Swizz Beatz has put in the necessary work to validate himself as a hip-hop super producer, but that doesn't mean that he plans to rest up anytime soon. "I've been kicking since '98," he said, "That's what I told Hova: 'We did it in '99, and we 'bout to do it in '09.' That's a blessing. I've been around." He talked with MTV News about his upcoming projects, which includes work on the much-anticipated 'Blueprint 3' and DMX's forthcoming album.

"I like the album," Swizzy said of Jay-Z's third installment in the Blueprint series. "He gotta say a lot. [...] Me and Jay, we're so much into the art of music, and we're great friends. This album, we happened to get into a little bit. That s--- is super fun. We're still working."

Swizz is also working on old pal DMX's album and is excited to usher him back to a Ruff Ryders-era kind of success. "By him not coming out on Summer Jam gave us the freedom to do everything we're doing right now [to make the album at our own pace]," Swizz said. "...X is on his A-game. They're in trouble. Just the lineup of music I have already done, ignorant! X is gonna come back so crazy."While he's busy producing gutter beats for other rappers, Swizz has put his own album on the backburner, but acknowledges that that's all subject to change. "I'm on a different level of expressing myself," he said. "I'd rather express musically than lyrically. But any minute, I can go in the studio and jump on some sh-- I made for somebody else and not wanna give it to them."