Superproducer Swizz Beatz has remembered his late friend DMX as a “different type of spirit” who had the biggest heart and always stayed true to his roots.
Shortly after the “Party Up (Up In Here)” rapper died at the age of 50, Swizz shared an emotional video on Instagram, eulogizing the hip-hop legend as he shared a side of the star fans may not have been familiar with.
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“My brother was a different type of brother – a different type of artist, a different type of creative, different type of spirit, different type of zone, different type of soul,” Swizz began.
“Since the day that I met him, he lived his life for everyone else… You ain’t never seen DMX with a Lamborghini, you ain’t never seen my brother with a Rolls-Royce, you ain’t never seen him iced out with no jewelry. He did not care about any of that…”
Touching on DMX’s spirituality and the personal pain he endured throughout his troubled life, which was plagued by substance abuse, the producer said, “He prayed for everybody else more than himself. He’d get on the stage and pray for 15,000 people, knowing that he needed more prayers than anybody that he was praying for…”
“He took everybody’s pain and made it his,” Swizz continued. “He would go to jail to escape his pain. That’s how much pain my brother had every day… He would win an award, an American Music Award, you name it, and didn’t understand why he deserved it because he knew and he felt that other people deserved it more than him. He never lived for hisself.”
Swizz went on to liken his fallen friend and frequent collaborator to a “prophet” who was constantly giving back to those in need, without ever publicizing his charity work.
“My brother would take care of everybody before he would take care of himself. I never seen a human like him,” he said. “The closest I’ve ever seen to a prophet.”
“He did more charity than probably every artist I know,” Swizz continued. “The only difference with his charity was he never talked about it. His humanitarian work should be celebrated…”