Out of the pandemic and the shutdown, Trapital's Dan Runcie looks back at the ideas and trends that have started back at the height of the isolation age. He believes that some are destined to never achieve substantial success, such as Clubhouse, Bored Ape Yacht Club, artists immersed in digital environments, Community... A few might have a future - DEI initiatives that lead to real change, Verzuz, NFTs, while some are certain to stay - music rights sales and acquisitions, TikTok and short-form video, high prices for live entertainment...

Verzuz announced a battle between soul and funk legends the Isley Brothers and Earth, Wind & Fire, on April 4. Two weeks later, on April 20, Verzuz battle will host a “How High 4/20 Special” featuring Redman and Method Man. Both events will be available to watch on Verzuz’s Instagram account or via the Triller app.

Fast Company chooses 10 companies that are changing the face of the music industry. They are: Neon16 - a talent incubator and music label for Latin music, BeatStars - an online marketplace for producers to sell their beats to artists, Royalty Exchange - a marketplace allowing artists who are earning royalties to sell them to investors during online auctions, Audiomack - a music streaming and discovering platform aiming at Africa, Stem - a music distribution platform making it easier to artists, as well as Verzuz, Parkwood Entertainment, Harmonix, Bandcamp, and Dolby.

Producers Swizz Beatz and Timbaland have sold their Verzuz project to Triller, joining also the Triller Verzuz management team to help oversee music and other company strategies, LA Times reports. Timbaland and Swizz Beatz have become large shareholders in Triller Network and in turn have allocated part of their equity stake to the 43 performers who’ve appeared on Verzuz to date, including John Legend, DMX, Alicia Keys, Ashanti, Rick Ross, Patti LaBelle, Gucci Mane, Jeezy, RZA, The Dream, Brandy, Monica, DJ Premier, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott. Pairing popular artists from the worlds of R&B, hip-hop, dancehall and gospel, Verzuz was launched in March 2020 in the wake of COVID-19. Since then, the platform has boosted sales and streams for its featured artists in addition to accumulating more than 5 billion impressions.

Swizz Beats and Timbaland were the masters of the battle last year with their Verzuz shows, but it had all started in the Caribbean, half a century ago, NPR argues. The story goes back to Jamaica in the late 1950s, when the streets of Kingston hosted rabid competitions between DJ crews or "sound systems", blasting imported jazz and blues on colossal speakers stacked high. DJs staged lyrical battles onstage and in the studio, with some clashes so intense that the authorities have had to be called into suppressing them. Verzuz was born on that tradition, and last autumn a Caribbean battle show Showdown debuted with artists Alison Hinds from Barbados and Patrice Roberts from Trinidad. Showdown is born from Verzuz, which is in turn born from Jamaican dancehall, which is born from American jazz and blues, NPR concludes.

Atlanta MCs Gucci Mane and Jeezy kicked off Season 2 of Verzuz battles on Thursday night with a hits-packed match. Staggering 1.8 million viewers - a new Verzuz record - tuned in through Instagram, as many more watched through Apple Music. Billboard breaks down the battle and declares a winner. CNN says that Gucci Mane-Jeezy Verzuz was, unlike previous live-streams, aggressive and actually more of a battle.

Legendary soul singers Gladys Knight and Patti LaBelle are the next guests on Instagram live series Verzuz Battle, which will livestream Sunday, September 13. "The Godmother of Soul" and "the Empress of Soul" will show out at an official venue, The Fillmore in Philadelphia. Billboard wonders that "maybe the two superwomen will take on their Grammy-nominated 'Superwoman' collaboration", or maybe they'll pull from their "highly successful solo stints".

Brandy and Monica reunited on Monday night on the Verzuz series to celebrate their own solo back catalogs. The two went back-and-forth with their most beloved hits, including Monica's 'Angel Of Mine' and 'So Gone' as well as Brandy favorites 'I Wanna Be Down' and 'Have You Ever', with Monica taking advantage of the huge audience to debut new song 'Trenches', produced by The Neptunes, the Fader reports. Verzuz claimed to have broken their own record for live viewers on Instagram, with over 1.2m people watching on around the world.

Snoop Dogg and DMX received 1.75 billion impressions across the internet on the latest Verzuz battle, while breaking Apple Music's all-time livestream record with more than 600,000 concurrent viewers and a total of more than 1.4 million fans tuning in, Billboard reports. On Twitter, #Verzuz became the No. 1 trending topic with 29 other trends growing from that evening. It received 168% more tweets than the previous biggest battle.

The newest episode of battles curated by music producers Swizz Beatz and Timbaland will feature neo-soul artists Erykah Badu and Jill Scott - the first female superstars in the series (previously it was RZA vs. DJ Premier, Swizz Beatz vs. Timbaland, T-Pain vs. Lil Jon, Mannie Fresh vs. Scott Storch, and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds vs. Teddy Riley). All Hip Hop is sure the battle will be "epic" since Badu and Scott "are the best of the best". It's on Saturday, May 9 - at 7 p.m. Philadelphia time, 6 p.m. Dallas time, 1 a.m. Barcelona time.