9 Years Strong: Swizz Beatz on What Makes Marriage to Alicia Keys Work

Swizz Beatz and wife Alicia Keys are going into their ninth year of marriage bliss, and after two kids, and many changes in their professional and personal lives, the couple is stronger than ever.

The rapper and music producer, real name Kasseem Dean, and the R&B sensation are considered one of the most powerful examples of “black love” among fans of the entertainment industry.

THE SECRET FOR A LONGLASTING MARRIAGE

So, when asked by US Weekly what makes their relationship work, Swizz said that communication and a deep understanding is critical.

“We understand each other, and we communicate,” he said. “We’re just the f***ing best.”

Swizz and Alicia will be celebrating their wedding anniversary on July 31, but they don’t have any plans set in stone. It turns out, spontaneity has also played a significant role in their marriage, and they enjoy just going with the flow most of the time.

“We start with all these big plans and then might just end up sitting home, eating popcorn and just laughing, making jokes. Then, going somewhere at the last minute,” he started.

And continued:

“We’re very spontaneous, and that’s the one thing with relationships, being spontaneous and not being so programmed to where people feel you should be or what you think you should be because of what people feel you should be. We wake up in the morning, just chill. That’s what we do.”

PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES TOGETHER

Of course, being spontaneous is great when being married to Alicia Keys, whom Swizz Beats says has an adventurous personality that has also rubbed off on him, pushing him to do things out of his comfort zone.

“Sometimes, she [does] things … like going tubing down some long river with your bottom in the water. I’m thinking, like, river monsters. I’m thinking [of] everything. I’m doing these things because I love her,” said the 40-year-old producer.

He also recalled one time he had to go into a cave with Keys while thinking, “I would never do this.”

INSPIRING THE OTHER

Both stars have become big names in their respective areas of work in the music industry, and that, Beatz says, its because they let each other have their freedom to create and find happiness, as he stated:

“We don’t own each other, and we just let things flow. We have fun, and we support each other’s passions. I think that’s the key to happiness, honestly.”

Keys, on the other hand, said in an episode of “Oprah’s Master Class” a few years ago that it was her husband who inspired her to be freer and more open to life.

The 38-year-old confessed she used to be "regimented" about how everything had to happen, but after meeting Swizz, realized that there are some things that just “unfold and happen to you.”

Alicia and Swizz Beatz share two kids, sons Egypt, 8, and Genesis, 4, and he also has three more kids from previous relationships: sons Prince, 18, and Kasseem, 12, and daughter Nicole, 11.