Jay-Z & Nas Unite Again On DMX’s Posthumous Song “Bath Salts”

Many fans of Earl “DMX” Simmons are excited today because the late emcee’s Exodus album arrived this morning. The star-studded project hosts a song called “Bath Salts” which features fellow Hip Hop legends, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter and Nasir “Nas” Jones.

Jay-Z opens “Bath Salts” with bars that reference Coming To America, the Kardashian family, and Halle Berry. There is even a self-deprecating line about the meme of Hov diving off a boat.

Nas then jumps on the track by namedropping Kurtis Blow. He later calls out his peers who are willing to make a fool of themselves in order to get posted on Akademiks’ Instagram page.

The late DMX closes out the Swizz Beatz-produced record. X’s verse includes a callback to his classic “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem” off 1998’s It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot album.

Besides Nas and Jay-Z, Exodus contains contributions by several other artists. The Lox, Lil Wayne, Moneybagg Yo, Alicia Keys, Bono, Westside Gunn, Benny The Butcher, Conway the Machine, Snoop Dogg, Usher, and other performers show up on the project too.

“The only tribute [song] was the Moneybagg track. Everything else X was present and happy for,” said DMX’s longtime friend/collaborator Swizz Beatz. The Verzuz event co-creator served as the executive producer for Exodus.

Swizz added, “[DMX] just loved the idea of [doing features], but he was a little sneaky about it because, in his mind, he loved that he was able to work with them. On the other hand, he figured out it was less work for him. He really loved it. He was like, ‘Oh, I only got to do three verses? Okay, tell Lil Wayne let’s go.’”

“Bath Salts” is the second song released in 2021 that features both Jay-Z and Nas. The two New Yorkers also connected for DJ Khaled’s “Sorry Not Sorry” single which appears on the Khaled Khaled album.

That Hov/Esco collaboration ignited speculation that a long-awaited official collaborative album by the former rivals could be in the works. Even DJ Khaled seemed to play into the rumors with an interestingly-timed tweet earlier this month.

Previously, Nas and Jay-Z worked together on records such as “Black Republican,” “Success,” “I Do It For Hip Hop,” and “BBC.” Only “Bath Salts” with DMX and “I Do It For Hip Hop” with Ludacris included another emcee on the track as well.