Earl
Simmons a.k.a. DMX (Dark Man X) was born on
December 18, 1970 in Baltimore, Maryland. DMX's
family knew he would get in a lot of trouble in
this area, so they moved to Yonkers, New York, the
location DMX currently claims and represents to the
fullest. On the streets of Yonkers, DMX rose to
local stardom as a turntable wizard.
As a result, his rhymes --
steeped with ferocity, anger and aggression --
combine both traditional hardcore rap and hip-hop.
Utilizing a classic, tension-filled BT Express
guitar sample, the single's keen balance of street
grit and dance floor bounce provides the perfect
backdrop for the Dark Man X's unshakably aggressive
vocal delivery; one whose distinctively hoarse
timbre is but the table setter for his main course
of irrepressible rhyme:
What
must I go through
to show you shit is real
And I ain't never really
gave a fuck how niggas feel
I rob and I steal Not cuz I want to,
cuz I have to
And don't make me show you
what the mac do
If you don't know by now you slippin'
I'm on some bullshit that's got me jackin'
niggas, flippin'
Let my man and them stay pretty, but I'm a
stay shitty
Cruddy, it's all for the money
Is you with me?
Despite all the excitement that currently surrounds
him, only a select, informed crew of heads may
recall DMX’s first go around (with the 1992
promotional single, "Born Loser") for
Columbia Records. Like many talented MC’s signed
to their first deal, X was left in the unfortunate
scenario of languishing while other artists on the
label’s roster prospered.
"Columbia tried to put me behind other
groups," DMX reflects of the situation.
"They were like, 'Well, we're gonna put out
Kriss Kross, then we're gonna put out Cypress Hill
and then we're gonna put you out.' And I was like,
'Well I'm better than all of them niggas.' So I
didn't wanna wait. They let me out of the contract
and I'm glad that they did." "I always
knew there would be a point when someone would say,
'Somebody needs to make money off this nigga cus
he's hot'. That's when Irv Gotti brought me to Lyor
Cohen at Def Jam. I guess it's that point now. I
guess the world wasn't ready for the gutter until
now. Now they ready for the gutter shit, so now
they get the fuckin' gutter.
Having originally earned his name by way of his
human beat boxing expertise, DMX later experimented
with other acronyms true to his evolving,
revolutionary vocal steez (Divine Master of the
Unknown) while honing his skills around his home in
Yonkers' School Street Projects. Along the way, he
bumped heads and built long-lasting friendships
with fellow Y-O residents and Bad Boy Recording
artists, The Lox. "Those are the pups,"
DMX says of Bad Boy's latest rising stars. "I
trained 'em, raised 'em, they doin' their thing and
I'm proud of them. I didn't teach I em everything
they knew cuz they were doin' it before me, but I
influenced them."
Winner of The Source magazine's prestigious
"Unsigned Hype" award for January of
1991, the native of Yonkers, New York has recently
crashed the airwaves and mix tape circuit with a
number of unforgettable guest appearances (LL Cool
J's "4,3,2,1," Mase's "24 Hours to
Live," Mic Geronimo's "Usual
Suspects," The Lox's "Money, Power and
Respect," Ice Cube's "We Be Clubbin'
(Remix)" and Onyx's "Shut 'em
Down",) inducing a fever pitch buzz for the
release of his kinetic debut single for Ruff Ryders/Def
Jam, "Get At Me Dog."
If there was one defining characteristic to hip hop
in 1997, it was the jiggy factor- an aesthetic of
unapologetic flash, fashion and glamour that ruled
everything around us and made hip hop life nice and
organized. Of course, for each movement there
always exists a counter-movement; for each yin
there is a yang; and for each designer-label clad
champagne sipper, there must be an uncompromised
figure lurking in the shadows, ready and willing to
reclaim rap from the penthouse to the pavement.
Embracing this return to the anarchy, enraged and
raw, Def Jam Records presents 1998 as the Year of
Pandemonium. The human embodiment of such
exhilarating and unadulterated chaos exists in none
other than Ruff Ryders/Def Jam's very latest
lyrical sensation, DMX.
