DMX’s first posthumous album Exodus arrived on Friday (May 28), seven weeks after his untimely death. But among the myriad of guest features, which included JAY-Z, Nas, Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne, among others, Pop Smoke was noticeably absent.
Not long before DMX passed away, the Ruff Ryders legend appeared on an episode of Drink Champs where he excitedly talked about the album, once again confirming Pop Smoke would appear on the 13-track project. During an album listening party earlier this month, Swizz Beatz mentioned Pop Smoke didn’t make the cut but didn’t really explain why — until now.
Speaking to The Breakfast Club, Swizz explained, “They used the verse already. I know X wouldn’t want an old verse. We fought for it.” He also said the verse was “pulled out of nowhere” then added, “It was two verses and both of them was used. We went to get another verse and it was used.”
Swizz then reached out to Moneybagg Yo to fill the void on “Money Money Money.”
“I just put Moneybagg on the song,” he said. “Not that they the same energy, but they the same demographic. X wanted to touch that part too. I’m not mad at it. I like Moneybagg verse better anyway.”
Despite Pop Smoke’s omission, Exodus has received plenty of praise now that fans have had some time with the project. Shortly after its release, the song “Bath Salts” featuring JAY-Z and Nas became a trending Twitter topic.
Swizz Beatz Remembers DMX Pimping Out A Rental Car: 'X Was Just Different'
In particular, people seemed to love Nas’ line, “Let’s put success to the side/I’d still be this fly if I worked at Popeye’s/That’s a whole lot of spinach/Whole game full of gimmicks/Make a foot out of yourself for a post on Akademiks.”
The song was originally recorded in 2012 for Nas’ Life Is Good album but never made the cut.
Pop Smoke was fatally shot during a botched home invasion in the Hollywood Hills last February, while DMX died on April 9 after suffering a heart attack.
Listen to “Bath Salts” below.
are those really their lyrics?
Love getting the lastest news and being on top of what’s new and what’s going on in this big world ??
meh, we don’t need some pop smoke on the same record with a legend like DMX, no big deal
But you’re okay with Moneybagg on there?
Im more interested to know why Jadakiss was cut from bath salts. Probably because he wouldve made everybody else look bad on that joint.
He would’ve made Gay Z look bad for sure
*inserts his laugh
The album was trash. Swizz beats is nothing but garbage. All peace to love to DMX and his family. That body of work is terribly put together and will hold absolutely no place in dmx discog or memory. The griselda track is the stand out of the album. Rest easy lord, but this release is just a complete write off.
Why do they cut and paste these albums together? I know it’s a money grab, but that shit is always terrible. I think the only hot posthumous album where it feels like they caught the essence of the artist was Pac’s first one, that Still I Rise album. You could tell a lot of foresight went into that. This DMX shit wasn’t even mixed well. Just lazy all the way around.
on god swizz beats is the worsr producer. shit was mixed lioe a 15 years. all the beats were wack af, and wtf was shitbagg yo doin on this album?
The album sucks sounds like sum rushed bullshit dmx rest his soul but he has no bars the only decent songs are the first song with jadakiss and the shit with griselda even tho they stole Sean price figure 4 beat.
Originally the beat was from an artist named “Pacewon”. the song was called “I declare war”
As much as it sucks to hear it, I’ve heard about cutting and pasting verses together from multiple camps. Watch some of the documentary footage from the ruff ryder camp. They allude to the process of trying to fit which verses work best with which beats, choruses too. Insinuating that they’re not just straight recording complete songs for X’s albums. This was dating back to And then there was X. They knew they had a formula that worked, so they had no problem cutting and pasting if they felt something else worked better.
So out of all the rappers he decides to go with lame moneybagg?! Why? Makes no sense.. seems like swizz did what he wanted instead of what X would have wanted