Don’t call Exodus a posthumous album. DMX’s eighth album will be released just over a month after he died in April, but his longtime collaborator, super-producer Swizz Beatz, is quick to correct any notion that it’s the product of stringing together loose verses and unfinished songs and corralling famous features to pad them out. DMX began working on it after his Verzuz match with Snoop Dogg last year, and it was finished before he died. “It’s been labeled as an album that’s kind of been pieced together since he left,” Swizz told GQ. “But it’s not like that. Every song on that album, he was here for, he approved, he spoke with the artists, he vibed with the artists. He was very hands-on with this project. And he did this project while he was living.”
It’s true that there’s a feature on every single track, a first for a DMX album—and collaborators like Bono and new artists like Moneybagg Yo are, shall we say, a much more diverse array than DMX usually favored. But according to Swizz, it was all by design. “I [said] this album should be more collaborative so he can embrace some more of his peers and people that have respect for him and other people could see that he’s highly respected and loved, too. And he loved that idea. The reason why he didn’t really have features [on his earlier albums] was because X wasn’t the person that asked people for things. He didn’t know how to ask somebody ‘Yo, can you do a song with me?’ It was so hard for him to ask for things for himself,” Swizz recalled. “So I took that role on and was like, ‘This person’s ready to work, that person’s ready. And he would say, no. Or, he would say ‘Absolutely let’s go.’ So the ones that you hear on the album, they’re all the ‘absolutelys.’”
Recording for Exodus started in earnest last summer afterDMX’s Verzuz match with Snoop Dogg became less of a battle and more of a celebration for the embattled rapper, even from his “opponent.” That outpouring of love toward his classics motivated DMX to record new music, and Snoop lent his studio for the sessions, where Swizz says the album came together in a matter of months. “X is a master of his craft. He’s very sharp at what he does and, when he comes to do it, he’s not going to play around. He always had magic waiting for you. Our studio schedule was [start at] 12 in the afternoon, and he can have the rest of his day back by like five o’clock.” DMX was set to begin a workout regimen to get back in performing shape so they could tour the album.
Swizz took the lead on production for the first time since Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood back in 1998, an album some, including this writer, hail as DMX’s best. “I want the people to take this as an art piece. This is a live NFT. This is a real NFT, by the way—never forget talent.” Now Swizz, who spoke eloquently at DMX’s funeral about his loyalty to the rapper, is heavily promoting the project and putting together star-studded listening sessions in New York. “I’m just doing what I’m supposed to do. I don’t use the words ‘family’ and ‘brother’ lightly,” he says. The way I’m showing up now is the way that I’ve been showing up for years. It’s not even nothing new to me. I don’t deserve credit for it because other people weren’t doing it because I’m just doing what I’m supposed to do. And so, me going all out and pulling out all of the stops and all of the names to celebrate with him and even these listening sessions and all these interviews… It’s what I’m supposed to do. And I’m happy to do what I’m supposed to do for my brother.” Here’s a track-by-track breakdown.
“That’s My Dog” ft. The Lox & Swizz
The album wastes no time restoring the feeling of a proper DMX project—it doesn’t get more vintage Ruff Ryders than X and The Lox trading bars over grimy Swizz Beatz production. “The beginning of the album is very important,” said Swizz. “We wanted people to know that they were in for a hell of a ride out the gate, starting with a classic DMX, Lox, Ruff Riders, Swizz Beatz track. Set the tone, no intro, no nothing. Just as soon as you press play, it gets right to it and those tracks people knew us for.” For hardcore fans surprised to see a DMX tracklist with contributions from the likes of Bono and Alicia Keys, “That’s My Dog” is assurances that X’s sound won’t be compromised: “We wanted people to understand that they’re getting something authentic as soon as they press play.”
“Bath Salts” ft. Jay-Z & Nas
“This is a great follow-up, it’s [back-to-back] New York superhero moments,” Swizz said. “You have three superheroes from New York that have endless accolades, broke endless records and here they come—it’s a Clash of the Titans. It’s very urgent and lyrical and everybody came with a different style [on their verses.]”
Attentive fans will recognize the bones of this song as a track that Swizz first debuted as a haymaker (spawning an instant-classic meme reaction from Busta Rhymes) in his 2017 beat battle with Just Blaze. The title comes from a line in Nas’s verse on the Life Is Good track it originates from: “This the bath salt song/motherfuckers act like zombies when it come on.” Jay and X’s verses appear here just as Swizz played them four years ago—it’s unclear where and when Jay’s vocals originate from—but Nas opted to freshen his up. “Jay was content [with keeping his verses as is]. Nas changed his because I think he used a piece of [the original unreleased verse] on another song by now. But he went in and [recorded a new verse] in like less than 24 hours, which was a blessing,” said Swizz.
After the beat battle, demand for the song was so high that fans were disappointed when Swizz didn’t include it on his 2018 album Poison. “I knew that track was special. I didn’t want to get hyped up because people wanted it [if I] didn’t have the right outlet or the reason to put it out. An X album is a better reason to put it out. I have many songs like that.” As great as it is to finally have the track in all its mastered glory, it does leave a bittersweet feeling of wishing these three had collaborated more often. “It kind of makes you think, man… What if they would have done an album together?” said Swizz.
“Dogs Out” ft. Lil Wayne & Swizz
Lil Wayne’s admiration and respect for X goes all the way back to the Cash Money/Ruff Ryders Tour in 2000. “Being from New Orleans, it’s so far away from New York,” Wayne said during a recent concert. “We didn’t know if it was real when we seen [the New York guys] on TV. But when I got on tour with [DMX], and now you’re in the hotel lobby, you’re backstage, you run across a n-gga and he actually say something to you, and when you see this n-gga talk like how he rap, and you see this n-gga is what he is, and you see this n-gga got a zillion dawgs with him, then a zillion dogs with him, it’s impossible not to be obsessed, infatuated, muthafuckin’ impressed, whatever.”
Swizz said the feeling was, of course, mutual. “Lil Wayne’s been a fan of X for a long time. X respected Wayne, and we knew Wayne since [that tour]. Wayne has always been family. We wanted to [deliver] something uptempo, something for the club. And Wayne and X seemed like the perfect pairing for that.”
“Money Money Money” ft. Moneybagg Yo
Back in February, DMX told the hosts of the popular rap podcast Drink Champs that he had a feature with Pop Smoke, so fans were confused when the Exodus tracklist dropped with no Pop in sight. Turns out, that was “Money Money Money.” “That song originally had Pop Smoke on it, but then the vocals that we had ended up being used [elsewhere]. So we had to change the [feature],” Swizz explained. That makes this the only song that was completed posthumously.
With Pop and Moneybagg in play, it raises the question: Who did DMX favor out of the newer class of rapper? “We didn’t really have talks like that,” Swizz revealed. “X was real picky and particular about his own generation and this generation. I almost never heard X playing rap music—you know, X listened to old school R&B.” Despite that though, he remained tapped in. “If I asked him about a [rapper], he would know everything about them. I’d say ‘How you know about that person and I never heard you play them?’ I know he would’ve liked Moneybagg for sure.”
“Hold Me Down” ft. Alicia Keys
It shouldn’t be a big surprise to see Mrs. Beatz herself on the album, lending her soaring vocals to a track where DMX raps passionately about his inner turmoil. “I wanted to bring out all the different sides of him,” Swizz said of songs like this one. “Because he was so diverse, that’s why I can go from starting with The Lox and to a song with Alicia. I just wanted to go on a ride with him. Every track is not going to be shoot ’em up, kill, kill. We do have the street element on there, for sure. But we also have a sample with Marvin Gaye, you know?”
“Skyscrapers” Ft. Bono
“Skyscrapers” was a popular internet leak for years, finally liberated from the Swizz Vault here. Swizz first teased it back in 2012, previewing Bono’s contribution before a full song with verses from himself and Kanye West leaked later on. “X is a giant,” Swizz said. “He’s a rockstar. Not that I’m not those things in my own ways, but I’m a producer first. So I have to make the right decisions for the craft, not for ego and personal things all the time.”
“Stickup” Skit
A DMX album doesn’t feel complete without a humorous skit involving some kind of criminal activity. “Icepick Jay was the originator of those skits,” Swizz said of the Ruff Ryders producer who passed away after a battle with cancer in 2017. “We had to pay homage to him on the album. And I love that it comes right after ‘Skyscrapers.’ It just breaks the whole mood, you know, you’re in a zone with Bono, and we just interrupt the whole moment for a stick-up.”
“Hood Blues” Ft. Westside Gunn, Benny the Butcher and Conway the Machine
DMX may not have been listening to the new school of rap much, but if there was any group tailor-made to fit his aesthetic, it is unquestionably Griselda. Swizz says X and the core Griselda trio actually hit the studio for the gritty, boom-bap throwback track together and even filmed a video. “I like that a lot of these songs take you somewhere,” Swizz said. “Hood Blues” takes the listener all the way back to 1998.
“Take Control” ft. Snoop Dogg
As great as it would’ve been to hear Snoop and DMX trading dog affectations on a street track, “Take Control” is clearly a showcase for the Dark Man’s softer side. “You’re going from Griselda to Marvin Gaye singing,” Swizz said. “I just liked the juxtaposition of that but then they go into each other in a pretty cool way. A lot of albums [are such] rollercoasters that you miss so much good music because you just can’t keep up with it. The key was making sure the sonics [on this album] went into each other.”
“Walking in the Rain” ft. Nas
Nas shows up again on this introspective song in which DMX recounts his tough upbringing. Still, subject matter aside it has a warm, soulful feel to it. “I love that song,” Swizz shared. “That song makes you feel so good when you hear it. I love when X takes his time and tells those stories. He had a song called ‘Crime Story’ [on his first album] and that’s what I was channeling in that tempo with ‘Walking in the Rain.’”
“Letter to My Son” ft. Usher
“This was one of the first [songs he recorded for the album],” Swizz revealed. “I was shocked when he did that song.” Of course, the entire album is inherently bittersweet but this track is, as Swizz refers to it, “a heavy one” to listen to now, especially following the funeral service, where DMX’s children spoke (and rapped). During both the Verzuz and the days following his death, fans praised DMX for songs like “Slippin” that bared feelings of depression and hurt. Swizz said “He was in that mood and he wanted the world to hear what he was going through and hopefully help some other people out who could use it.”