Swizz Beatz joined The Breakfast Club to talk about DMX’s latest posthumous album, Exodus, if he had plans for a second posthumous album, and more.
When discussing if there was any more music coming from X’s camp, Swizz clarified that while he still has many songs in the vault, he doesn't want to touch them unless the overall body of work could be better than Exodus.
“He’s got a lot of music,” Swizz said at around the 23:00 mark. “But, for me it’s like, he just worked so hard on this record that I don’t really want to tamper with things unless it can be better than this record. I don’t want to just put things out, and even with the footage, we recorded the whole process of the album, and we could’ve been putting that footage out right now leading up to the album. But I’m like, ‘let's do something masterful with it. Let's treat it as art and curate it to where it adds to his legacy and is not just a blip of a moment that seems like it works, but you still don’t understand the whole story.’”
Swizz continued by encouraging everyone who has footage with DMX in his last moments to curate it and not just release it for the sake of releasing it. Swizz also expressed his gratitude for Lil Durk and Lil Baby, who pushed their upcoming joint album, Voice of the Heroes, back to honor this posthumous project.
“I respect that. See, I was hearing about it, but I’m not expecting people to do certain things because they have their life that they have to plan for. But shoutout to two of those brothers for doing something like it because it's a great representation of the youth. X would appreciate that, and I appreciate that,” he said at the 26:00 mark.
When discussing the songs on the album, Swizz revealed that “Bath Salts” featuring Jay-Z and Nas was initially on one of his previous projects and he retooled it for Exodus, leaving Hov’s verse the same and Nas tampering with some of his lyrics.
“To see them three on the record was just crazy,” he said.
Swizz also said that Scarface was meant to be on “Walking in the Rain” with Nas, Denaun, and DMX’s child Exodus Simmons.
“[Scar]face was supposed to be on ‘Walking in the Rain,’ but he was going through some medical situations and he tried, he definitely was responsive, definitely was respective, but we didn’t feel like this was X’s last record, even though X was telling me this was his last record. He was like, ‘This is my last record, dog. I’m telling you, this is my last record,’” he said around the 36:30 mark.
Swizz continued explaining how X eventually found his love for the music again while finishing this project, but unfortunately passed away before he could let the love blossom anew.
Listen to the entire Breakfast Club interview with Swizz Beatz up top.
