DMX’s brand new posthumous album Exodus features an appearance from Jay-Z and Nas on “Bath Salts,” and on Sunday Swizz Beatz previewed an alternate version featuring J. Cole.
While Swizz and Timbaland faced off in a Verzuz rematch, Swizz started to play the “Bath Salts” fans have been enjoying since Exodus dropped on Friday. After letting it run for a moment, he joked, “That’s the cute version, I like that version—but let me play this version.”
The song immediately kicked in again, but with the Off-Season rapper on the track instead.
“Talk to ’em J. Cole,” Swizz said while the unreleased iteration of track played. “Oh, you not gonna play the whole J. Cole verse?” he added after the track was stopped by the DJ.
It’s unclear if this is a remix of the track and if there are plans for it to be released later down the line, or if Cole’s verse just didn’t make the final version of Exodus.
There were plenty of other highlights during the Verzuz rematch on Sunday, including a brief message from Missy Elliott. “Thank y’all for creating Verzuz, for us to relive some of the best moments in music,” she said. “But Timb, listen…Swizz be coming with them snappers, Swizz be coming with them bangers, so you gotta come straight out the gate!”
Also over the weekend, the first week sales projections for DMX’s Exodus arrived, suggesting the album is set to make its debut in the top 10 of the Billboard 200. The record is expected to run up between 28,000 and 32,000 album equivalent units in its first week, 12,000 to 14,000 of which are pure album sales.
