DMX

In the wake of DMX’s death Friday, the rapper’s music is not only once again the center of discourse among hip-hop fans, but his autobiography has returned to bestsellers lists. DMX first released E.A.R.L.: The Autobiography of DMX, in 2003 with The Source‘s Smokey D. Fontaine, receiving a glowing review in Publishers Weekly on publication. Today, it’s No. 1 on Amazon in Rap & Hip-Hop Musician Biographies and according to Billboard, has reached the Top 50 chart of biographies overall.

DMX is no stranger to the top of the charts, but it’s usually the music charts. In 1998, he became the second rapper to have consecutive albums released in the same calendar year reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 twice in the same year when his second album Flesh Of My Flesh, Blood Of My Blood entered the chart at the top spot, just seven months after his debut It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot accomplished the same feat. The first was one of DMX’s inspirations, Tupac.

Over the weekend, news of DMX’s death was met with an outpouring of loving posts from NBA players, tributes and jokes on SNL, and reminisces from fans about his endearing presence in the 2003 fighting game Def Jam Vendetta.

Read Uproxx’s DMX obituary here.

While the death of DMX last week sparked a wave of heartfelt posts from admirers and peers on social media, some of the most touching posts came from those who were closest to the late rapper. DMX’s daughter Sasha was among them, paying a touching tribute to him with a poignant post on Twitter.

“Nothing will ever explain how i feel, how this all feels,” she wrote. ” “My twin, i love you. there’s always been so many misconceptions about who the f*ck you were but that didn’t matter because i knew who the f*ck you were. eternally greatful to have had you. i love you forever dad.”

Others who paid tribute to X as a person included his ex-wife Tashera Simmons, the mayor of Yonkers, New York, where DMX grew up, and X’s Cradle 2 The Grave co-star Gabrielle Union, who shared a hilarious recollection of his fondness for the 1980s sitcom, The Golden Girls.

However, not all the tributes to X were accepted as they were intended by the artist’s fans. Def Jam, X’s label home throughout his dominant run at the end of the 90s and beginning of the aughts, received a backlash after releasing a pair of compilations on streaming before the rapper’s death was officially announced.

He was reportedly working on a new album for Def Jam at the time of his death, so we’ll see how fans react if and when it’s completed and released. Until then, you can read Uproxx’s reflection on X’s career and legacy here.

DMX’s death has hurt a lot of people all throughout the entertainment world, with many taking to social media to show the late rapper love and send their condolences. His passing may hurt few more than his ex-wife Tashera Simmons, however, as it came just a day before her 50th birthday. The two got married in 1998 and filed for divorce in 2012. Together they had four children: Xavier, Tacoma, Praise Mary Ella, and Sean.

On Saturday, Simmons took to Instagram to honor DMX and celebrate her milestone birthday with a heartfelt message.

“Happy 50th birthday to me. With much prayer, pulling. Crying and a roller coaster of emotions,” she wrote. “I couldn’t bring myself to just celebrate and close the last 50yrs of my life with out celebrating the life of one of thee most important person in the world to me, my Ex-husband. I know today is my day. But I also understand that God is love. So When God allowed me to open up my eyes and granted me the gift of life, I realize more than ever, that was my true gift today. Glory be to God!!”

She added, “I am so grateful to God and Honored from the bottom of my heart, For the opportunity while on this Journey called life to join hands in marriage with a true disciple and Angel of God to do life with when we did. Everything we went through was necessary. It made me the women I am today. ”

You can check out the post above.

DMX’s tragic death is still a fresh cut for many across the music and entertainment world. After a reported drug overdose last week, the rapper was admitted to a White Plains, NY hospital, where it was revealed that he also suffered a heart attack. On Friday morning, after nearly a week in the facility, DMX’s death was confirmed by his family. There were countless consolations, and now the mayor of Yonkers, where DMX was born, is reportedly looking to honor him with an undetermined memorial that will be a “lasting gesture,” which may take the form of a street name, a statue, or a mural.

But that’s not all. According to TMZ, Mayor Mike Spano is also recommending Yonkers Raceway as a potential venue for DMX’s family to hold a public funeral. The outdoor venue is the city’s largest event space, with a seating capacity of 7,500. Unfortunately, because of coronavirus restrictions, only 20% of the seats will be available for use. Spano believes the venue will be an appropriate setting for one of the city’s most famous residents to be remembered.

After hearing of DMX’s unfortunate passing, Mayor Spano shared a message on Twitter. “Today our city mourns the loss of a musical icon, someone who wore their heart on their sleeve and at every opportunity gave back to Yonkers — the city he loved,” he wrote. “Earl Simmons, or as we know him, DMX, was a man of exceptional talent. His spirit will live on in the power of his music and leave a lasting impact on his tremendous following.”

Earl Simmons, the man known to the world as Dark Man X, has passed away at the age of 50. DMX, who was best known for hits like “Party Up” and “X Gon’ Give It To Ya” and film roles in Belly and Romeo Must Die, died after an apparent relapse, overdose, and heart attack on April 2 that sent him to the hospital and prompted a wave of supportive posts on social media. After a battery of tests to determine his brain function, his family made the decision to remove him from life support.

It may sound like a cliche, but it’s true; DMX shocked the world when he first arrived on the scene in 1995, appearing with Ja Rule, Jay-Z, and Mic Geronimo on the posse cut “Time To Build” and then utterly destroying his standout verse on LL Cool J’s “4, 3, 2, 1” with Canibus, Method Man, and Redman in 1997. By the time he released his debut major-label album, It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot, anticipation was just as high as the temperature in The Bad Place, leading to a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200. When he followed up later that year with Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood, he became the first rapper to debut at No. 1 back-to-back in the same year.

From there, he had a string of successive hit albums and singles, including … And Then There Was X, The Great Depression, and Grand Champ. Songs like “Party Up,” “What These B*tches Want,” “Who We Be,” “Where Tha Hood At,” and “X Gon’ Give It to Ya” became pop culture fixtures and have remained popular to this day, with many forming the foundation of memes and samples used in hip-hop by top rappers like ASAP Rocky and Drake.

Unfortunately, a lifelong addiction to cocaine, which started at just 14 years old after he was given a laced blunt by an acquaintance, derailed his career multiple times. Legal issues led to multiple stints in prison, including a 2017 conviction for tax fraud prompting his most recent one. After his release in 2019, he seemed to be on the road to a comeback after completing rehab, plotting out a new album featuring Griselda Records and Pop Smoke, and appearing on Verzuz alongside Snoop Dogg.

X was open about his struggles, often making them the center of dark, sometimes menacing, sometimes vulnerable rhymes on his projects. However, no matter how sinister the subject matter, he always came back to his faith; his penchant for adding prayers to his albums and live shows is well-noted. Meanwhile, his vocal pyrotechnics, ranging from a threatening growl to the explosive barks he used as ad-libs (and reportedly trained one of his actual dogs to add to his live freestyles), were made all the more impressive by his lifelong struggle with asthma — which never stopped him from performing without a hype man, pacing the stage like a caged tiger.

He often stole the show; on posse cuts like Mase’s “24 Hours To Live,” he regularly out-rapped, outboasted, or out-performed his collaborators. For a time, he had a reasonable claim to the coveted “King of New York” title in the wake of Biggie’s death, alongside Ja Rule and Jay-Z, with whom he had an alternately friendly and contentious relationship. Although they came into the game at the same time and even plotted on a group project titled “Murder Inc.,” divisions between led to the dissolution of this idea, while fans pitted them against one another in top rapper debates.

Just check out the freestyle snippet from the Def Jam tour documentary, Backstage, where you can see DMX and Jay-Z trading bars during what was likely one of mania impromptu ciphers during their 1999 Hard Knock Life Tour. Jay-Z is cool, collected, and measured as always, but DMX is downright magnetic, speeding and slowing his cadence, one moment just as disaffected as his friend/rival, the next, agitated, belligerent, showing his teeth — just like one of his beloved pets might when a stranger gets a little too close.

X contained all of these emotions and more; his music was an expression of all things hip-hop, from the streetwise braggadocio typical of the biggest hits to the exposed, bloody trauma that he was never quite able to escape from. By putting it all into his music, he expanded the bounds of what rap could be capable of; he was fallible on “Slippin’,” fiery on “Who We Be,” triumphant on “Where The Hood At,” cautioning on “Stop Being Greedy,” and even played the lothario on “What These B*tches Want.” He could be a comedian, a horror film director, an action star, a drug kingpin, a stick-up kid, and a wounded child in need of comfort.

His albums created space and precedent for future rappers like Kanye West and Kid Cudi to address their own struggles with anxiety and depression. And even though X once professed to hate everything Drake stood for, he later softened his stance, understanding that Drake’s outlook was an extension of his own, with different traumas and worries, but the same vulnerability. Kendrick Lamar credits DMX as his favorite rapper for that quality, and he’s likely not the only one who does, as we’ll likely find out in the coming weeks.

DMX’s story could be tragic, but he never let the tragedies of his life solely define him. After all, this was a man who took the internet’s fascination with his gravelly rendition of “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” and ran with it, releasing a studio version that showed his lighthearted side. He was someone who knew just how hot hell could be, but at the height of his success, got close enough to glimpse heaven. The rap world won’t be the same without him, but it already changed so much because of him. He showed us the soul of a man and hopefully, that soul is finally at peace.