Hearing the news of DMX’s hospitalization, hundreds of fans gathered outside the hospital in White plains to pray for the Legend.
Here at Aman Magazine, let us celebrate an artist that has given us hits and fabulous memories.
Let’s look back at one of DMX’s most memorable performances, his performance at Woodstock 99. Woodstock was a massive counter culture music festival in Bethel, New York, which attracted an audience of more than 400,000 people. Woodstock was known to attract the most prominent names of all music genres, and DMX was no exception. But for Earl Simmons, also known as DMX, while growing up, stardom was aforethought.
Simmons was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on December 18, 1970, to son of Arnett Simmons and Joe Barker, and raised in Yonkers, New York. As a child suffering from Bronchial Asthma, Simmons went to the emergency room almost nightly because of breathing challenges. Simmons was beaten by his mother and her various boyfriends so severely. That he sustained cuts to his face and lost teeth. Simmons would eventually find refuge at age 14, starting to wander Yonkers’ streets to escape his mother’s abuse. Eventually, his mother sent him to a boy’s home. Simmons at the boy’s home began bonding with the other students who shared their love of hip hop music.
Simmons would then perform to his friends and was encouraged by teachers to continue writing music. Later on, Simmons would choose the name “DMX” which is a drum machine he used in the boy’s home. Later in his career, he reinterpreted the name as the “Dark Man X”
The Woodstock crowd, waiting anxiously as they push each other to get to the stage DMX would perform. The camera fast pans, struggling to capture the sea of people whose faces are indistinguishable from the next. As security dressed in yellow hold a hard line to keep the audience at bay. Nothing quite like this has happened. DMX was an established superstar among legends.
Red overalls hanging off his shoulders, gold chain around his neck, and red timberlands to match; true to his New York roots, DMX bounces around the stage, but even after the boy’s home, things were not as glamorous as they were now.
After going to prison again in 1988 for carjacking, he began to take music seriously again. That summer DMX would produce and sell his mixtapes on street corners which helped him build a local fan base all over New York. In 1991 “The Source” Magazine put DMX on their “Unsigned HypeColumn” to recognize his talent.
A year later, now signed by Columbia Records in 1992 to a subsidiary label Ruffhouse. Simmons dropped his first debut single called “Born Loser”. The single ironically did not receive much of any airtime.
DMX was shortly then released from his contract with Columbia records. Not giving up, DMX would make some guest appearances alongside Ja rule, Jay Z on underground tracks, and also appearing on LL Cool J Single “4,3,2,1 in 1997, boosting his stardom.
The distinct Horns transition in and baseline for “Ruff Ryders” blasts over the loudspeakers as a wave of euphoria comes over the crowd. DMX shouts his signature “what” as the crowd yells it back in unison. The crowd is whipped in a frenzy as pockets of flash fights appear in the midst of the crowd. DMX has now entered his zone.
DMX drops his first major-label album with Def Jams’ “It’s Dark, and Hell is Hot.” The album debuted number one on the billboard. The album included the song “Ruff Ryders,” the song DMX eventually became known for.
DMX later in an interview with GQ magazine, said he didn’t like the song initially. “I wrote it in 15 minutes, I didn’t want to write it, so many other songs had so much substance, and this song was like ABCs, like elementary.” Said DMX
DMX will then release six more albums after “its Dark and Hell is Hot,” 5 out of the six being debuting number 1 on the billboards except for “Year of the Dog…Again” which missed the number one spot by a few hundred copies.
“Ruff Ryders” baseline finishes, the camera pans to see all the “X’s” formed by all the people entranced in the crowd. Then he transitions into his next hit, “Slippin.” The crowd once again enters a frenzy rapping along to their favorite artist. DMX lets out his signature growl.
How Did DMX end in the hospital fighting for his life? DMX spoke openly about his addiction to crack cocaine, which began when he smoked marijuana laced with the drug.
DMX’s drugs and legal problems didn’t stop there. DMX was in and out of jail for Possession and animal cruelty charges.
The complete truth is not yet known, but this isn’t the first DMX has been hospitalized, but his Lawyers have kept things quiet for his safety and everybody else.
DMX Is a star that will never be forgotten. Let us not get in the pattern of celebrating stars when there gone. Let us appreciate them well there here.
DMX on stage gives a speech thanking God and praying for his life, friends, fans, enemies. “I pray especially for my enemies, they do not know what they do, because they don’t know a
heaven above. “thank you, God, for getting me through the bad weather,” said DMX. Then he walks off the Woodstock stage for the final time.
Edit: We Learned DMX has passed away last afternoon, condolences to his family and well-wishers, we lost a legend, but his legacy will not be forgotten.
