DMX Trivia | 100 facts about the rapper

DMX was an American rapper, songwriter and actor. He died on April 9th, 2021 at the age of 50.

Let’s dive into some trivia and facts about his life and career.

1. His real name was Earl Simmons
2. He was born on December 18, 1970
3. He died in April 9, 2021
4. His stage name was DMX
5. DMX stands for Dark Man X”
6. He was an American rapper, songwriter, and actor
7. He began rapping in the early 1990s
8. His debut album “It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot” was released in 1998, to both critical acclaim and commercial success
9. The album sold 251,000 copies within its first week of release
10. He released his best-selling album, “… And Then There Was X”, in 1999
11. This album included the hit single “Party Up (Up in Here)”
12. His 2003 singles “Where the Hood At?” and “X Gon’ Give It to Ya” were also some of his most popular
13. DMX was featured in films such as Belly, Romeo Must Die, Exit Wounds, Cradle 2 the Grave and Last Hour
14. In 2006, he starred in the reality television series DMX: Soul of a Man
15. The reality was primarily aired on the BET cable television network
16. In 2003, he published a book of his memoirs entitled, E.A.R.L.: The Autobiography of DMX
17. Earl Simmons was born in Mount Vernon, New York, on December 18, 1970,
18. He was the son of 19-year-old Arnett Simmons and 18-year-old Joe Barker
19. He was raised in nearby Yonkers
20. He has no middle name and was simply named Earl at birth
21. Earl was the second child of Arnett, who had given birth to a daughter, Bonita, two years prior, as well as one daughter, Shayla, and two stillborn sons after Earl
22. Barker did not want Simmons to keep her son and cut off almost all contact with the family as soon as Earl was born
23. As a child, Simmons suffered greatly from bronchial asthma
24. He was being taken to the emergency room almost nightly due to him waking up unable to breathe
25. He was raised as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses
26. He became disillusioned with the faith after his mother rejected a possible settlement stemming from an incident where he was hit by a drunk driver while crossing the street and in which he suffered minor injuries
27. A while after the incident, a representative of the insurance company representing the driver who had hit him went to his house to try to reach an agreement with his family so that they would not sue
28. He claims his family could have received as much as $10,000 from the legal settlement but that his mother refused to open a case as she claimed the faith taught them to be self-sufficient
29. Simmons went through a disjointed childhood that included being beaten by his mother and her various boyfriends so badly that he lost teeth and sustained numerous bruises and cuts on his face
30. When Simmons was five years old, his family settled in Yonkers, New York
31. At the end of the fifth grade, Simmons was kicked out of school and sent to the Julia Dyckman Andrus Children’s Home for 18 months
32. When he was 14, Simmons began wandering the streets of Yonkers to escape his mother’s abuse
33. He eventually found comfort in befriending stray dogs that walked the streets at night
34. Shortly after he began doing this, his mother once again sent him to a boys’ home
35. During his stay at the boys’ home, Simmons bonded with other students from New York over their shared love of hip hop music
36. After performing for his friends, they encouraged Simmons to continue writing music at the behest of his teacher
37. When he returned home, Simmons met Ready Ron, a local rapper, who, impressed with Simmons’ beatboxing skills, asked him to become his partner
38. Simmons chose the name “DMX”
39. The name came from an instrument he had used at the boys’ home, the Oberheim DMX drum machine
40. It later was also interpreted as “Dark Man X”
41. DMX got his start in the music industry in 1984
42. Then he would beatbox for a local rapper named Ready Ron
43. After serving time in prison, he began writing his own lyrics and would perform at the local rec center for younger children
44. After going to prison again in 1988, he began taking rapping more seriously, dedicating almost all of his free time to writing lyrics and also meeting and rapping with K-Solo while incarcerated
45. When DMX was released that summer, he began producing and selling his own mixtapes where he would rap over instrumentals from other songs and sell them on street corners
46. This helped him build a local fan base all over New York
47. In 1991 The Source magazine praised DMX in its Unsigned Hype column that highlighted unsigned hip-hop artists
48. In 1992, Columbia Records signed DMX to their subsidiary label Ruffhouse
49. Through this label he released his debut single “Born Loser”
50. He released his second single, “Make a Move” in 1994
51. DMX made a guest appearance alongside Jay-Z, Ja Rule, and Mic Geronimo on the classic underground track “Time To Build” on Mic Geronimo’s debut album in 1995
52. He also appeared on LL Cool J’s single “4, 3, 2, 1” in 1997
53. Additional guest spots on Mase singles “24 Hrs. to Live” and “Take What’s Yours”, and The LOX’s single “Money, Power & Respect” created a strong buzz for the then-unsigned rapper
54. DMX also made a cameo appearance in the Sum 41 music video for “Makes No Difference”
55. In February 1998, DMX released his debut major-label single, “Get at Me Dog”, on Def Jam
56. The single was certified gold by the RIAA
57. His album, It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart in the U.S.
58. It sold over five million copies
59. DMX was a Christian
60. DMX was a transitional deacon in the Christian Church
61. He aspired to become ordained as a pastor, stating that he received this call in 2012
62. DMX was the father of fifteen children
63. He married his childhood friend Tashera Simmons in 1999
64. They were married for eleven years
65. They had four children together (Xavier, Tacoma, Praise Mary Ella, and Sean)
66. In July 2010, after his first of three incarcerations that year, Tashera announced their separation
67. DMX maintained that the two remain friends
68. His fifteenth child, Exodus Simmons, was born to his girlfriend, Desiree Lindstrom, on August 16, 2016
69. DMX had multiple extramarital affairs during his marriage to Simmons, some of which produced children
70. DNA testing confirmed that he was the father of at least two children
71. The first was born to Maryland resident Monique Wayne in 2004, the second to a different woman in late 2008
72. DMX and Wayne fought over her claim that he was the father of her son for years, during which she had sued him repeatedly for defamation of character, and for child support
73. After DNA testing proved DMX fathered Wayne’s son in 2007, he was ordered to pay her $1.5 million
74. On July 30, 2013, DMX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing his child support obligations as his priority claim
75. The filing was challenged by the Department of Justice’s bankruptcy watchdog trustee program
76. The claim was later dismissed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan on November 11, 2013
77. During the 1990s, DMX had formed a close bond with fellow up-and-coming rappers Jay-Z and Ja Rule
78. The three collaborated with each other many times and forming a group known as Murder Inc.
79. The group was short-lived due to internal issues between DMX and Jay Z
80. After the breakup of Murder Inc., DMX disparaged Ja Rule in interviews
81. Accusing him of being a copycat, drawing comparisons between himself and what he saw as Ja stealing his signature “gruff” style of delivery
82. DMX released a diss track, “They Want War”, on a 2002 DJ Kay Slay mixtape, Ja Rule would never directly respond
83. As time passed and the feud faded into obscurity, DMX said that he wanted to officially bring it to an end when he was released from prison in 2005
84. Despite this, DMX and Ja Rule would not officially end their feud until 2009, at VH1’s Hip Hop Honors
85. DMX had spoken openly about his addiction to crack cocaine
86. His addiction began when he was 14 years old after he smoked a marijuana cigarette laced with the drug
87. He also said that he had bipolar disorder
88. On February 10, 2016, DMX was found unresponsive in a Ramada Inn parking lot in Yonkers
89. He was resuscitated by first responders and given Narcan before being rushed to the hospital
90. A witness said he ingested some type of substance before collapsing, but police found no illegal substances on the property
91. DMX stated that it was from an asthma attack
92. On April 2, 2021, at approximately 11:00 pm, Simmons was rushed to a hospital in White Plains, New York
93. There he was reported to be in critical condition following a heart attack at his home possibly resulting from an overdose
94. On April 3, his attorney, Murray Richman, confirmed Simmons was on life support
95. Later that day, Richman stated he was off life support and breathing on his own
96. He clarified that evening that Simmons remained on life support and he had “been given wrong information”
97. That same night, tabloid journalism outlet TMZ, who first reported on the hospitalization, stated that Simmons had suffered oxygen deprivation to his brain as paramedics attempted to resuscitate him for 30 minutes
98. On April 4, Simmons’ former manager, Nakia Walker, stated he was in a “vegetative state” with “lung and brain failure and no current brain activity”
99. On April 7, his manager, Steve Rifkind, stated Simmons was comatose and that he was set to undergo tests to determine his brain’s functionality which would allow his family to “determine what’s best from there”
100. Simmons was pronounced dead at age 50 on April 9, 2021, according to a statement released by his family