WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.700 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are, 00:00:02.779 --> 00:00:04.839 oh, we're stripping away all the polish. We're 00:00:04.839 --> 00:00:07.299 stepping away from that curated, filtered, brand 00:00:07.299 --> 00:00:10.240 safe world we often live in. And we are looking 00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:12.900 at something and someone completely and totally 00:00:12.900 --> 00:00:15.480 raw. Yeah, we're really looking at a collision. 00:00:15.699 --> 00:00:18.640 A collision is the perfect word. It is a study 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:22.100 in friction. Today we're unpacking the life of 00:00:22.100 --> 00:00:25.940 a figure who embodied, I mean, arguably the greatest, 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:28.399 most violent contradictions in the history of 00:00:28.399 --> 00:00:30.660 hip hop. It's true. A man who could absolutely 00:00:30.660 --> 00:00:34.280 terrify you in one verse and then in the very 00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:36.200 next track bring you to peers with the most sincere 00:00:36.200 --> 00:00:38.179 prayer you've ever heard. We are talking, of 00:00:38.179 --> 00:00:41.420 course, about Earl Simmons, but the world knows 00:00:41.420 --> 00:00:44.759 him, hears him, and frankly feels him as DMX. 00:00:44.939 --> 00:00:47.299 Darkman X. And, you know, to really understand 00:00:47.299 --> 00:00:48.899 DMX, you have to understand the moment he arrived. 00:00:49.140 --> 00:00:50.859 You can't just look at his life in a vacuum. 00:00:51.149 --> 00:00:53.789 Oh no, context is absolutely everything here. 00:00:53.909 --> 00:00:56.229 Everything. So let's set that scene. It's, say, 00:00:56.310 --> 00:00:58.630 1997. If you were listening to radio, if you 00:00:58.630 --> 00:01:01.450 were watching MTV, the vibe was very, very specific. 00:01:01.850 --> 00:01:04.349 The notorious B .I .G. has just passed away. 00:01:04.530 --> 00:01:08.370 Tupac is gone. Tupac is gone. The two absolute 00:01:08.370 --> 00:01:11.409 pillars of the genre are dead. And the rap game 00:01:11.409 --> 00:01:14.230 is in this, well, this very specific place. It's 00:01:14.230 --> 00:01:16.650 the shiny suit era. The shiny suit era. Exactly. 00:01:16.709 --> 00:01:19.329 Right. This is the total dominance of bad boy 00:01:19.329 --> 00:01:22.349 records. Puff Daddy. It was a time of, you know, 00:01:22.409 --> 00:01:26.030 celebration rap. The music videos were all shot 00:01:26.030 --> 00:01:28.069 with those fisheye lenses. Everyone's wearing 00:01:28.069 --> 00:01:31.629 these bright yellow or like metallic silver suits. 00:01:31.829 --> 00:01:33.469 Drinking champagne on yachts. Drinking champagne 00:01:33.469 --> 00:01:37.909 on yachts and sampling these huge, glorious 80s. 00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:41.500 pop hits like you know david bowie or the police 00:01:41.500 --> 00:01:44.379 it was glossy it was aspirational wealth it was 00:01:44.379 --> 00:01:47.579 all about we made it totally we made it and then 00:01:47.579 --> 00:01:51.340 seemingly out of nowhere or you know more accurately 00:01:51.340 --> 00:01:54.420 out of yonkers new york comes this sound and 00:01:54.420 --> 00:01:58.030 it wasn't a melody No. It was a bark. It was 00:01:58.030 --> 00:02:00.689 growling. It was a guy in Timberlands in a bandana, 00:02:00.769 --> 00:02:03.549 sweating, shirtless, running with pitbulls. I 00:02:03.549 --> 00:02:05.329 mean, for a lot of people, it felt like a genuine 00:02:05.329 --> 00:02:07.870 shock to the system. It wasn't just a new artist 00:02:07.870 --> 00:02:10.050 dropping a single. It felt like a market correction. 00:02:10.409 --> 00:02:12.110 That is the perfect term for it. I was going 00:02:12.110 --> 00:02:14.310 to say the same thing. It was a disruption of 00:02:14.310 --> 00:02:17.930 the market in the truest sense. DMX didn't just 00:02:17.930 --> 00:02:20.590 join the industry. He corrected it. He brought 00:02:20.590 --> 00:02:23.039 what some people call horrorcore. which was usually 00:02:23.039 --> 00:02:25.960 this like underground niche style. Right. And 00:02:25.960 --> 00:02:28.259 he dragged a gritty street level perspective 00:02:28.259 --> 00:02:30.599 right back to the top of the charts. But, you 00:02:30.599 --> 00:02:33.520 know, unlike Tupac, who is often very political 00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:36.759 or poetic, DMX was visceral. Yeah. He was purely 00:02:36.759 --> 00:02:40.500 instinctual. So our mission today is to look 00:02:40.500 --> 00:02:42.599 behind that bark. We really want to understand 00:02:42.599 --> 00:02:45.460 the dichotomy. I mean, how does a man write these 00:02:45.460 --> 00:02:49.199 horror core anthems about... But then also includes 00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:52.080 sincere, you know, tear jerking prayers on every 00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:54.000 single one of his albums. And how does a man 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:56.659 who claims to love dogs more than humans, I mean, 00:02:56.680 --> 00:02:58.879 who essentially identifies as a dog, how does 00:02:58.879 --> 00:03:01.800 he end up convicted of animal cruelty? And maybe 00:03:01.800 --> 00:03:04.379 the biggest question of all, how does a man sell 00:03:04.379 --> 00:03:07.479 75 million records becoming this global superstar 00:03:07.479 --> 00:03:10.240 while fighting a lifelong crippling addiction 00:03:10.240 --> 00:03:12.379 that started with a terrible betrayal in his 00:03:12.379 --> 00:03:14.560 childhood before he was even old enough to drive 00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:18.680 a car? It's a huge story. And we've got a massive 00:03:18.680 --> 00:03:21.560 stack of sources today. Biographical records, 00:03:21.900 --> 00:03:25.360 legal dockets, discography data, and a ton of 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:28.460 legacy tributes. We are going to unpack the life 00:03:28.460 --> 00:03:30.300 of Earl Simmons. Let's start at the very beginning, 00:03:30.419 --> 00:03:32.960 because with DMX, the origin story isn't just, 00:03:32.979 --> 00:03:35.219 you know, background info. No, it's the key. 00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:38.259 It is the blueprint for everything that came 00:03:38.259 --> 00:03:40.099 later. I mean, if you don't understand the years 00:03:40.099 --> 00:03:43.900 1970 to 1985, you just cannot understand the 00:03:43.900 --> 00:03:46.000 music. So we're going back to Mount Vernon, New 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:48.840 York, 1970. So Earl Simmons was born to teen 00:03:48.840 --> 00:03:51.259 parents. His mother was 19, his father was 18. 00:03:51.599 --> 00:03:53.960 And right from the jump, the stability that every 00:03:53.960 --> 00:03:57.259 child needs was just. It was absent. His father 00:03:57.259 --> 00:03:59.280 was an artist. He actually painted watercolors 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:01.580 and he moved to Philadelphia, essentially leaving 00:04:01.580 --> 00:04:04.219 the family behind. Zorl was raised mostly in 00:04:04.219 --> 00:04:06.180 Yonkers in the school street housing apartments. 00:04:06.379 --> 00:04:08.439 And the sources we have, they paint a really, 00:04:08.460 --> 00:04:10.599 really harrowing picture of his childhood. I 00:04:10.599 --> 00:04:12.460 mean, this wasn't just tough love or some strict 00:04:12.460 --> 00:04:15.280 household. This was severe documented abuse. 00:04:15.659 --> 00:04:18.279 It was. It really was. He suffered incredible 00:04:18.279 --> 00:04:20.839 physical violence at the hands of his mother 00:04:20.839 --> 00:04:23.079 and her various boyfriends. We're talking about 00:04:23.079 --> 00:04:25.319 being beaten with broomsticks, with electrical 00:04:25.319 --> 00:04:28.980 cords. He actually lost teeth during these beatings. 00:04:29.519 --> 00:04:31.639 It was so traumatic that he was expelled from 00:04:31.639 --> 00:04:33.420 school by the time he was 10 and sent to group 00:04:33.420 --> 00:04:36.120 homes like the Children's Village. But before 00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:38.480 that, there's this really crucial detail about 00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:41.000 how he coped with that environment at home. The 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:43.699 dogs? The dogs. He started befriending stray 00:04:43.699 --> 00:04:47.300 dogs. And this is like the psychological bedrock 00:04:47.300 --> 00:04:50.699 for him. When the humans in his life, specifically 00:04:50.699 --> 00:04:53.240 his mother, the one person who was biologically 00:04:53.240 --> 00:04:55.800 wired to protect him, were the source of all 00:04:55.800 --> 00:04:58.779 his pain. Right. The stray dogs offered him unconditional 00:04:58.779 --> 00:05:01.759 love. That makes the whole dog persona make so 00:05:01.759 --> 00:05:03.439 much more sense. It wasn't just some gimmick 00:05:03.439 --> 00:05:05.240 he came up with in a marketing meeting. No way. 00:05:05.339 --> 00:05:07.959 It was his tribe. It was his family. He looked 00:05:07.959 --> 00:05:10.579 at these animals, and often they were pit bulls, 00:05:10.579 --> 00:05:13.180 which were also feared and misunderstood by society, 00:05:13.420 --> 00:05:15.800 and he saw himself in them. There's this one 00:05:15.800 --> 00:05:18.800 detail in the biography that is just, it's heartbreaking. 00:05:18.980 --> 00:05:21.910 It mentions that... As a kid, he was living on 00:05:21.910 --> 00:05:24.550 the streets. He was starving. He was robbing 00:05:24.550 --> 00:05:26.889 people just to survive. He was. By the time he 00:05:26.889 --> 00:05:28.870 was 15, he was sleeping in clothing donation 00:05:28.870 --> 00:05:32.389 bins and on rooftops. But the note says he robbed 00:05:32.389 --> 00:05:35.870 someone not to buy food for himself, but to buy 00:05:35.870 --> 00:05:39.509 a leather collar and a harness for his dog. And 00:05:39.509 --> 00:05:42.709 that one story just encapsulates Earl Simmons 00:05:42.709 --> 00:05:45.709 perfectly. He would starve himself to feed his 00:05:45.709 --> 00:05:48.089 dog. Because the dog didn't judge him. The dog 00:05:48.089 --> 00:05:50.660 didn't beat him. So when he later adopts the 00:05:50.660 --> 00:05:53.180 barking, the growling in his music, he's basically 00:05:53.180 --> 00:05:55.600 signaling to the world, I am part of this tribe, 00:05:55.639 --> 00:05:57.800 not yours. But to survive, he had to become a 00:05:57.800 --> 00:06:00.240 predator in the streets. He turned to carjacking 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:03.339 and robbery as well as a means of survival. It 00:06:03.339 --> 00:06:05.379 was grim. It was purely survival. I mean, he 00:06:05.379 --> 00:06:07.180 was stealing clothes to wear. He was stealing 00:06:07.180 --> 00:06:09.399 food to eat. But amidst all that chaos, there 00:06:09.399 --> 00:06:11.579 was the music. It started with beatboxing, right? 00:06:11.720 --> 00:06:14.519 Correct. Around 1985, he started beatboxing for 00:06:14.519 --> 00:06:17.980 a local rapper named Reddy Ron. Now, we need 00:06:17.980 --> 00:06:20.379 to put a big pin in that name, Ready Ron. He 00:06:20.379 --> 00:06:22.879 was the mentor figure. Earl was the percussion. 00:06:23.100 --> 00:06:27.019 Ron was the rapper. This relationship is, well, 00:06:27.100 --> 00:06:30.040 we'll get to it later, but it is the pivotal 00:06:30.040 --> 00:06:33.680 tragedy of his entire life. But musically, this 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:36.560 is where it all starts. And the name DMX, I always 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:38.699 just assumed it stood for Darkman X right from 00:06:38.699 --> 00:06:41.240 the beginning. You know, most people do, but 00:06:41.240 --> 00:06:43.879 actually, no. It originally came from the Oberheim 00:06:43.879 --> 00:06:47.329 DMX drum machine. Oh, wow. Yeah. He was a classic 00:06:47.329 --> 00:06:49.269 piece of equipment in early hip hop. Yeah. He 00:06:49.269 --> 00:06:51.290 used it. He liked the letters. And so he just 00:06:51.290 --> 00:06:53.310 took the name. It fits, though. He named himself 00:06:53.310 --> 00:06:57.069 after a machine. Cold, hard, rhythmic. Exactly. 00:06:57.449 --> 00:07:00.129 It wasn't until later, as he developed his persona 00:07:00.129 --> 00:07:03.209 and got into the 5 % Nation ideology, that he 00:07:03.209 --> 00:07:06.050 reinterpreted it. First as Divine Master of the 00:07:06.050 --> 00:07:09.399 Unknown, and then eventually... Darkman X. Divine 00:07:09.399 --> 00:07:12.060 Master of the Unknown. That is a very heavy, 00:07:12.100 --> 00:07:14.459 almost mystical title for a kid from the streets 00:07:14.459 --> 00:07:16.600 of Yonkers. Well, it speaks to that spiritual 00:07:16.600 --> 00:07:18.560 side he always had, even back then. He was an 00:07:18.560 --> 00:07:21.439 old soul, but his university wasn't some music 00:07:21.439 --> 00:07:24.420 conservatory. It was the penal system. He served 00:07:24.420 --> 00:07:26.899 time for carjacking, and that's where he really, 00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:29.279 really honed his writing skills. He developed 00:07:29.279 --> 00:07:32.250 this style called spellbound. Oh, I've heard 00:07:32.250 --> 00:07:33.949 of this. This is where he would literally spell 00:07:33.949 --> 00:07:36.410 out words in the rhymes, right? Exactly. And 00:07:36.410 --> 00:07:39.329 it requires immense breath control and like incredible 00:07:39.329 --> 00:07:42.589 rhythmic precision. He would weave the spelling 00:07:42.589 --> 00:07:46.629 of words right into the flow. I -M -A -N -R -A 00:07:46.629 --> 00:07:49.790 -P -P -E -R. I mean, if you miss a single beat, 00:07:49.910 --> 00:07:52.050 the whole structure just collapses. And he was 00:07:52.050 --> 00:07:53.730 doing this in the prison yard. In the prison 00:07:53.730 --> 00:07:56.370 yard, battling other inmates. He even battled 00:07:56.370 --> 00:07:58.529 K -Solo, who was another big name at the time. 00:07:58.569 --> 00:08:00.930 He was building his reputation as a gladiator. 00:08:01.259 --> 00:08:03.459 So he wasn't writing songs for the radio. He 00:08:03.459 --> 00:08:06.459 was writing rhymes to destroy the person standing 00:08:06.459 --> 00:08:08.480 right in front of him. Precisely. It was combat, 00:08:08.639 --> 00:08:10.500 pure verbal combat. But here's the thing that 00:08:10.500 --> 00:08:12.759 surprised me in the research. We all think of 00:08:12.759 --> 00:08:16.740 DMX as just exploding onto the scene in 98. He 00:08:16.740 --> 00:08:19.160 actually had a record deal way before that. He 00:08:19.160 --> 00:08:21.980 did. This is kind of the lost era of DMX. He 00:08:21.980 --> 00:08:23.959 was signed to Columbia Roughhouse in the early 00:08:23.959 --> 00:08:27.430 90s. And this is a legit label. They had the 00:08:27.430 --> 00:08:30.250 Fugees. They had Cypress Hill. He released a 00:08:30.250 --> 00:08:34.769 single called Born Loser. And it flopped. Total 00:08:34.769 --> 00:08:37.470 silence. The label, you know, they didn't know 00:08:37.470 --> 00:08:39.049 what to do with him. They tried to make him sound 00:08:39.049 --> 00:08:40.850 a little more like the current trends. It wasn't 00:08:40.850 --> 00:08:43.330 authentic. So the label dropped him. Imagine 00:08:43.330 --> 00:08:46.230 that. DMX, the guy who would go on to sell tens 00:08:46.230 --> 00:08:48.590 of millions of records, was technically a failed 00:08:48.590 --> 00:08:51.590 artist by the mid -90s. And that failure is so 00:08:51.590 --> 00:08:54.700 important to his story. It hardened him. It meant 00:08:54.700 --> 00:08:56.740 that when he finally got his second shot, he 00:08:56.740 --> 00:08:58.340 wasn't just happy to be there. He was angry. 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:00.620 He had something to prove. He had seen the industry 00:09:00.620 --> 00:09:02.399 chew him up and spit him out. So he decided, 00:09:02.480 --> 00:09:04.580 OK, this time I'm just going to kick the whole 00:09:04.580 --> 00:09:07.120 door down. Which brings us to the turning point. 00:09:07.440 --> 00:09:10.639 The Rough Riders. The Dean brothers, Wah and 00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:14.000 Dee Dean. Yeah. And their sister, Siobhan. They 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:15.940 were the management. And of course, the key connector, 00:09:16.179 --> 00:09:19.000 Irv Gotti. Irv Gotti seems to be in the middle 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:21.769 of every major hip hop story from this era. He 00:09:21.769 --> 00:09:25.370 really, really was. Irv Gotti was an A &R at 00:09:25.370 --> 00:09:28.110 Def Jam, and he believed in X when literally 00:09:28.110 --> 00:09:31.169 nobody else did. He famously dragged Lyra Cohen, 00:09:31.470 --> 00:09:34.090 who was the head of Def Jam, to go see DMX at 00:09:34.090 --> 00:09:36.490 his studio in Yonkers. And the story of that 00:09:36.490 --> 00:09:39.190 meeting is legendary. It is. The story goes that 00:09:39.190 --> 00:09:42.129 DMX performed for him with his jaw wired shut. 00:09:42.330 --> 00:09:45.330 Wait, what? His jaw was wired shut? Yeah, from 00:09:45.330 --> 00:09:47.090 a street fight he'd been in, he had wires in 00:09:47.090 --> 00:09:49.470 his mouth. But he didn't let that stop him. He 00:09:49.470 --> 00:09:51.649 rapped with such intensity, like spitting and 00:09:51.649 --> 00:09:54.289 sweating right in Lyre Cohen's face, that Lyre 00:09:54.289 --> 00:09:56.409 essentially had no choice but to sign him. He 00:09:56.409 --> 00:09:58.190 was apparently terrified and mesmerized at the 00:09:58.190 --> 00:10:01.110 same time. I believe it. So he signs to Def Jam. 00:10:01.230 --> 00:10:04.570 It's 1998. And this year... I don't think we 00:10:04.570 --> 00:10:07.429 can overstate what 1998 was for DMX and for hip 00:10:07.429 --> 00:10:09.330 -hop. It is statistically one of the greatest 00:10:09.330 --> 00:10:11.529 years any artist has ever had in the history 00:10:11.529 --> 00:10:15.629 of recorded music. Period. In May 1998, he releases 00:10:15.629 --> 00:10:18.649 his debut album, It's Dark and Hell is Hot. Which, 00:10:18.669 --> 00:10:20.730 of course, includes Rough Rider's anthem. That 00:10:20.730 --> 00:10:23.549 song is still an absolute banger. It is. Produced 00:10:23.549 --> 00:10:25.169 by Young Swizz Beatz. And what's interesting 00:10:25.169 --> 00:10:27.490 is that DMX hated that beat at first. Right. 00:10:27.610 --> 00:10:29.190 Yeah. He thought it was too simple. He said it 00:10:29.190 --> 00:10:31.679 sounded like a nursery rhyme. But that simplicity 00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:34.440 was exactly why it worked. It was an earworm. 00:10:34.840 --> 00:10:37.759 The album debuts at number one. It goes on to 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:40.639 sell over four million copies. And that alone 00:10:40.639 --> 00:10:43.440 is a career -defining moment for anyone. But 00:10:43.440 --> 00:10:46.700 he didn't stop there. Not even close. No. Def 00:10:46.700 --> 00:10:49.340 Jam wanted more. DMX went right back into the 00:10:49.340 --> 00:10:52.240 studio. And in December of that same year. The 00:10:52.240 --> 00:10:54.539 same year. He releases his second album, Flesh 00:10:54.539 --> 00:10:57.080 of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood. Two albums. One 00:10:57.080 --> 00:10:59.669 year. And both went to number one. Both debuted 00:10:59.669 --> 00:11:02.570 at number one on the Billboard 200. He became 00:11:02.570 --> 00:11:05.429 the first living artist to achieve that. Tupac 00:11:05.429 --> 00:11:08.570 had done it, but only posthumously. For a living 00:11:08.570 --> 00:11:11.210 artist to generate that much high -quality material 00:11:11.210 --> 00:11:14.250 and just dominate the charts twice in a single 00:11:14.250 --> 00:11:16.830 calendar year, it's absurd. And the cover of 00:11:16.830 --> 00:11:19.389 Flesh of My Flesh is so intense, he's just covered 00:11:19.389 --> 00:11:21.330 in blood. It was provocative. It was disturbing. 00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:23.940 And you know what? It was exactly what the kids 00:11:23.940 --> 00:11:25.779 in the suburbs wanted. They wanted that danger. 00:11:25.940 --> 00:11:28.340 He hadn't compromised his sound one bit to get 00:11:28.340 --> 00:11:30.740 to the top. He forced the mainstream to come 00:11:30.740 --> 00:11:32.539 to him. And that just kicked off this historic 00:11:32.539 --> 00:11:36.159 run. The winning streak, absolutely. His next 00:11:36.159 --> 00:11:40.200 album, and then there was X in 1999, was his 00:11:40.200 --> 00:11:42.700 bestseller. That was the one with Party up in 00:11:42.700 --> 00:11:44.799 here. I can hear the whistle in my head right 00:11:44.799 --> 00:11:47.200 now. Of course. Then came the Great Depression, 00:11:47.360 --> 00:11:50.659 then Grand Champ. And with those, DMX became 00:11:50.659 --> 00:11:53.480 the only rapper in history to have his first 00:11:53.480 --> 00:11:56.799 five studio albums debut consecutively at number 00:11:56.799 --> 00:12:00.200 one on the Billboard 200. Five in a row, straight 00:12:00.200 --> 00:12:02.580 out of the gate. That's insane. It's a record 00:12:02.580 --> 00:12:04.840 that speaks to a fanatic fan base. I mean, you 00:12:04.840 --> 00:12:07.080 don't get five number one debuts by accident. 00:12:07.179 --> 00:12:09.399 You get that because people are buying the album 00:12:09.399 --> 00:12:10.980 the day it drops without even hearing the singles 00:12:10.980 --> 00:12:12.960 yet. They just trusted the brand. They trusted 00:12:12.960 --> 00:12:14.759 the brand. They knew DMX wasn't going to sell 00:12:14.759 --> 00:12:17.100 them some fake, polished version of himself. 00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:19.580 And while he's crushing the music charts, he's 00:12:19.580 --> 00:12:22.639 also becoming a movie star, which, looking back 00:12:22.639 --> 00:12:25.000 on it, is kind of wild. It makes sense, though, 00:12:25.039 --> 00:12:27.080 doesn't it? He just had this intense magnetic 00:12:27.080 --> 00:12:30.100 charisma. He starred in Belly with Nas in 1998. 00:12:30.440 --> 00:12:33.519 That movie is a cult classic. I mean, visually, 00:12:33.659 --> 00:12:35.840 it's absolutely stunning. Hype Williams directed 00:12:35.840 --> 00:12:40.779 it. And DMX plays Bunz, this ruthless, unforgettable 00:12:40.779 --> 00:12:43.360 character. And a lot of critics at the time said 00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:45.779 he wasn't really acting. He was just channeling 00:12:45.779 --> 00:12:48.519 a version of himself. But then he transitioned 00:12:48.519 --> 00:12:51.500 into mainstream action. He teamed up with Jet 00:12:51.500 --> 00:12:54.799 Lai in Romeo Must Die and Cradle to the Grave. 00:12:54.820 --> 00:12:57.480 And Steven Seagal in Exit Worms. He was a legitimate 00:12:57.480 --> 00:13:01.679 box office straw. He was. He was making, like... 00:13:01.820 --> 00:13:04.779 $5 million a picture. He had the look, the voice, 00:13:04.860 --> 00:13:07.240 the presence. He even had his own reality show, 00:13:07.340 --> 00:13:11.539 DMX, Soul of a Man, on PT. For a while there, 00:13:11.620 --> 00:13:13.899 he was just everywhere. But with all that fame 00:13:13.899 --> 00:13:16.320 came friction. And we have to talk about the 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:19.559 beefs. Because DMX was, well, he was not one 00:13:19.559 --> 00:13:22.200 to bite his tongue. No, not at all. And the most 00:13:22.200 --> 00:13:23.799 famous one is probably the one with Ja Rule. 00:13:23.980 --> 00:13:25.679 Which is interesting because they were in a group 00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:27.980 together for a minute, right? Murder Inc. The 00:13:27.980 --> 00:13:29.659 group that never was. It was supposed to be this 00:13:29.659 --> 00:13:32.879 super group. Jay -Z, Ja Rule, and DMX. Can you 00:13:32.879 --> 00:13:34.960 even imagine that lineup today? That would have 00:13:34.960 --> 00:13:36.879 been the dream team of that era, so why didn't 00:13:36.879 --> 00:13:41.639 it work? Egos. Massive, massive egos. And a lot 00:13:41.639 --> 00:13:45.039 of internal tension. DMX specifically had a huge 00:13:45.039 --> 00:13:47.840 issue with Ja Rule. He accused Ja of stealing 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:50.320 his signature style, that gruff, gravelly, barking 00:13:50.320 --> 00:13:53.100 voice. I mean, if you listen to early Ja Rule, 00:13:53.179 --> 00:13:56.019 you can hear the similarity. You can. And DMX 00:13:56.019 --> 00:13:57.879 took it very personally. He felt like his identity, 00:13:58.019 --> 00:14:00.440 his very soul, was being co -opted for pop hits. 00:14:00.759 --> 00:14:02.620 He released diss tracks like, we don't give a 00:14:02.620 --> 00:14:04.340 fuck. It was a deep, deep resentment. Did they 00:14:04.340 --> 00:14:06.759 ever make peace? They did, to their credit. They 00:14:06.759 --> 00:14:08.940 eventually squashed the beef years later at the 00:14:08.940 --> 00:14:12.240 VH1 Hip Hop Honors in 2009. And then there was 00:14:12.240 --> 00:14:14.340 Jay -Z. That was a different kind of tension. 00:14:14.480 --> 00:14:16.559 That went all the way back to a rap battle in 00:14:16.559 --> 00:14:19.700 the Bronx in the early 90s. They supposedly battled 00:14:19.700 --> 00:14:22.159 on top of a pool table for hours. So who won? 00:14:22.590 --> 00:14:24.590 Well, it depends on who you ask. Jay -Z had the 00:14:24.590 --> 00:14:26.950 flow and the wit. DMX had the raw aggression 00:14:26.950 --> 00:14:29.009 and the energy. They were like two kings of New 00:14:29.009 --> 00:14:31.230 York fighting for the same crown, but with totally 00:14:31.230 --> 00:14:33.830 different styles. Jay -Z was the cool, calculated 00:14:33.830 --> 00:14:37.590 hustler. DMX was the raw, emotional, loose cannon. 00:14:37.669 --> 00:14:39.470 They respected each other, but yeah, there was 00:14:39.470 --> 00:14:41.330 always that friction there. You mentioned emotional, 00:14:41.590 --> 00:14:45.830 and that brings us to the other side of DMX. 00:14:45.970 --> 00:14:47.990 The side that I think made him truly unique. 00:14:48.590 --> 00:14:51.330 The faith. This is the central paradox, isn't 00:14:51.330 --> 00:14:54.370 it? You have a guy known for hardcore lyrics 00:14:54.370 --> 00:14:57.429 about grime and violence and death who read the 00:14:57.429 --> 00:14:59.929 Bible every single day. And not just in private. 00:14:59.970 --> 00:15:02.370 Every album had a prayer. And these were not 00:15:02.370 --> 00:15:05.070 skits. They weren't jokes. No, they were sincere, 00:15:05.370 --> 00:15:08.830 vulnerable moments of complete submission to 00:15:08.830 --> 00:15:11.610 God. The beat would drop out and he would just 00:15:11.610 --> 00:15:14.210 speak from the heart. He was a transitional deacon. 00:15:14.649 --> 00:15:17.230 He openly aspired to become an ordained pastor. 00:15:17.490 --> 00:15:20.009 Wow. He viewed his life and his survival through 00:15:20.009 --> 00:15:23.570 everything as a divine mission. He famously said 00:15:23.570 --> 00:15:25.490 he was kept alive to give a message that Jesus 00:15:25.490 --> 00:15:27.950 loves them. It's incredibly powerful. You'd be 00:15:27.950 --> 00:15:29.909 in the club listening to Party Up, and then on 00:15:29.909 --> 00:15:31.509 the drive home, you're listening to this man 00:15:31.509 --> 00:15:34.129 crying out to God for forgiveness. It just, it 00:15:34.129 --> 00:15:36.470 made him human. It grounded the entire persona. 00:15:36.610 --> 00:15:38.669 It showed that all the aggression was a response 00:15:38.669 --> 00:15:41.250 to pain, and the faith was the only thing holding 00:15:41.250 --> 00:15:44.259 that pain back. But unfortunately, the pain often 00:15:44.259 --> 00:15:46.720 won. And we have to move into the shadows now. 00:15:47.080 --> 00:15:49.399 Because as successful as he was, his legal rap 00:15:49.399 --> 00:15:52.419 sheet is, well, it's extensive. It's a pattern 00:15:52.419 --> 00:15:54.259 that spans decades. We're talking about over 00:15:54.259 --> 00:15:58.240 30 jail stints. And the charges, they range from 00:15:58.240 --> 00:16:01.460 the mundane all the way to the completely bizarre. 00:16:02.509 --> 00:16:04.629 Let's talk about the JFK incident, because when 00:16:04.629 --> 00:16:06.269 I read this in the notes, I had to double check 00:16:06.269 --> 00:16:08.090 that it wasn't a movie script. Right. So this 00:16:08.090 --> 00:16:12.309 was June 2004. DMX is at JFK Airport in New York. 00:16:12.429 --> 00:16:14.929 He crashes his SUV through a parking lot gate. 00:16:15.070 --> 00:16:17.129 OK, that's about enough right there. But then 00:16:17.129 --> 00:16:19.870 he gets out of the car and tries to carjack another 00:16:19.870 --> 00:16:23.629 vehicle. But here is the kicker. He claims to 00:16:23.629 --> 00:16:25.470 be a federal agent. While trying to steal the 00:16:25.470 --> 00:16:28.769 car. Yes. He told the driver, I'm an FBI agent. 00:16:29.200 --> 00:16:31.039 He was under the influence of drugs at the time, 00:16:31.100 --> 00:16:33.539 Valium and crack cocaine. It's a terrifying situation 00:16:33.539 --> 00:16:36.100 for the people involved, but it also just speaks 00:16:36.100 --> 00:16:38.419 to the level of dissociation and chaos that was 00:16:38.419 --> 00:16:40.620 entering his life because of the substance abuse. 00:16:40.919 --> 00:16:43.340 He had completely lost touch with reality in 00:16:43.340 --> 00:16:45.340 that moment. And then there's the animal cruelty. 00:16:45.460 --> 00:16:47.360 This is the one that really hurts the fans the 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:50.509 most, I think. Because he was the dog. He loved 00:16:50.509 --> 00:16:53.669 dogs. It's a tragic, tragic irony. He faced multiple 00:16:53.669 --> 00:16:58.269 charges in 1999, 2002, 2007. Police would raid 00:16:58.269 --> 00:17:00.929 his homes and find pit bulls in just horrible 00:17:00.929 --> 00:17:04.009 conditions, neglected, without water. How do 00:17:04.009 --> 00:17:07.109 you even reconcile that? Well, DMX often blamed 00:17:07.109 --> 00:17:08.990 his caretakers. He was on tour for months at 00:17:08.990 --> 00:17:11.730 a time, leaving these hangers on and friends 00:17:11.730 --> 00:17:14.329 in charge of the dogs. But ultimately, as the 00:17:14.329 --> 00:17:17.440 owner, it was his responsibility. It just reflects 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:19.799 the chaos of his personal life bleeding into 00:17:19.799 --> 00:17:22.480 every single aspect of his existence. He couldn't 00:17:22.480 --> 00:17:25.000 take care of himself. And consequently, the things 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:27.380 he loved most suffered, too. And then there were 00:17:27.380 --> 00:17:30.519 the financial issues. Fifteen children. Fifteen 00:17:30.519 --> 00:17:32.720 children with nine different women. The financial 00:17:32.720 --> 00:17:35.460 strain was just immense. The child support obligations 00:17:35.460 --> 00:17:38.160 were astronomical. He filed for bankruptcy three 00:17:38.160 --> 00:17:39.940 times, though the courts often dismissed the 00:17:39.940 --> 00:17:41.700 filings because he wasn't fully disclosing his 00:17:41.700 --> 00:17:44.039 income. It was just this endless cycle of earning 00:17:44.039 --> 00:17:46.000 millions and losing millions. And tax fraud. 00:17:46.329 --> 00:17:49.269 Right. In 2017, she was convicted for failing 00:17:49.269 --> 00:17:52.390 to pay taxes on about $2 .3 million in earnings. 00:17:52.609 --> 00:17:55.369 He served a year in prison for that. But all 00:17:55.369 --> 00:17:57.950 of this, the arrests, the money problems, the 00:17:57.950 --> 00:18:00.769 bizarre behavior, it all seems to circle back 00:18:00.769 --> 00:18:04.630 to one thing. Addiction. Addiction. And the story 00:18:04.630 --> 00:18:07.369 of how his addiction started is one of the most 00:18:07.369 --> 00:18:10.549 heartbreaking things I have ever heard. It really 00:18:10.549 --> 00:18:13.210 changes how you see everything. It's the rosebud 00:18:13.210 --> 00:18:16.200 of his life. It's the absolute root of the trauma. 00:18:16.339 --> 00:18:18.539 And for this, we have to go back to Reddy Ron. 00:18:18.740 --> 00:18:21.200 The mentor we mentioned earlier, the rapper that 00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:24.380 a young DMX beatboxed for. Exactly. DMX was 14 00:18:24.380 --> 00:18:26.220 years old. He looked up to this guy. It was his 00:18:26.220 --> 00:18:28.380 birthday, apparently. And they were celebrating. 00:18:28.380 --> 00:18:30.940 And what did Reddy Ron do? According to DMX's 00:18:30.940 --> 00:18:33.539 own account, Reddy Ron passed him a marijuana 00:18:33.539 --> 00:18:37.420 cigarette. A blunt. DMX had never smoked before, 00:18:37.480 --> 00:18:39.619 but he wanted to be like his mentor, so he smoked 00:18:39.619 --> 00:18:43.150 it, thinking it was just weed. It wasn't. What 00:18:43.150 --> 00:18:44.990 was it? It was laced with crack cocaine. Kenny 00:18:44.990 --> 00:18:47.250 didn't know. He had no idea. He said he felt 00:18:47.250 --> 00:18:49.609 a rush he'd never felt before. His heart started 00:18:49.609 --> 00:18:51.769 racing. His head was spinning. And then he found 00:18:51.769 --> 00:18:53.869 out what it was. He was furious. He was hurt. 00:18:54.170 --> 00:18:56.150 He confronted him and said, why would you do 00:18:56.150 --> 00:18:58.690 that to me? I looked up to you. That's not just 00:18:58.690 --> 00:19:00.950 an introduction to drugs. That's a violation. 00:19:01.410 --> 00:19:03.410 It's assault. It's the poisoning of a child. 00:19:03.670 --> 00:19:06.700 It is a profound betrayal of trust. by a father 00:19:06.700 --> 00:19:09.700 figure. And addiction experts will tell you when 00:19:09.700 --> 00:19:11.759 your introduction to a substance is traumatic 00:19:11.759 --> 00:19:14.460 and non -consensual like that, especially at 00:19:14.460 --> 00:19:17.740 such a developmental age, it completely rewires 00:19:17.740 --> 00:19:20.019 the brain. Right. He wasn't partying. He was 00:19:20.019 --> 00:19:23.099 tricked. And he spent the next 36 years fighting 00:19:23.099 --> 00:19:24.940 that demon that was put inside him that day. 00:19:25.369 --> 00:19:27.809 It reframes his entire struggle. He wasn't just 00:19:27.809 --> 00:19:30.849 wild or out of control. He was fighting a biological 00:19:30.849 --> 00:19:32.970 dependence that was forced on him when he was 00:19:32.970 --> 00:19:35.569 just a kid. Exactly. And he really tried to stop. 00:19:35.609 --> 00:19:39.410 He went to rehab many times, 2002, 2017, 2019. 00:19:39.730 --> 00:19:42.710 He would cancel entire concert tours to put his 00:19:42.710 --> 00:19:45.369 health first. He wanted to get better. He publicly 00:19:45.369 --> 00:19:47.970 struggled with it. And that's the thing. He never 00:19:47.970 --> 00:19:50.349 hit it. He let the whole world see the struggle. 00:19:50.549 --> 00:19:53.089 Which brings us, unfortunately, to the final 00:19:53.089 --> 00:19:55.720 chapter. The collapse. There was a warning shot 00:19:55.720 --> 00:19:59.460 in February 2016. He was found unresponsive in 00:19:59.460 --> 00:20:02.220 a Ramada Inn parking lot in Yonkers. The police 00:20:02.220 --> 00:20:05.599 revived him with Narcan. At the time, his team 00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:07.700 claimed it was an asthma attack, but the use 00:20:07.700 --> 00:20:10.299 of Narcan strongly suggests opioids were involved. 00:20:10.500 --> 00:20:15.019 And then April 2021. April 2nd, 2021. He suffered 00:20:15.019 --> 00:20:17.579 a massive heart attack at his home. Reports indicate 00:20:17.579 --> 00:20:20.599 it was likely triggered by an overdose. The critical 00:20:20.599 --> 00:20:23.200 factor here was time. What do you mean by that? 00:20:23.779 --> 00:20:25.819 Paramedics worked on him for 30 minutes to get 00:20:25.819 --> 00:20:28.720 his pulse back. That is a very, very long time 00:20:28.720 --> 00:20:31.420 for the brain to be without oxygen. He suffered 00:20:31.420 --> 00:20:34.039 from what's called cerebral hypoxia. By the time 00:20:34.039 --> 00:20:35.980 he got to White Plains Hospital, the damage was 00:20:35.980 --> 00:20:38.180 catastrophic. He was on life support for a full 00:20:38.180 --> 00:20:40.680 week. Yes. In a vegetative state with multiple 00:20:40.680 --> 00:20:43.660 organ failure, the world held a vigil. It was 00:20:43.660 --> 00:20:45.579 this strange week of everyone just praying for 00:20:45.579 --> 00:20:47.819 a miracle. Fans gathered outside the hospital, 00:20:47.940 --> 00:20:50.059 blasting his music, holding candles. It was a 00:20:50.059 --> 00:20:52.500 really powerful scene. But on April 9th, 2021, 00:20:53.000 --> 00:20:55.220 Earl Simmons passed away. He was only 50 years 00:20:55.220 --> 00:20:59.559 old. 50. It feels so young. And it is. But then 00:20:59.559 --> 00:21:01.960 you consider the life he lived, the abuse, the 00:21:01.960 --> 00:21:05.220 addiction, the stress. In a way, it's a miracle 00:21:05.220 --> 00:21:07.740 he survived as long as he did. The odds were 00:21:07.740 --> 00:21:09.839 against him from day one. The send -off, though. 00:21:09.940 --> 00:21:12.960 The send -off was fit for a king. Or maybe more 00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:15.359 accurately, a general. It was incredible. The 00:21:15.359 --> 00:21:17.339 celebration of life at the Barclays Center in 00:21:17.339 --> 00:21:19.519 Brooklyn. You had Kanye West's Sunday Service 00:21:19.519 --> 00:21:22.920 Choir performing. But the visual that I think 00:21:22.920 --> 00:21:25.559 will stick with everyone forever is the procession. 00:21:25.599 --> 00:21:28.700 The monster truck. A massive custom monster truck 00:21:28.700 --> 00:21:32.319 carrying his red casket with long -lived DMX 00:21:32.319 --> 00:21:35.240 painted on the side. Driving. through the streets 00:21:35.240 --> 00:21:38.099 of New York, and behind it, hundreds and hundreds 00:21:38.099 --> 00:21:40.619 of rough riders on motorcycles, popping wheelies, 00:21:40.680 --> 00:21:43.160 revving their engines. It was loud. It was aggressive. 00:21:43.220 --> 00:21:45.039 It was perfect. He was exactly how he should 00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:47.140 have gone out. Exactly. And the funeral service 00:21:47.140 --> 00:21:49.259 itself, the homegoing celebration, had that red 00:21:49.259 --> 00:21:51.940 casket, and it was labeled with one word, faith. 00:21:52.759 --> 00:21:54.559 But there was a moment during the tributes that 00:21:54.559 --> 00:21:56.880 caused a little bit of a stir. Lyre Cohen again. 00:21:57.019 --> 00:21:59.460 The Def Jam executive who signed him. Yes. In 00:21:59.460 --> 00:22:02.740 his tribute, he called DMX a gremlin. A gremlin? 00:22:02.859 --> 00:22:05.599 That sounds pretty insulting. It sounded very 00:22:05.599 --> 00:22:08.940 odd to the public. But in context, he was trying 00:22:08.940 --> 00:22:11.480 to distinguish between Earl Simmons, who he described 00:22:11.480 --> 00:22:15.559 as a sweet, wonderful man in DMX, the gremlin, 00:22:15.619 --> 00:22:18.039 or the artistic beast that took over when the 00:22:18.039 --> 00:22:21.359 microphone was on. It was an affectionate, if 00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:23.960 maybe clumsy, way of describing that duality 00:22:23.960 --> 00:22:25.980 we've been talking about. The man versus the 00:22:25.980 --> 00:22:29.089 beast. So we look back now. What is the legacy? 00:22:29.250 --> 00:22:31.529 Where do we put him? Oh, it's massive. First, 00:22:31.609 --> 00:22:33.529 he redefined the genre commercially. We talked 00:22:33.529 --> 00:22:36.349 about the shiny suit era. DMX ended that single 00:22:36.349 --> 00:22:38.509 -handedly. He made it okay to be gritty again. 00:22:38.650 --> 00:22:40.950 He proved you didn't need a polished, radio -friendly 00:22:40.950 --> 00:22:43.470 image to sell tens of millions of records. He 00:22:43.470 --> 00:22:45.529 also changed the emotional landscape of hip -hop. 00:22:45.670 --> 00:22:47.990 Correct. He made it okay to cry. He embodied 00:22:47.990 --> 00:22:51.200 emotional honesty. Before DMX, being hard meant 00:22:51.200 --> 00:22:54.059 being emotionless. DMX showed that being hard 00:22:54.059 --> 00:22:56.319 meant facing your pain, screaming about it, and 00:22:56.319 --> 00:22:59.359 praying about it. He gave men, specifically black 00:22:59.359 --> 00:23:01.500 men in America, permission to be vulnerable. 00:23:01.740 --> 00:23:04.579 And statistically, he just stands alone. 75 million 00:23:04.579 --> 00:23:07.539 records sold. The only artist with those first 00:23:07.539 --> 00:23:10.299 five albums debuting at number one. I mean, that 00:23:10.299 --> 00:23:12.579 record might stand for a very, very long time. 00:23:12.660 --> 00:23:15.720 And culturally, he's still here. You've got the 00:23:15.720 --> 00:23:18.299 movie Deadpool using X Gone Give It to Ya, which 00:23:18.299 --> 00:23:21.039 introduced him to a whole new generation of kids 00:23:21.039 --> 00:23:23.859 who weren't even born in 1998. And the tributes 00:23:23.859 --> 00:23:26.720 after his death. Everyone from LeBron James to 00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:29.380 Viola Davis. The New York State Senate declared 00:23:29.380 --> 00:23:33.960 December 18th Earl DMX Simmons Day. He's enshrined 00:23:33.960 --> 00:23:35.500 in the culture. There was a posthumous album 00:23:35.500 --> 00:23:38.960 too, right? Exodus? Yeah, released in 2021. It 00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:42.299 featured Jay -Z, Nas, even Bono from U2. It felt 00:23:42.299 --> 00:23:44.420 like a final gathering of the greats to honor 00:23:44.420 --> 00:23:47.039 him. You know, when we look at DMX, it's so easy 00:23:47.039 --> 00:23:48.940 to get caught up in the barking and the bikes 00:23:48.940 --> 00:23:51.440 and the arrests. But when you really unpack it 00:23:51.440 --> 00:23:54.400 like we have today, you see a man of such incredible 00:23:54.400 --> 00:23:58.349 extremes. Extreme talent, extreme pain. and extreme 00:23:58.349 --> 00:24:00.730 faith. He was the divine master of the unknown 00:24:00.730 --> 00:24:02.950 who took the unknown struggles of the streets, 00:24:03.109 --> 00:24:05.630 the addiction, the abuse, the loneliness, and 00:24:05.630 --> 00:24:07.789 he made them known to the entire world. He made 00:24:07.789 --> 00:24:10.569 us look at the darkness. And he was always, always 00:24:10.569 --> 00:24:12.769 trying to bring some light into it. So here's 00:24:12.769 --> 00:24:15.329 the question we want to leave you with. DMX changed 00:24:15.329 --> 00:24:17.529 hip -hop by stripping away all the glamour and 00:24:17.529 --> 00:24:20.900 showing the ugly, raw truth. In today's music 00:24:20.900 --> 00:24:24.319 landscape, which is so highly curated, so polished 00:24:24.319 --> 00:24:27.700 for social media, so incredibly brand safe, is 00:24:27.700 --> 00:24:30.160 there even room for another artist as raw and 00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:33.720 unfiltered as DMX? Or was he a once in a lifetime 00:24:33.720 --> 00:24:35.819 phenomenon that the industry would never allow 00:24:35.819 --> 00:24:37.779 to happen today? That really is the question. 00:24:37.980 --> 00:24:39.640 Think about it. And please check the show notes 00:24:39.640 --> 00:24:41.440 for the full list of sources we used for this 00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:43.200 deep dive. Thanks for listening. See you next 00:24:43.200 --> 00:24:43.339 time.