Just In Case is the first single from the soundtrack of the highly-anticipated Godfather of Harlem, which features Forest Whitaker as legendary Harlem gangster Bumpy Johnson. The song is classic Swizz Beatz with plodding, powerful bass with those uber crisp, piercing little-drummer-boy snares that help move the track along like a military unit executing it’s marching movements. The nod factor is only increased by his signature ad-libs, Swizzy’s syncopated “go..go…go” and “yup..yup..yup” chants we’ve seen employed with Beyonce’s Get Me Bodied, TI’s Bring ‘Em Out, and Busta’s Touch It.
Swizz Beatz has been busting eardrums for 20 years. That’s a whole ass entire generation’s worth of making people figuratively and literally do this. Did Swizzy just bless us with yet another banger? Do white people love Sublime? That’s a resounding fuck yeah. His longevity is a testament to his artistry, whether you took him to task back in the day for the Casio beats or not. His ability to make people want to go ape shit in the club and bang at a high volume , even in shitty car speakers like I had in my rustbucket high school Volvo.
The real story here, the resurrection of Dark Man X. Earl Simmons spent so much of his career embracing the dark and macabre with It’s Dark and Hell is Hot, Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood and all that Judeo-Christian imagery was apparent. It appears DMX has finally conquered his personal demons to return like the biblical Lazarus on Just in Case.
Rick Ross floats on the track, but as stated earlier, he’s not the story. DMX is back, he’s hungry and you can hear it in the strain in his voice. This is the anti-shiny suit, anti-jiggy, snarling, blistering, grimy DMX that makes you wanna go out in the yard and throw up some rusty weights and do pull-ups on street signs like a Ruff Ryders video. X murdered this shit and the delicious irony is that his bars could easily be directed at the man he’s rapping on the track with. It’s up to you how you interpret them however.
Coincidentally, Swizz is the executive producer of the soundtrack for the Godfather of Harlem series, which means the season for summer bangers may be extending deep into late September.
