DMX dies

Why it matters

Earl Simmons, who recorded as DMX, died on April 9, 2021, in White Plains, New York, of complications from a cocaine-induced heart attack. He was 50. He had been on life support for a week. The hospital let him go after his family said their goodbyes. DMX is one of the most commercially dominant rappers of the late 1990s. He had two #1 albums in the same year (1998's It's Dark and Hell Is Hot and Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood), the first artist of any genre in over a decade to pull that off. The voice was a raspy, snarling, dog-bark-and-howl instrument unlike anything else in rap at the time. The persona was sincerely committed to the conflict between street violence and devotion to God. He had spent a substantial part of the 2000s in prison or in court on various charges, mostly drug-related. He had spent the last decade or so of his life publicly trying to get clean, which he repeatedly almost did and repeatedly did not. He was 50. You should hear It's Dark and Hell Is Hot. He was, on his best days, one of the most physically alive performers rap ever produced. The catalog he left is the catalog. He was 50.