The past feud between Jay-Z and DMX has been well-documented and hit a peak once Jay-Z became the president at Def Jam. In a recent Breakfast Club interview with Ruff Ryders founders Dee, Waah, and Chivon Dean, Dee detailed the feud between the two legends and traced its beginnings to their 1994 battle in a Bronx pool hall.
"We called it a draw because they both was nice, so we said, 'Alright this is a draw.' X felt like he won, Hov gonna feel like he won," Dee said. "There was an animosity there always. It was nothing verbal, but it was just in [DMX’s] mind like, 'I won, I’m better than you.'"
As a result, DMX did not celebrate Hov being named as Def Jam's new president and felt like he would be answering to an inferior artist. During Jay-Z's tenure, X felt like he wasn't being honored properly at the label and eventually wanted to leave.
"What had happened was Jay-Z called X and told him ‘The inmates have took over the prison.’ And when your man Jay-Z got in position X felt like he didn’t honor him and hold weight like he was supposed to," Dee said.
However, DMX owed a huge debt to the label which would typically pose an issue to an artist looking to jump ship. Jay-Z, known to help artists out when they're in a financial bind, still allowed X to walk and release Year of the Dog...Again on Columbia Records.
"The good part about Def Jam — and I gotta give it to Hov — X was in debt over there," Dee explained. "He probably owed about $12 million. "Me and Hov got together, and I went up to the office and I asked him, 'Can you do me a favor and let us sign X to Sony.' He released him, he wiped out the debt clean and let him go. He didn’t have to pay nothing back."
The entire interview details the entire Ruff Ryders history, but the Jay-Z topic can be found around 51:30 mark.
