DMX

Earl Simmons (December 18, 1970 until April 9 2021), known professionally as DMX, was an American rapper and actor. His debut album, It's Dark and Hot was released in 1998 to critical and commercial popularity. It sold 251,000 copies during its first week. [5][66 DMX released his top-selling album, ... And Then There was X, in 1999, and included the hit track "Party Up (Up in Here)". The singles he released in 2003, "Where is the Hood At?" and "X Gon' Give It To Ya" were also commercially successful. He was the first artist to debut an album at No.1 five times in a row on the Billboard 200 charts. Seven times DMX has sold over 74 million albums worldwide. [8] DMX appeared in films like Belly, Romeo Must Die and Exit Wounds. He was the lead character in DMX: Soul of a Man in the 2006 reality TV series. It was broadcast through the BET cable television network Never Die Alone. In 2003, he wrote the memoirs of his life called E.A.R.L. : The Autobiography of DMX. 9 DMX was 14 when he began beatboxing at Ready Ron. After serving time for the theft of the dog, he started to compose his own lyrics. He also performed at the local recreation center for kids younger than 14 years old. In 1988, while being imprisoned for carjacking, the rapper began dedicating all of his spare time creating lyrics, and also to meeting and rapping with K-Solo. [3] When he was released in the summer, he began making and selling his own mixtapes in which he rapped over the instrumentals from other songs and sold them on streets that helped him establish a local fan base across New York. Percee P and DMX performed on The Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Show 1991, where they improvised. [1515 DMX would later that year release a demo tape featuring "Spellbound" together with "Critical Condition", "Three Little Pigs", "The Original Author of Spellbound" and "Unstoppable Force". It was extremely like Big Daddy Kane or Rakim, and it was not his later material. 3] In 1991, The Source magazine praised DMX for his Unsigned Hype column, which featured hip-hop artists that were not signed. [16] That same year, Columbia Records signed DMX to its subsidiary label Ruffhouse Records, which released his first single "Born Loser". [17] His second single, "Make A Move" was released in the year 1994. Jay-Z, Ja Rule and Mic Geronimo made an appearance on "Time to Build" which is the most well-known underground track. DMX died in 2021 after suffering a heart attack due to cocaine.