Swizz Beatz Working With Eve, Ponders Ruff Ryders Reunion

It's been a while since Swizz Beatz released a song with the Ruff Ryders crew. While the uber-producer has compiled beats for everyone from his current squeeze Alicia Keys to Ludacris, Swizzy brokethrough after being recognized for his production work on DMX's hit single 'Ruff Ryders Anthem.' While X has his own problems, Swizz tells The BoomBox he's not opposed to reconnecting with the whole Ruff Ryders crew, even their "pitbull in a skirt" -- Eve. "Anybody [from] Ruff Ryders I'm willing to work with, it's all family to me," Swizz told The BoomBox. "I'm always working with Eve. I've already worked on a bunch of tracks previous to her starting her [upcoming album] again."

As previously reported, Eve left her label Geffen/Interscope Records in January after several delays of an album that was never released. Now a free agent, the Philly native is prepping 'Lip Lock' which is said to hit stores later this year. "Right now, she's vibing with other producers and things like that," Swizz explained. "What Imma do is we either keep the tracks that we did that didn't come out, or if she feels like we need something different, we work on that as well."

"We [Ruff Ryders] started out together with something that was super amazing. Like, even DMX -- he's going through his situations -- but when he's focused he's gonna do it big." While Swizz has not reached out to the troubled Yonkers rapper, whose name remains in the press for his never-ending arrests and legal issues, he maintains that they will work together again. "I let him go through his thing, let him have his space. It's a creative thing with us. Itís a family thing with us as well like you have to learn when to let people have his space."

The producer is also looking to link with the rest of his Ruff Ryders crew for a collaborative album, if they can find the time. "I'm willing to do whatever, anything Ruff Ryders. I just don't wanna be the only one that wants to get back together. I tried that already with [the track] 'Who's Real,' then the remix. I got everybody on it. It got some great momentum but you know people have different schedules. We're different than when we first started. Before it was like all we could do was focus on this. I'm traveling all over the place, Eve is all over the place, the Lox [are] doing their thing, Drag[on] got his independent thing that he's trying to do. Like everybody's their own business people right now."

In the meantime, Swizzy has his plate full working on his forthcoming album as well as music for big names like Drake, Kanye West and Ludacris, just to name a few.