As the brains behind hits like Beyonce’s “Upgrade U” and Drake’s “Fancy,” and even getting behind the mic for his own popular songs like “Money In The Bank,” it’s safe to say rapper and mega producer Swizz Beatz is more than established in the music industry. But he’s also a major player in the world of art, known for launching The Dean Collection exhibit in 2014, kicking off the Basel Art and Concert Series last year and is also on the board of the Brooklyn Museum.. Now he’s helping some talented--but undiscovered--artists gain some much-needed attention in a unique way.

Alongside Canon, the camera company, Beatz just announced a new partnership in association with the company’s “Rebel with a Cause” campaign. Entitled #TheUnknowns, the venture promotes the work of unknown artists like never before. Here, Enstars catches up with the Grammy Award-winning producer to discuss it, chat about working with Kanye on Life Of Pablo (including THAT Taylor Swift jab), and his famous wife, Alicia Keys.

“I was a nobody at one point,” Beatz says of wanting to give back. “We all start somewhere.”

For #TheUnknowns, Beatz curated work from a rag-tag group of art-world outsiders, which was then projected onto the homes of some New York’s most well-respected art institutions (the Brooklyn Museum and Bronx Museum of the Arts), literally turning the walls of the art world establishment into the canvas for those struggling to break through them. Some of the work was eventually even featured in a gallery in Sotheby’s, and pieces are now available for auction online.

But first, Beatz had to find the artists--a task made much easier in the age of social media.“We just hit them up on Instagram if they catch our attention or have a huge following. The ones who are pushing the boundaries,” he says.“But they have no idea what they’re signing up for [at first].”

According to Beatz, true art (or at least the art that matters to him) isn’t confined by rules and limitations. “I’ve seen it in every form with the amazing opportunity I’ve had to travel around the world... to see museums in places like Africa and Cuba that display their unique form of art,” he explains. “There are no boundaries to it.”

And while it may seem like the worlds of hip-hop and art crashing into one another is a fresh and trendy combination, for Beatz it’s nothing new. He used to host concerts and art shows on the same night. “The [fans] would go into a gallery and look at the art before coming into the concert,” Beatz says.

He later adds: “It goes back to the beginning of art and Hip Hop. You can’t separate the two. Art is Hip Hop and vice versa. Things got separated when people came into it and made it more about business than the art. It wasn’t always the cool thing to do.”

Beatz’s work with #TheUnkowns may have kept him busy, but it hasn’t keep him out of the studio. Most recently, he helped out on Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo, rapping and producing for different tracks.

“It was like working with a friend that you never get to see because you are both so busy,” he says of West, who’s been gaining more and more attention lately for everything other than his music. “We literally just spent like three days in the studio with no sleep. We made like 50 beats.”

As for the diss that West made at Swift in “Famous” (you know, this one), which Beatz is featured on, he views the buzz as drawing many fans’ attention away from more important songs on the album, specifically “Ultralight Beam,” the track he produced.

“[It’s] such an inspirational song!” Beatz laments, before noting that the controversial “Famous” is a song that’s “a different kind of fun.” And yet, the former is gaining more recognition. “With the whole Taylor Swift thing,... the media kind of took it and ran with it and it overshadowed ‘Ultralight Beam,’” he explains.

But luckily fans can expect to hear more of Beatz’s work soon...on his wife Alicia Keys’ upcoming album. He’s the Executive Producer. And yes, Beatz is aware that we’ve been missing new music from Keys.

“I think the whole world has been craving for more music. She’s just so amazing with everything that she does…I’m so proud of her! But I feel like because I’m her husband it doesn’t count when I say it,” he says with a laugh.

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