What did DMX say to Swizz Beatz before he died?
Swizz Beatz had been seeing a lot of DMX in the period leading up to the latter’s untimely death in 2021, aged 50.
DMX, after competing with Snoop Dogg in a Verzuz rap battle during the summer of 2020, had decided to record a new album, and, to help with the production, he turned to someone familiar. Swizz Beatz had been responsible for producing some of X’s greatest ever hits in the past, so he brought him on board for another project as executive producer.
The album that the pair worked on, Exodus, would prove to be DMX’s last. He suffered a heart attack before the album was released, and he died a week later. Exodus came out just over a month after that, with Swizz Beatz suddenly thrust into the position of promoting it without its star man.
It must have been a fast-moving, shocking situation for Swizz to deal with, but he nonetheless proved capable of speaking calmly about the loss of his friend and long-time collaborator. During one such conversation with KRRL radio around the time of the album’s release, Swizz recalled the last time that he’d been in contact with X before his death.
“I could tell he was at a club or a restaurant or something that was loud,” Swizz said, speaking from his car. “And he called me and he was like, ‘Man I need to be next to you. I need to be in your space to get the positive energy. I need to be in your vibe.”
The earnestness of this phone call seemed to catch Swizz off guard somewhat, but he had an idea. “I was on my way out the country, and I invited him,” he explained during the interview. “I was like, ‘Yo you should come with me on this trip. I think it would be super good for you to change up the scenery. We just completed an amazing album, let’s go away and see something different for a little bit.’”
DMX was apparently intrigued by the idea, until Swizz informed him of quite how long a journey he was set to embark upon. “He was loving it until I told him the flight was 17 hours,” Swizz said, laughing. “He said, ‘No, I don’t want to be next to you that long!’”
DMX told Swizz that he would have a think about his proposal, and that he would let him know later. But he never did. He never called again, and that marked the last ever time that they heard each other’s voices.
This wasn’t quite the last contact, though. A couple of days later, DMX sent Swizz a message expressing his appreciation for all that Swizz had done for him throughout their friendship. “That was my last text with him,” Swizz said. “I wrote back, ‘I love you, dogs for life.’”
Swizz also sent DMX a playlist of old-school hip-hop songs, and that was that. It was the last contact they ever had, and, while that’s obviously heartbreaking, it seems fitting that their shared love of hip-hop was part of it.