Sean Paul is finally addressing his bizarre age old beef with DMX.
Back in 2005, American rapper DMX explained that his beef with Jamaican artiste Sean Paul was possibly responsible for his dislike of reggae music. Now 15 years later, Sean Paul is speaking on the matter, explaining to The Fix and their listeners what he thinks caused the rift between him and X. Sean actually explained that he was not even aware that he had become an enemy of the New York rapper until a few years after the incident.
The “Deport Dem” deejay explained that he and DMX met back in 1998, and they quickly developed a bond, which resulted in an offer of a collaboration between himself, DMX, and Mr. Vegas. As Sean explains it, DMX arrived at the studio late in the evening to give his ideas for the song. The rapper’s arrival was long after Sean and Vegas had already done work on a few tracks. After a few tweaks to the lyrics to fit the local culture, they recorded the song, which would eventually land on the official soundtrack for Hype Williams’ 1998 film Belly. The “Like Glue” singer also made an appearance in the official movie.
Sean Paul says the first time that he met DMX was when the rap legend came to Jamaica to shoot the movie, Belly. “The first time me meet DMX he came for the movie (Belly), and Tony Kelly called me the morning,” SP said. “My brother at Copper Shot sound, so that night deh was Fully Loaded… Me never go Fully Loaded that night deh, me end up staying at the studio and say me naan go, when him come from Fully Loaded him a say yow the Dog come pon the stage.”
Sean Paul recalled feeling disappointed that he didn’t go to the show to get a glimpse of DMX, who was one of the hottest rappers on the planet at the time with back-to-back multi-platinum albums and a movie role in the works. The dancehall star says the next morning he woke up and got a phone call from Tony Kelly saying that he wants him to come to the studio to work on a song with Mr. Vegas and DMX. “Me pon down the phone and run go over deh and the whole day me and Vegas deh deh and no DMX so we said we just ago bill tune,” SP recalled. Eventually, X made his way to the studio late in the evening and listened to the song and then did his part.
Now on to the important question, where did such a great relationship go wrong?
Sean thinks it had to do with a certain female who was in charge of bookings for both DMX and himself at the time. The Jamaican believes she may have incorrectly swayed the rapper into thinking that he would be a part of the remix for the smash hit “Gimme the Light.”
“Then him come to Jamaica again to do a show for a lady who was booking shows for me, and she must be telling him something in a him head, so to him that’s my representative,” SP said while explaining that the woman in questioning was only his booking agent but was not his manager at the time. “What she did a talk to him about I don’t know. But him just get it in a him head say me a play round with him and there so it get sour. But me never even know say him vex with me until years later. So when I saw that interview that came out 2009 where he said that him have him right to beef with me, I was like what.”
DMX had outlined a similar cause of the rift while speaking to VLAD TV in 2005 when he mentioned that Sean, whom he saw as a friend, did not okay him remixing the track and instead allowed Busta Rhymes to do so. DMX was responding to a question on why he dislikes reggae music, which he blamed on his dislike for Sean paul.
“Reggae lost me, music is music. I respect it as an art form, I respect the people who do it as being talented artistes, I just don’t like the music,” DMX told VLAD. X explained in the interview that he wanted to remix one of Sean Paul’s songs and was told no, but later heard Busta Rhymes on the remix. It seems from then, X has been carrying around bad blood for SP and developed a dislike for reggae music.
A disgruntled DMX said that he also turned down Sean Paul’s offer to hop onto his 4th studio album The Great Depression. X recalled Sean Paul asking him to do a remix another time, and he had to tell the dancehall hitmaker to kick rocks.
Sadly, we are still unaware of the identity of the mystery booking agent who may have broken up a beautiful friendship.
