures through uncertain times.Hillman Grad Productions’ Rishi Rajani, Good Trouble Studios’ Ben Selkow, and James Adolphus, Monique Blake, and Gary Marella will also produce.“I’m grateful to Swizz and Tim for trusting us with something so historic,” said Waithe on behalf of Hillman Grad Productions. “Verzuz is more than just two artists going song-for-song.
It’s a testament to the power of Black people. It’s the joyful celebration of legacy that we all needed. With this documentary, we’re excited to take audiences behind the scenes of this global phenomenon, while also paying tribute to the artists that shaped us.
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