Kaseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean is struggling with the loss of his friend and collaborator DMX. In a heartfelt video he posted on Saturday, the Ruff Ryders producer tried to come to terms with the iconic rapper’s passing.
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Earl ‘DMX’ Simmons died in a White Plains, New York hospital on Friday after what has been reported as a drug overdose that precipitated a heart attack. He was on life support for a week before the family announced his passing.
Dean says that he’s “never seen a human like him.”
“Thank you for all the prayers and the blessings for my brother, the great DMX,” Dean wrote on his Instagram page. “Let me tell you something man, my brother man, was a different type of brother, different type of artist, different type of creative, different type of spirit, different type of zone, different type of soul.”
DMX was a hungry unsigned rapper when he came to the attention of Chivon Dean, Darrin “Dee” Dean, and Joaquin “Waah” Dean, who formed the Ruff Ryders label in 1997. Like DMX, they were natives of Yonkers, New York. They eventually signed DMX to Def Jam and had him work with their nephew, then unknown producer Swizz Beatz.
He first posted a video of the two together on a private plane trip when X passed on Friday, then another on Saturday.
In the second video, a visibly emotional Dean talked about X as a person, an artist and shared about their close relationship, which catapulted both of them to global fame. Calling them “words of truth and pain,” Swizz said in the video:
“Thank you for all the prayers and the blessings for my brother, the great DMX. Let me tell you something man, my brother man, was a different type of brother, different type of artist, different type of creative, different type of spirit, different type of zone, different type of soul.
Since the day that I met him, he lived his life for everyone else. I’ve never seen him live his life for hisself. You ain’t never seen DMX with a Lamborghini, you ain’t never see 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.
DMX was the biggest! Let me tell you why he was the biggest. He was the biggest because he prayed for everybody else more than he did for himself. He’d get on that stage and pray for 50,000 people knowing that he needed more prayers than everybody that he was praying for. My brother would pray for everybody before he prayed for himself. My brother would take care of everybody before he would take care of himself.
I never seen a human like him. The closest I’ve ever seen to a prophet. They compare him to other people but there’s only one DMX. That man suffered every day. That man suffered from the day I’ve known him. When y’all heard his first song, he was suffering. You know why he was suffering? Because he took everybody’s pain and made it his. His humanitarian work should be celebrated.
He was in so much pain that he would go to jail to have his freedom. I’m sorry, dog, I gotta tell em’ the truth. 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. He lived for everybody else. I’m in position because of DMX. Millions of people are in position and inspired because of DMX.
My brother was one-of-one, none before him, none to come. If he ain’t f–k with you, there wasn’t nothing I could do. But if he loved you, there wasn’t nothing you could do. You understand? We lost a real giant. But he’s not in pain no more. I want to be selfish but I can’t. He was the most loyal person I’ve ever known.
He’s been a Ruff Ryder since day one. Everybody threw millions of dollars. You could not buy DMX. You couldn’t buy him, he was never for sale. His loyalty for who he loved was never for sale. His family was never for sale. His integrity was never for sale. You might learn something from him. He taught me a lot.
He was my big brother and my little brother. He was my teacher and he was a student. We been through so much. We slept on floors together. We robbed together, we celebrated together and we cried together. He came to me the day that he left us in my dream. He was watching South Park.
I came up behind him and I hugged him. I seen him smiling but I couldn’t hear him talk. We wrestled. We was play fighting like we always do and then he got up and he grabbed me very tight and he looked at me and he gave me a smile, which I knew he was okay, I knew he was in a better space. As much as I hated whatever space he was in that wasn’t in our space. Then, he walked into a room. Then, I woke up.
Mind you, before that dream my stomach hurted, I had the shivers, migraines, you name it. When I woke up, I felt different because I knew my brother was happy. I grabbed my cigar and got me something to drink. I went swimming and I played his music.
Long live DMX. Blessings to his family, blessings to all of y’all. He was the only artist I seen make gangsters cry. We gon’ do it big for him. When you see me, you see him. I done cried 50 times before I could do this message.
You understand? We gon’ keep the respect on his name, anybody violate will be violated. Remember I told you. Because X ain’t violate anyone, he loved everyone from the esais, to the Bloods, to the Crips, to the Vice Lords, to the folks, to the Christian church, to the Islam, you name it. X loved everybody.
This man had $30 million dollars, writing his music in abandoned buildings. He would give his clothes away. He would sit down with homeless people and eat with them with $30 million in the bank. He didn’t care about no money. He cared about humanity, he was a humanitarian.
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He did more charity than probably every artist I know. The only difference with his charity, was he never talked about it, he just did it on a daily basis. Understand who my brother was. Understand who my brother was. We love you, king! We love you, we love you, we love you. I’m devastated but I’m happy you home — your brother, this big nose, light-skinned brother you used to snap on. We had fun. I love you king! Long live DMX the Great!”
Watch the full video below:
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