Rap “Attack” legend, Earl Simmons AKA DMX has died aged 50, following a heart attack. DMX established himself with multi-platinum-selling debut album It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot (1998). He released a second blockbuster, Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood, yet was overlooked for the Grammy Award, prompting Jay Z to boycott the Grammys in 1999.
He was the first rapper to have his first five albums go straight to the top of the US chart. In 2019, he to GQ Magazine, “I’m not going to make music for the mainstream,” “I’d rather make music for people that I come in contact with, people that I can count on. That’s what I make my music for. People in the hood.”
Def Jam signed him in 1997, making guest appearances on tracks by LL Cool J, Mase and the Lox, DMX’s first single for Def Jam was named “Get at me dog” was a hit on the rap and dance charts. he released Its Dark and Hell Is Hot, which sold over 5million copies, after its No 1 debut
In 2000, he appeared in Jet Li in the hit action movie Romeo Must Die, and in 2001 starred in Exit wounds alongside Steven Seagal, getting a picture deal with Warner Bros. He also starred Cradle 2 the Grave (2003, with Li), Never Die Alone (2004), Lords of the Street (2008, with Kris Kristofferson), Pimp (2018) and Beyond the Law (2019). He also made a number of TV appearances, and in 2006 appeared in the reality show DMX: Soul of a Man
DMX had 15 children, including two with the model Yadira Borrego, four from his marriage to Tashera Simmons and one with his fiancee, Desiree Landstrom. “I got a few in New York; I got a few in Cali,” DMX remarked of his other children.
