Pre-Release
- DEC 13, 2024
- 8 Songs
- It's Dark and Hell Is Hot · 1998
- ...And Then There Was X · 1999
- The Best of DMX · 2003
- ...And Then There Was X · 1999
- Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood · 1999
- Grand Champ · 2003
- It's Dark and Hell Is Hot · 1998
- ...And Then There Was X · 1999
- AfterLife (Deluxe) · 2024
- Money, Power & Respect · 1998
Essential Albums
- DMX mixes streetwise East Coast hip-hop with the crack and thunder of eternal damnation on his debut album, which is filled with anthems that sound forged in fire and brimstone. The slimy, grimy “Get at Me Dog” gives the rapper a bedrock to unleash his trademark gruff and growling vocal. Elsewhere, with the barbed-wire beat, chantable hook, and background yelps of “what?” on “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem,” he delivers a psalm for not just his crew but the streets as a whole.
Artist Playlists
- No one brought NY street rawness to the mainstream like X. RIP.
- Growling, menacing flows and banging hooks.
- The grisly street cuts behind the growling rapper.
- The defiantly tough New York rapper gets personal.
Compilations
- Da Real Joker & AKA RAPTURE
More To Hear
- Q-Tip pays tribute to DMX in this special episode.
- Mehdi Maïzi rend hommage à DMX, idole de toute une génération.
- The New York rappers discuss the album 'Living Off Xperience.'
- The artists discuss the album 'Living Off Xperience.'
- Two living legends of hip-hop compare their catalogs.
- The vision of multi-talented phenomenon Drake.
About DMX
With DMX, a man blessed with a vicious bark of a voice, there was no such thing as half-stepping. Born Earl Simmons in 1970, the Yonkers-raised MC arrived as the physical embodiment of unbridled energy—a one-man distillation of fellow rugged New York acts like Wu-Tang Clan. On his 1998 debut, It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot, DMX's aggressive vocals projected his imposing presence across songs like the minimal, clanging “Get at Me Dog” and rowdy breakout “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem.” But X scaled back the pugnacity on that same album’s introspective “How’s It Goin’ Down,” which featured R&B singer Faith Evans and painted a picture of a complex relationship headed down the wrong path. DMX would revisit that sensitivity on the heartfelt “Slippin’,” from 1998’s Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood, which found him expressing a desire to live a less tumultuous life. Though the rapper’s two sides may seem to have been at odds, he always thrived when he let his emotions fly unrestrained. In 1999, he released ...And Then There Was X, where even the anthemic “Party Up” served as a prime example of DMX's uniquely intense take on hardcore hip-hop. But whether ferocious, amped up, or introspective, the MC remained grounded by his faith, which, especially in the later years of his career, he approached with nothing short of absolute devotion. He died on April 9, 2021.
- HOMETOWN
- Mount Vernon, NY, United States
- BORN
- December 18, 1970
- GENRE
- Hip-Hop/Rap