Twitter Hits Replay On The Time Sean Paul Swerved DMX Amid Tributes For The Late Rap Legend

The death of a legend brings as much closure as it does controversy, and Twitter won’t let Dancehall artist Sean Paul forget his twenty-year “beef” with late icon DMX.

The Grammy-winning Jamaican deejay was among those who poured out tributes to hip hop legend DMX, who died on Friday at the age of 50 following complications from a heart attack. “R.I.P Big G. Thanks for all you have given us. Condolences to your fam, friends, and fans. You are missed. @DMX”, Paul wrote on Instagram.

The Twitterverse, however, wasted no time after the Blackout rapper’s passing to rehash the details of X’s beef with Sean Paul who he felt snubbed him for a Gimme Di Light Remix. In a VLAD-TV interview in 2005, DMX told a hip-hop journalist that he was turned off from Reggae music due to the incident. “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 believed they were friends after he featured Sean Paul and Mr. Vegas on Top Shotter (Here Comes The Boom) from 1998’s Belly soundtrack. When he approached Sean three years later to hop on a remix for the smash hit Gimme Di Light, he claims he got the runaround and then heard Busta Rhymes on the track weeks later.

“It was like he had this joint and I just wanted to do a remix. You don’t have to come out of your pocket or nothing. I just wanna blaze it, the beat is hot. He was like ‘oh mi don’t know if they gonna do a remix’ and he put me on a phone with another lady. I’m like; ‘hold up, when we were in Jamaica you and me were sitting down talking about the song and you gonna do me like that?’ I’m like alright, cool, and two weeks later I hear Busta Rhymes on the remix,” he said.

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Though Sean Paul claimed in subsequent interviews he wasn’t quite sure what caused the beef, he’s also acknowledged on record that the Belly feature gave his budding career “an edge.” Citing DMX as “the biggest hip hop artist at that time” he told 247HH of the impact that one feature and 10 seconds in the movie had on his current hitmaker status.

“[DMX] came to Jamaica to shoot pieces of the movie and it just ended up that director Hype Williams was like let’s do some work with some of these artists and put it on the soundtrack,” Sean Paul began. “Me and Mr. Vegas was two of the most talked about artists in Jamaica at the time and so that was a great big stepping stone not only for my Jamaican fans to see that but for getting me on to the hip hop world. A lot of people were like, who dem two dudes in the movie? I was in the movie for like ten seconds but that helped a lot.”

DMX said Sean Paul eventually hit him up again while working on a later project with first preference for a remix, but he declined because of the previous dealings.

“When I was doing my fourth album, he was now like; ‘yo mi have a hot song, mi want you to do the remix. I was like; ‘no dawg get the f—k out of here with that b—t, you know what I’m saying? I just wanted to do something – I wasn’t asking you for no money or anything,” he said.

The Who We Be rapper sounded peeved with his patois impressions and details of his island days, but had no regrets about his decision. “We was in Jamaica going hard.. eating chicken off the f—g grill… n-ggas walking barefoot and s—t. If I do a n-gga greasy, it’s cause I meant to do him greasy, and he deserved that one”.

As tributes for the snarling superstar fill timelines, Twitter users trolled SP over his snide dealings and the missed opportunity.

One fan wrote, “Almost impossible to get NY dudes out their shoes.” to which another responded, “When he said that shit I heard his pain. DMX was hurt fr lol I get it doh.”

“This so hilarious cause you know you really bonding & going hard when you walking around barefoot @duttypaul you wrong for this,” said one Twitter user.

Another user who thought the 2002 crossover hit could have used some of X’s signature growls and vocal antics said “Bruh the DMX adlibs on gimme the light? SMH you f**ked up big time Sean Paul”, while another popular comment read, “Damn that would’ve been fire too.”