DMX and Swizz Beatz were longtime collaborators. Having spent so much time together, the producer saw a lot of sides to the rapper, including X’s penchant for charity.
In a new interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Swizz described DMX as being a man of the people and placing people before money or materialistic items. “I talked to X about taking time out for his self a lot, but he just does not… He didn’t feel that was his purpose,” Swizz said. “He felt that his purpose was to help other people. He was a very philanthropic guy. … I watched this man give clothes off his back to homeless people and switch clothes with them or go home in his boxers. He didn’t care, man. X, was when I say he was different, he was different, different, different. I always seen him giving, and I never seen him take.”
Swizz continued, “I mean, he used to rob people, but I told him, like he made up for all of those things he was doing when he was younger, when he got position. X never cared about no money. He never cared about no cars, no jewelry. He cared about how you was feeling today. How were you feeling today? He cared about how another person was feeling. That was his currency, was making sure everybody around him was okay.
Swizz added, “When I’m saying everybody around, I mean everybody. That means the person that he never met in his life that’s sitting down, looking sad in the corner. He’ll stop his whole car and get out and talk to somebody. We’d be late to the show—we already two hours late. He outside talking to some lady that looked like she was having a problem. I mean, there’s videos of him doing this stuff all over the internet.”
Swizz has been elemental to the rollout for X’s first posthumous album, Exodus, which arrives on Friday. The producer told Lowe how he feels like he’s been entrusted with ensuring that DMX’s legacy is honored, and explained how it’s the “right thing” to do.
“Me being there for DMX is not something that should get flowers. I’m just doing what I’m supposed to do because that’s my brother, you know? That’s like saying, being like a great father, seeing your kid. You’re supposed to be that, you know what I’m saying? You don’t get no points for that. You’re just doing what you’re supposed to do now.”
“I want to bring it home. I want him to get his number one he deserved. I want him to get his awards he deserved because he never cared about those things,” Swizz said. “He didn’t care, but that don’t mean he didn’t deserve it. I want him to get what [is] deserved. … It’s about him and his family legacy and his legacy. He trusted me with that. So we got to do the right thing.”
Elsewhere, Swizz discussed how X’s Verzuz performance birthed the new album. “When he did Verzuz, all his songs go to number one. He seen everything chart again. I showed him all of it. Then he was just pumped up. He was like, ‘The only thing I don’t like about my Verzuz is I wasn’t able to do something new. I want to give all of these people that’s looking at me something new immediately.’” That’s when that’s the album started.”
Swizz also talked about DMX’s intensity in the studio, the features on the album, and more.
