Hip-hop icon DMX, chart-topping rapper and movie star, dead at age 50
Hip-hop star DMX, the talented but troubled rapper whose hit-making careers in music and movies disappeared amid his drug addiction and constant legal woes, died Friday after suffering a heart attack in his Westchester County home a week ago, his family confirmed. He was 50.
The platinum-selling rapper, known for his breakout single “Get at Me Dog” and the Top 10 smash “Party Up (In Here),” was rushed to a critical care unit at White Plains Hospital after collapsing in his White Plains home on April 2.
The comatose rapper, a three-time Grammy Award nominee born Earl Simmons, was placed on a ventilator and never regained consciousness before dying with family members by his side.
“Earl was a warrior who fought to the very end,” his family said in a statement. “He loved his family with all of his heart and we cherish the times we spent with him. Earl’s music inspired countless fans around the world and his iconic legacy will live on forever.”
Details about a memorial service were in the works, according to the statement. The hospital cited his cause of death as “a catastrophic cardiac arrest.”
“Even though you had battles you TOUCHED so many through your MUSIC and when you would PRAY so many people FELT THAT!” wrote fellow hip-hop star Missy Elliott. “Your LEGACY LIVES ON & your SPIRIT.”
Actress Halle Berry tweeted her condolences: “He meant so much to so many. Sending love to his family.”
Fans on Friday set up a memorial outside the hospital where the rapper died.
Yvonne Taylor, 53, of White Plains, handed out T-shirts she had made printed with photos of DMX.
“I’m hoping his family can find some kind of peace and closure,” said Taylor, who is friends with someone who worked with DMX for many years. “I was shocked by the whole thing. It’s a nasty sting for many.”
Fan Jayson Williams, 44, also from White Plains, said he’d grown up listening to DMX.
“I really hoped he would pull through. It’s a strange feeling when celebrities we admire pass. It’s like we know them. This one hurts,” Williams said.
The rapper, born in Baltimore and raised in Mount Vernon, N.Y., released a record five consecutive Billboard No. 1 albums between 1998-2003 and co-starred in movie box office hits opposite martial arts stars Jet Li and Steven Seagal.
He toured with hitmaking contemporaries Jay-Z and Method Man, created five platinum-selling records, sold more than 74 million albums and boasted 15 singles in the Billboard Hot 100.
DMX was widely considered the top star in hip-hop after the violent deaths of predecessors Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur. But his career took a precipitous plunge as DMX racked up a long rap sheet, descended into drug addiction and was eventually jailed for tax evasion.
A post-prison comeback tour was derailed in 2019 when DMX checked himself back into rehab.
His dark lyrics drew from a difficult childhood of parental abuse and stints in group homes before he turned to petty crime. DMX soon found salvation in his music, starting as a DJ and human beat box before becoming a rapper known for his blowtorch delivery and hardcore lyrics.
The Childrens Village, a private, non-profit residential treatment facility and school for troubled children, recalled how DMX spent time there as a boy and came back often to visit.
“He had the biggest heart, returning to CV to visit staff, celebrate birthdays and bring gifts for some of the kids,” read a statement from Children’s Village. “He used his talent and larger than life personality to give back to the people and places that impacted him.”
Debut album “It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot” became his first No. 1, selling more than 4 million copies. An acting career soon followed, with a role in the movie “Belly” opposite fellow rap star Nas as the two played a pair of Queens criminals.
His third album, “... And Then There was X,” produced the hit single “Party Up (In Here)” and sold more than 5 million copies.
He appeared with action star Seagal in the 2001 movie “Exit Wounds,” recording a hit single “No Sunshine” for the film that debuted at the top of the box office.
He was also teamed with Li in the hit movies “Romeo Must Die” and “Cradle 2 the Grave.” And in late 2002, he released the memoir “E.A.R.L.: The Autobiography of DMX.”
“The completely uncensored and incredibly raw life and times of the darkest and most dangerously introspective hip-hop artist ever,” wrote one reviewer. “This bio tells of a life full of pain, tragedy, triumph and endurance.”
Despite his success, DMX’s myriad legal issues piled up in the new millennium. The rapper, tormented by his addiction, was arrested repeatedly between 2010 and 2021 on charges from attempted aggravated assault to probation violation to robbery and failure to pay $400,000 in child support.
The father of 15 was finally sentenced to a year behind bars in 2018 after his conviction for evading $1.7 million in taxes. He was already in jail at the time for violating the drug treatment conditions of his bail.
The remembrance from Children’s Village included a DMX quote that now reads like an epitaph: “I know I may have done some bad things, but I’m not a bad person.”
With Elizabeth Keogh
