Shrouded in mystery for ages, Saudi Arabia is about to burst onto the global cultural scene. And Swizz Beatz — the music, art, and cultural icon — is voicing the change and leading the way.
The producer born Kaseem Dean has been doing business in Saudi Arabia for many years. Our sister site, AfroTech, explained that his first business move in the Middle East involved — of all things — camel racing.
In 2020, Swizz Beatz made history when he became the first American to win a Saudi Arabian camel race. According to the Independent Saudia Arabia, Team Kasseem Abu Nasser entered a camel race in Saudi Arabia, and one of the camels on the team (owned by Dean’s daughter, Nicole) won the race.
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Now, Swizz Beatz is moving into the cultural aspect of doing business in Saudi Arabia with the launch of Good Intentions, a global creative agency headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Swizz and his partner Noor Taher, a native of Saudi, have assembled the best-in-class creatives from around the world in shaping the future of the Kingdom. They were selected to help share the majestic stories of the region through tourism, entertainment, and art, making Saudi Arabia the world’s new travel and culture destination. In collaboration with The Dean Collection, who created the platform “No Commissions,” Swizz is known for his sought-after curation and expertise in the most prominent art fairs in the world. Good Intentions’ first project in Saudi, exhibiting four public art installations at the highly anticipated The Jeddah Art Promenade, produced by Far Right Productions and curated by Umbereen Inayat, will be unveiled in Jeddah during the F1 Saudi Formula Grand Prix, held on December 3rd to 5th, 2021.
“Each of the artworks in the exhibition presents a reverence for life forces immersed in natural wonders,” Swizz Beatz told TravelNoire exclusively. “Encouraging you to take flight, the works present a place for connection to oneself and this earth, discovering endless possibilities and the potential to find a new inner voice and compass within.”
Carrying a long-standing relationship with Saudi Arabia, Swizz has invested his time and resources to help shape the future of the Kingdom (and the region) for the rest of the world to see. He has acted as an ambassador of Saudi culture and hosted auctions at the Red Sea Film festival in Cannes. But, most importantly, Swizz has shared his admiration for the culture the world has yet to see from the region.
“Being from here, this project is very close to my heart,” his business partner, Noor Taher, told TravelNoire. “Saudi is at the forefront of pioneering a creative evolution through so many mediums. Unprecedented times call for unprecedented creativity & innovation, and we are here to make it happen in the most meaningful way possible.”
It’s an exciting time in the country. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has just opened its doors for tourism, welcoming visitors from around the world to experience both the history and future of the country. Saudi Arabia is progressing with extensive resources invested in tourism, cultural and arts projects throughout the Kingdom, from the state-of-the-art venues (such as this project with the Jeddah Art Promenade and the world’s fasted F1 street circuit in history), the world’s most technologically advanced city (NEOM), ultramodern resorts (Red Sea Islands), to showcasing ruins from ancient civilizations and romantic desert landscapes (Al Ula).
The ambitious development plans of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 outlines social change. Today, the Kingdom is moving at an unprecedented speed, and its cultural revolution — helped, in part, by Swizz Beatz — keeps women and education at the forefront.
