Swizz Beatz Tells AD Why He Fell in Love With the Razor House

Hip-hop producer Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean and his wife, Alicia Keys, are both known for their music, but they are fast becoming major forces in the art and design scene as well. The couple has plans to open an art and music center in upstate New York, are the owners of an extensive personal collection that includes the most Gordon Parks works in private hands, and in September, purchased a highly unique property designed by AD100 architect Wallace E. Cunningham, dubbed the Razor House.

Swizz Beatz also has an ongoing relationship with the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card portfolio and hosted an event with the brand to celebrate Women in Art on November 14. The Grammy Award winner recognized Joeonna Bellorado-Samuels and previewed a series of bespoke pieces inspired by the credit card portfolio created by artists February James and LaKela Brown. There, Architectural Digest was able to catch up with him to chat about his passion for art and why he fell in love with (and bought) the famous Razor House.

Architectural Digest: Why is this partnership with American Express and Marriott Bonvoy and the Women in Art platform so important to you?

Swizz Beatz: We’re starting the Women in Art platform because the percentage of women that make up art sales is only 3%. So, the Dean Collection, Marriott Bonvoy, and American Express are teaming up to make this very loud, very clear, and raise awareness. I just want it to be 50-50 for women and men in art. I actually want it to be 60-40, leaning toward women. At the end of the day, women are way better than guys. It’s the truth. Women are the carriers of life that come in this world.

AD: Obviously, art is a huge passion of yours. How did you first get into it?

SB: I grew up in the South Bronx, and having graffiti around me, I started to get interested in the colors and just seeing these interesting portraits of expression on the walls. Art and music were parallel in my life. Art and music are brother and sister. I chose music first because it was an easier entry point. It had the cool factor. I was young, but as I grew older, I said, You know what, I need to express the other side that I’m into. I’m into photography, oil, realism, mixed media, video, all media.

AD: How do you go about curating your personal collection of art?

SB: I used to curate for the wrong reasons. I would pick something up off of hype and trying to impress business people that were coming to my home. As time went on, I noticed that I had a love for actually meeting the artist, knowing the artists, and collecting the work of living artists that you might not know of, and being able to grow with that artist. And the whole thing changed for me. I started the Dean Collection because I had a different focal point. I had a different mission, and my wife agreed with me. We wanted to give life to the artists, support them, create a platform, and educate people.

AD: Did you ever see yourself being this deep in the art world when you first started collecting?

SB: No, because when I started, I used to get laughed at by a lot of my peers. They would call me Mr. Artsy-Fartsy, and now these guys are coming to me for advice.

AD: Part of your love of art is also your love of architecture.

SB: I really believe that we need to get the culture into architecture and put it on a level where it’s never been before. I want to make it something special, where people don’t want to just get a house, but want to have a sculpture instead. Architecture is a sculpture. We have a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Arizona, which we use for our artists in residence, which the artists love going to, and we love going to it.

AD: You recently purchased the stunning Razor House in La Jolla. What are your plans for it?

SB: The Razor is a different dynamic. It’s really a sculpture.

AD: What do you love about it?

SB: I had the house on my phone as a screensaver for eight years—it is like my screensaver came to life. The way that it happened was just out of nowhere. I didn’t even know that the person was ever going to sell that house. We had to act fast. We packed up two weeks of clothes and moved because we had to put the kids in school. It was that fast of a decision. When you come in touch with a masterpiece, you have to [act].

AD: What do you love about modern architecture?

SB: This house just spoke to me. Not only the home, but the lot we’re sitting on. The view, the air, the beach, the mountain, the sunset. It made the sculpture so much more beautiful to us. It’s a complete package. Like you can have this sculpture somewhere, and it’d be great. But having all the dynamics around it makes it more special.

AD: How do you and Alicia go about designing a space like that?

SB: It’s super fun because we do tear-outs and go through all these magazines, like Architectural Digest. We come up with a theme, and then we just go with it. We try some things; some things work, and some don’t, and we change them out. With this house, it was different because every room is an art piece. Even the art that we put in the house is very minimal. I don’t even want to put anything on the walls. Drilling into the walls is like drilling into my heart. It was killing me. But it’s a joint venture. We have fun doing it and pretty much agree on a lot of the same things, so that’s pretty cool.

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest