DMX’s highly-anticipated album, Exodus, hits the streets this Friday and fans are on the edge of their seats awaiting the posthumous masterpiece.
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Swizz Beatz, the album's executive producer, got honest with Audacy and V-103's own Big Tigger and the crew (Ms. Basketball and Tylerchronicles) of the Big Tigger Morning Show. Swizz revealed several tidbits about the album, including clearing up some rumors and how he almost "played" himself when it came to the final prayer.
"One, it was something that X did while he was here. It was the one thing that I would like people to know about the record because it's nothing something we pieced together because he passed away. Every song [on the album] he had his hands on, every track. He approved the album," Swizz began.
The only thing X wasn't around to see what replacing Pop Smoke's feature with Moneybagg Yo, since the change occurred at the last minute. However, Swizz had this to say about X while recording this album— "just being in the studio with dog and after him doing Verzuz, he felt the love from the people. He felt the love like 'man, people still mess with me like that.' He seen his records go up. People started calling him for features and he had his energy up and he was like 'the only thing I regret about the Verzuz is I didn't have no new music.'" Swizz also revealed that after the Verzuz, they stayed at Snoop Dogg's studio in LA (where the event was held) and recorded the album there.
Exodus features the likes of U2's Bono, Nas, Alicia Keys, Lil Wayne, Usher, JAY-Z, and according to Swizz, he laughs, saying "I think everyone is on the project." He continued to reveal that this album "has all of DMX's sides," meaning the fun side, the sexy side, the raw side, etc. The only thing not channeled was "the gospel [side]." However, don't fret too much. Swizz expressed, "I feel that should be a whole other project in itself because it was so special to dog and he planned on doing different records and things like that."
If DMX is known for anything, it's being a man of faith. So, of course, we needed to know about if a prayer made it onto the album and Swizz quickly stated, "oh absolutely," but then revealed something that had us floored. "I'm not gon' lie. I almost ain't put the prayer at the end. I almost played myself. When you hear the last song and it's called 'Letter to Your Son (Call Your Father) featuring Usher [and Brian King Joseph],' that song takes you so far out, I almost couldn't handle a prayer coming after it."
Swizz continued, "...that song takes you out, but then I leave a lot of musical space for people to reflect [...] so the prayer felt like 'damn, I'm not gon' make it up outta here.' But this album is not about me. Whether I wanted the prayer or not, X wanted the goddamn prayer."
Of course, the crew couldn't let Swizz go without addressing Verzuz. He cleared up a few things about the upcoming Bow Wow/Soulja Boy battle and not following the schedule they dropped, ahead of The Isley Brothers/Earth, Wind & Fire showdown.
According to the schedule, we got The Isley Brothers vs. Earth, Wind & Fire, and Method Man vs. Redman. On Mother's Day weekend, we were gifted with SWV vs. Xscape, but on actual Mother's Day, the team quietly skipped out and it was just announced that the founders of Verzuz, Swizz and Timbaland will be the rematch people were waiting for.
The rapper admitted that it was "too close," but the guest they had lined up for Mother's Day will touch the Verzuz stage at a later date. He went on to reveal some of his dream matchups— Foxy Brown & Lil Kim, Cash Money vs. No Limit, just to name a few. Also, when it comes to the upcoming Bow Wow vs. Soulja Boy battle, they brought the idea to the table and it simply works. "Soulja invented everything and Bow is forever with the smoke," he explained. Also, Swizz admitted there was no date set; however, both Bow & Soulja are promoting a June 26 date. We presume the answers will come when the flyer drops.
Find out which side of DMX Swizz feels many weren't aware of, what fans should take away from Exodus (available this Friday, May 28), and what he had to say about the matchups many are begging for including a Pharrell Verzuz and the constant debate about Chris Brown going against Usher, in the full interview above.
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