9. DMX, Party Up (Up In Here)
DMX is currently sitting in jail for drug possession and animal cruelty, something which somehow only scores you 90 days in the clink. His house was forclosed on last year, and just this week the bank decided the rapper’s stint in the hoosegow would make an ideal time to seize it. DMX has also been caught doing other dumb things lately, like checking into a hospital with a fake name so he could skip out on the bill. Basically, he’s a loser and an idiot.
Nevertheless, he had five albums debut at #1 on the Billboard album chart; the third (and most successful) was 1999′s …And Then There Was X, featuring his biggest hit, Party Up (Up In Here).
The rapper only ever had three top 40 hits, but this one had a lot going for it, thanks to the expert production of the young Swizz Beatz; Party Up was all about being tough and killing people or whatever, but it was also really, really catchy. Even my mother liked it (though I distinctly remember her telling me not to let anybody know that.)
It also had a really funny radio edit, where all the bad words were replaced by goofy noises. The line “You’re wack, you’re twisted, your girl’s a ho,” for instance, was replaced with “You’re wack, you’re twisted, your girl’s a wooooo!!” As opposed as I was (and still am) to silly lyric-changing radio edits, this was a good one.
Most of the hip-hop I liked around then–which wasn’t much–appealed to me because it was funny, and hearing DMX rapping about smacking people with his dick is still funny. But now I realize how good the production is; Swizz Beatz elevates what is essentially a stupid tough-guy rant into a party anthem that’s dated remarkably well over the last nine years.
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