Swizz Beatz Recalls DMX Refusing To Finish "Party Up (Up In Here)," Claiming He Had To Push Him To Finish The Song

Swizz Beatz had to push DMX to finish “Party Up (Up in Here),” one of the pair’s biggest collaborations, which debuted on X’s 1999 album…And Then There Was X peaked at No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Swizz spoke with Rema in the newest part of Rolling Stone’s Musicians on Musicians series about having to force DMX to finish “Party Up” as the pair approached their deadline, because DMX “didn’t want to do the song.”

“I’m always gauging the room,” Swizz stated of his studio style. “Because you could come in in a mood — you’re thinking about your girl — and if I’m pushing a party song on you, it’s just not going to work.”

Swizz said, “I mean, it worked for DMX once with ‘Party Up.'” But if you listen to ‘Party Up,’ he goes completely against the song. You could tell he didn’t want to perform the song. But I had to force him because we had a deadline. It’s his most disrespectful verse, in my opinion, and it’s the biggest song we’ve ever created.”

Swizz spoke to Complex in 2011 about the outro on “Party Up (Up in Here),” which featured the producer and resulted in Swizz costing $15,000 extra “just for the outro at that time.”

“The ‘meet me outside’ part was spur of the moment but it got famous and people started paying me extra to do the outro,” he told me. “At the time, I would charge $15,000 extra just for the outro.” People still want that on their tracks today. I simply went in there buggered. I didn’t expect they’d stick to the ‘One, two, meet me outside.'”

“That outro came from me DJing and always wanting to control the crowd,” Swizz explained. Being a DJ was my most powerful secret weapon. I was considering how others might respond in the club. I knew how to manipulate the audience, thus I knew how to set crowd records. ‘When I play this in the club, they’re going to go crazy,’ I’d think. “I still use it.”

Swizz Beatz Recalls DMX Refusing To Finish “Party Up (Up In Here),” Claiming He Had To Push Him To Finish The Song

Swizz Beatz had to push DMX to finish “Party Up (Up in Here),” one of the pair’s biggest collaborations, which debuted on X’s 1999 album…And Then There Was X peaked at No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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