DMX

American actor and rapper Earl Simmons, born December 18, 1970 and died April 9 2021. His debut album, It's Dark and Hot was released in 1998 to critical and commercial great success. The album sold 251,000 copies during the first week. In 1999, DMX released... and Then There Was X. The album featured the smash hit track "Party up (Up in Here). The singles from 2003 "Where is the Hood At?" His 2003 singles, "Where the Hood at?" and "X Gon to Make It To Ya", were also commercially successful. The singer was the first artist to make it to No.1 on the Billboard 200 chart five consecutive times. 7. DMX has sold over 74 million records all over the world. 8 DMX was featured in films such as Belly, Romeo Must Die, Exit Wounds, Cradle 2 the Grave and Last Hour. He was a part of the reality series DMX. Soul of a Man. It was aired by the BET cable channel Never Die Alone. He released his autobiography, which was based on his memoirs, E.A.R.L. in 2003. : The Autobiography of DMX. 9. DMX began his journey in the music business at age 14 when he was a beatboxer with Ready Ron. After serving time for the theft of an animal, he began to write his own lyrics. He also played at the local recreation centre for children under age 14. In 1988, when he was in prison for carjacking he began dedicating the majority of his free time to writing lyrics as well as having a rap session with K-Solo. [3] When he was released the following summer He began creating and selling his own mixtapes where he rapped over music from other songs. He also sold them on street corners which helped him develop an audience of locals all over New York. Percee P and DMX both performed freestyles for The Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Show 1991. [15] DMX would soon release a demo cassette featuring "Spellbound" and "Critical Condition", Three Little Pigs", The Original Author of Spellbound, and "Unstoppable Force" in the following year. Its style was similar to Big Daddy Kane's style and Rakim's but different from his later material. In 1991, The Source magazine praised DMX for his Unsigned Hype column, which featured hip hop artists who 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. He dropped his follow-up single "Make the Move" in the year 1994. Jay-Z, Ja Rule and Mic Geronimo made a joint appearance on "Time to build" which is the most well-known underground track. DMX died in 2021 following a heart attack caused by cocaine.