Swizz Beatz’s second oldest son, Kasseem Dean Jr., was given a life-changing surprise for his 18th birthday on Sunday, December 22.

The son of Swizz and Mashonda walked into a yacht party expecting to see his friends and family but got an even better surprise when guests greeted him with NYU gear, confirming that he’d been accepted to the private research university. “Welcome to NYU!” guests cheered when Kasseem entered the room before he hugged his parents and stepmother, Alicia Keys. Also in the room were Swizz and Alicia’s sons, Egypt, 14, and Genesis, 10, while Swizz also has an older son, Prince Nasir Dean, 24, with ex Nicole Levy and 16-year-old Nicole Dean, with former partner Jahna Sebastian.

The producer and “VERZUZ” co-founder shared the special moment on Instagram, congratulating his son on making it into New York University. “This is what we all do it for in real life 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽 Today we celebrate the 18th Bday of Kasseem JR🎂We also celebrated him going to NYU 🙌🏽” Swizz captioned the post.

The 46-year-old continued. “The amazing part was he didn’t know he was accepted we saved the news for his Bday 🙏🏽Blessings to all the parents going hard for the future aka the Kids 🙏🏽🙏🏽”

Also giving Kasseem congratulatory posts on Instagram were Mashonda and Keys, both of whom shared candids of the teenager when he was younger. 

Swizz became a part of the NYU educational board during the 2010-2011 semester when he was named a Producer in Residence at the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.