DMX f/ The LOX & Jay-Z “Blackout” (1998)

Album: Flesh Of My Flesh, Blood Of My Blood

Label: Ruff Ryders, Def Jam

Swizz Beatz: “I used to make like 30 beats a day. Powerhouse was the location where everybody would come to hear music and work. It was like a factory out in Powerhouse Studios. I’d be in there banging beats. I would sleep in there and never go home.

“It was like an open door policy. So people knew, ‘Okay, Swizz is in there.’ They would listen and say either, ‘I can’t vibe with that,’ or ‘Yo, give me something like this.’ So I would just be in there making shit. One day my uncle came in and said, ‘Yo, we need the ‘Scenario’ joint. We’re trying to get Jay on it. We need the beat.’

“I was like, ‘Alright.’ Keep in mind that I had to compete with about four other producers and it was like a shift. There was definitely competition between me and the other producers. So I would be in there banging beats because I only had a little time to display what I could do.

“The all came in and Jadakiss was like, ‘Oh man, that is crazy.’ Once one person co-signs it and they start writing to it, you’re locked in. Jada started writing to it and everybody else followed him. That’s how it stuck.

“I be forgetting I did that record. Even right now I’m like, ‘Oh shoot, Blackout!’ [Chants Jay-Z’s lyrics] ‘I’m a monster! I sleep whole winters, wake up and spit summers.’ We should have shot a video for that too. That would have been crazy. I wish we had video of it.”