DJ Self - Canibus Vs. DMX
Before Verzuz, there was this.
Coming into 1998, Canibus and DMX were both buzzing off the hook. And much of that buzz could be directly attributed to their presence on mixtapes, spitting freestyles and making multiple feature appearances on songs ahead of their first solo albums, including both of them popping up on LL Cool J’s street-sweeping posse cut “4,3,2,1”…
…which started the Canibus battle with LL and led to this:
On Canibus Vs. DMX (pardon us, we corrected the name misspelling on the cover), DJ Self, who also made noise in the streets with his The LOX Family mixtape series and is now one of the most popular radio and club DJs in New York, pins the two now-legendary MCs up against each other to feed the streets with an overload of freestyles, features, and more.
Though DJ Self was not the first to make a “Vs.” tape, it’s a format that became popular in the mixtape game, and this joint for sure helped propel that popularity. And for fans of the pandemic-born Verzuz series, well, its roots can certainly be traced back to mixtapes like this.
Side A is all Canibus, from his famous DJ Clue freestyle over the “‘97 Mentality” instrumental and deeper cuts like him spitting over “Wrong Side of da Tracks,” to features with everyone from The Firm to Lost Boyz to Wyclef. And Side B is all X, from cuts with all the major players in the game like Jay-Z and Ma$e to gems like the original version of his Exit Wounds soundtrack single “Ain’t No Sunshine,” plus the bangin’ “Get At Me Dog Freestyle” with The LOX and much more.
You can’t go wrong with this matchup. With DJ Self compiling so much heat on both sides of the tape, everyone wins.
RIP DMX.
Stream Canibus Vs. DMX below, and stay tuned for more 50 TAPES posts as we celebrate the release of Do Remember! The Golden Era of NYC Hip-Hop Mixtapes, out now via Rizzoli.
DJ Self - Canibus Vs. DMX