Music superstars Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz’s son, 12-year-old Egypt, recently revealed that he doesn’t want to follow into the music industry in his parent’s footsteps. The pre-teen briefly appeared with his dad on The Jennifer Hudson Show on Tuesday when was asked about his interest in pursuing music like his producer dad, 44, and 15-time Grammy winner mom, 42. He responded, “Well, I love music, but I don’t want to be a musician. I want to be a basketball player,” he shared.
His father, proud of his transparency, said, “He’s honest.”
Egypt continued, “It’s fun because I like playing stuff, so when I hear it, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I want to play something,’ then boom, it’s on the piano,” Egypt added of his musical hobby.
Although he is not interested in the music industry, Egypt already has a close bond with a famous rapper – Kendrick Lamar. They began their relationship at a previous football game when Egypt was able to help the rapper ease his writer’s block.
“He and Kendrick were talking for 40 minutes,” Swizz told Hudson. “I went over and said to Kendrick, ‘Is he bothering you? Should I move him? Are you enjoying yourself?’ He said, ‘No, Swizz, I had writer’s block, and what Egypt is telling me is helping me deal with something. I was like, ‘Man, he’s five years old.’ To this day, I still don’t know what he was helping him deal with. I let it happen.”
Those early conversations eventually led to Egypt getting the unbelievable opportunity to produce a song for Lamar called “untitled 07″ at only five years old.
Earlier in the interview, Beatz reflected on blending his family, admitting it was “not an easy process” initially. He and Keys share son Genesis, 8, and Egypt, and the famous producer is also dad to daughter Nicole, 14, with singer Jahna Sebastian, 16-year-old son Kasseem Dean Jr. with ex Mashonda Tifere, and son Prince Nasir, 22, with Nicole Levy.
“We live, and we learn. And we learn that the kids didn’t ask to be here,” he shared. “Sometimes we gotta take ourselves out of it and make it about the union of the kids and the community because that’s what’s gonna pass on the legacy. We can be stuck on our personal things for a long time, but when we grow up, we ask a person, ‘Why do you do this for? Naturally, people will say, ‘I do this for my kids,'” he adds.
Beatz continues, “So we just chose to buckle down and really do it for the kids, and we have an amazing blended family, and all my kids are happy, and we’re happy as well.”
While we don’t know Egypt’s career path just yet, we’re sure he’ll have a bright future.