Swaggering however troubled rapper DMX dies at 50

Written by Daniel E. Slotnik
Earl Simmons, the snarling but soulful rapper generally known as DMX, who had a string of No. 1 albums within the late Nineties and early 2000s however whose private struggles ultimately rivaled his lyrical prowess, died on Friday in White Plains, New York. He was 50.
His household introduced the demise in an announcement. He had been on life help at White Plains Hospital after struggling what his household referred to as “a catastrophic cardiac arrest” every week earlier.
“Earl was a warrior who fought till the very end,” the Simmons household mentioned. “He loved his family with all of his heart, and we cherish the times we spent with him.”
On April 2, Simmons had a coronary heart assault at his residence in White Plains. In the times that adopted, representatives for the rapper mentioned he was in a coma and on life help “in a vegetative state.” Outside of the hospital, household and pals gathered with lots of of followers, enjoying DMX’s music aloud and praying, holding up their arms within the form of an X.
The music made by Simmons, a muscular, tattooed and intense determine, was typically menacing and darkish, with the occasional nod to Christian spirituality. He dedicated crimes, served time in numerous correctional establishments and battled habit lengthy earlier than he launched an album, and his troubled previous knowledgeable the gritty content material and inimitable supply of his rhymes.
He barked over the refrain of “Get at Me Dog,” the breakout single from his 1998 debut album, “It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot.”
“His throat seems to hold a fuzzbox and a foghorn, and between songs he growled and barked,” critic Jon Pareles wrote in The New York Times of Simmons’ efficiency at a live performance in 2000. “In his raps, the gangsta life is a living hell, a constant test of loyalty and resolve.”
He rapped with an explosive cadence on “Party Up (Up in Here),” the massive hit from his 1999 album “… And Then There Was X”; uncooked braggadocio on “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem,” a tribute to his document label on “It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot”; and a extra introspective, brooding supply on “Damien,” a narrative about making a murderous cut price with a demonic benefactor.
“Why is it every move I make turns out to be a bad one?” Simmons asks in “Damien.” “Where’s my guardian angel? Need one, wish I had one.”
Simmons, who offered hundreds of thousands of data, was the primary musician whose first 5 albums reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart. He was the standout artist on the Ruff Ryders label, typically rapping over tracks by star DJ and producer Swizz Beatz. Rappers like Eve, Drag-On and the Lox, a gaggle made up of Jadakiss, Styles P and Sheek Louch, additionally recorded on the label.
Simmons was recognized for energetic live shows that electrified audiences. In 2000, critic Elvis Mitchell wrote in The Times about his “remarkable and combative stage presence” within the live performance documentary “Backstage,” which adopted him and rappers like Jay-Z and Redman on the 1999 “Hard Knock Life” tour.
“Bombastic and hot-blooded, he holds court in a singular fashion, exercising sheer force of will to pull the spotlight down on himself and demanding the crowd’s attention,” Mitchell wrote.
Simmons additionally starred with the rappers Nas and Method Man within the Hype Williams gangster movie “Belly” in 1998; appeared within the motion film “Romeo Must Die,” with Jet Li and Aaliyah, in 2000; and starred with Steven Seagal within the 2001 motion movie “Exit Wounds.” The BET cable channel supplied a better have a look at his private life with the 2006 actuality collection “DMX: Soul of a Man.”
The macho, street-wise persona Simmons projected in his music was bolstered by a litany of legal prices. He was arrested repeatedly, for fraud, assault, driving beneath the affect and with no license, and weapon and narcotics possession, amongst different issues.
He served jail time after pleading responsible in 2008 to animal cruelty, drug possession and theft, and in 2018 he was sentenced to a 12 months in jail for tax evasion.
He launched a number of extra albums through the years, together with “Grand Champ” (2003) and “Undisputed” (2012). But he typically received in bother with the regulation and by no means regained the success of his earlier days.
Born in Mount Vernon, New York, on Dec. 18, 1970, Earl Simmons was the one baby of Arnett Simmons and Joe Barker. He grew up in Yonkers, a metropolis simply north of the Bronx that grew to become a hotbed of racial stress within the Eighties.
His father was an itinerant artist whom he hardly ever noticed, and his mom struggled to boost him and his half sister Bonita in a violent neighborhood. There was typically little meals, and Simmons, a precocious however hot-tempered and disobedient baby, was typically overwhelmed by his mom and her totally different lovers. Information on survivors was not instantly out there.
Simmons turned to road crime as he grew older, spending a lot of his childhood and teenage years in group houses or juvenile detention amenities, the place, he wrote, he generally confronted solitary confinement. He grew to become an adept automobile thief and robber, typically utilizing vicious canine to intimidate victims.
“I was straight stickup,” Simmons mentioned in a memoir, “E.A.R.L.: The Autobiography of DMX,” written with Smokey Fontaine. “I’d rob three times a day: before school, after school and on the late night.”

In the late Eighties he began performing as a beatboxer, creating beats utilizing solely his mouth, with a neighborhood rapper named Ready Ron. (He took the title DMX from the Oberheim DMX drum machine, a mannequin that was common within the Eighties.) Ready Ron launched him to crack cocaine, to which he grew to become addicted earlier than succeeding as a rapper.
His lengthy wrestle with medicine, the awful circumstances of his childhood and their affect on his life knowledgeable his music — he titled a 2001 album “The Great Depression” — and plenty of of his most swaggering songs conveyed hints of lingering trauma.
“All I know is pain/ All I feel is rain/ How can I maintain?” he raps close to the beginning of “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem.”