Taking to Instagram on Friday (May 5), the super-producer reflected on how the success of the classic track set him on a collision course with what would become his career. And in so doing, he paid homage to the late rapper.
“25yrs ago on this Day May 5th 1998 my life changed forever,” he wrote in the caption. “That’s how Ruff Ryders Roll! On May 5th 1998 Ruff Ryders Anthem dropped. Can you believe 25 years ago, DMX lit up our screens with his Mega talent !! @hiphop50 Long Live my brother @dmx !!!! Ruff Ryders for Life @waahdean @general_over_everything.”
Check out the post below.
“Ruff Ryders Anthem” was the third single off of DMX’s seminal It’s Dark & Hell is Hot album, and though it initially peaked at No. 93 on the Billboard Hot 100, it reached a new peak at No. 16 following DMX’s death in April 2021.
This is certainly not the first time that Swizz Beatz has remembered his late friend with love and affection.
“Man, honestly, it don’t even feel like he’s gone,” Swizz said. “It just feels like he’s away, somewhere chillin’. And then the anniversary will come around or I’ll speak to his fiancée or I’ll speak to his son and I’m like, ‘Whoa.’
“Or I’ll see a video or I’ll scroll through my phone and see pictures and it’ll hit me. But the thing that make me feel easy about it is he came to me.”
He continued: “I seen him in my dream. He came to me. And this was, like, super quick too. And he let me know he was good. I’m the person that be like, ‘He ain’t come to see you, what you talkin’ about?’ I seen him. I felt him, I can smell like — I just couldn’t hear him talk.”
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