Earl Simmons, the gruff, formidable rapper from Yonkers, NY better known as DMX, died Friday at the age of 50. He spent his last days on life support at White Plains Hospital in Westchester County after suffering a heart attack on April 2nd.

DMX was one of the most famous MCs in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when hardcore New York rap could still make a claim as a central concern of hip hop.

Signed with Def Jam Recordings, his first five albums all debuted at # 1, an achievement no rapper has achieved before or since. DMX cut a unique figure for a superstar rapper: he fought his inner demons with the horror-centered imagery loved by heavy metal bands, but his albums reliably offered heartfelt, often a cappella, prayers to God. He made huge pop crossover hits, but they were bubbling with ferocious threats better suited to grindhouse theater. His shout rap energy made him a favorite in the outwardly fearful era of Woodstock ’99 and the nü-metal band Korn’s Family Values ​​Tour, but he was also a shirtless sex symbol who stood in the moonlight as an actor.

Here is a small selection from an artist with a range that spanned the shocking, the sincere, and the simply incredible. (Listen here on Spotify.)

After years as a ruthless battle rapper, mixtape hustler and early beneficiary of The Source magazine’s Unsigned Hype column, DMX and the up-and-coming label Ruff Ryder released the seldom heard “Born Loser” on a handful of 12-inch records. Soon after, “Born Loser” became the only song released as part of DMX’s false start on Columbia Records. Both DMX and the rapper K-Solo had claimed a rhyming style in which individual words are spelled out in bars. For example, on his 1990 hit “Spellbound”, K-Solo raps: “I spell very well / I only spell so everyone can say it.” Following the success of “Spellbound,” DMX wrote this track while it was raging in a Westchester prison cell. “Born Loser” wasn’t a hit, but as punch line rap where DMX makes itself a punch line, it would anticipate the self-disgorging rhymes of rappers like Eminem and Fatlip: “They kicked me out of the shelter for saying , I would have smelled a / little like the living dead and looked like Helter Skelter. “

This single would be epoch-making for several reasons. It sparked the lyrical war between LL Cool J and Canibus, perhaps the last wax battle on real vinyl – soon things like that were being fought out in the areas of mixtapes and MP3s. And “4, 3, 2, 1” was the breakout single for DMX, a new Def Jam signer at the time, taking on members of an elite group of MCs. Here he raps death threats through a filmmaker’s eye for details: “Believe what I say when I tell you / Don’t let me take you to a place where no one can smell you. “

DMX recorded its debut solo single Def Jam in the era of ’80s pop samples, big budget videos and a general feeling of being “nervous”. “I wasn’t done with all that pretty Happy-Go-Lucky [expletive]”Said DMX in” EARL: The Autobiography of DMX. “He added that Sean” Puffy “Combs” had the radio on, the clubs aflame, people thought hip-hop was all about bright lights and shiny suits went, and smiled up to the bench – X on the other hand, still lived in the dark. “Get at Me Dog” is a pure, unfiltered rhyme about a loop by the disco-funk band BT Express. If it sounds like mixtape rap, it started like this: Beat and hook were part of a freestyle for DJ Clue The song not only introduced DMX, the solo artist, but also his trademark bark and growl, sounds inspired by his beloved pit bulls. The video – a black and white affair directed by Hype Williams – was on New York’s hip-hop hangout was shot in the tunnel where Funkmaster Flex held court on Sunday nights, and the song became one of the most popular “tunnel bangers”.

The third single from DMX’s debut album “It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot” shimmered a little brighter than its predecessor. His rhymes were no less uncompromising and violent – “Had it, should have shot it / Now you’ve left dearly,” he raps. But the song heralded the funky, pixelated debut of producer Swizz Beatz, whose sound would ultimately determine the next few years of the Ruff Ryder orbit: DMX, Eve, The Lox, Drag-On and Swizz Beatz’s own solo work. Swizz Beatz told Vibe it took a week to convince DMX to do the song: “He said, ‘I don’t want those white boy beats. ‘“Swizz then produced top 10 singles for Beyoncé, Lil Wayne, TI and Busta Rhymes and co-founded the popular quarantined streaming battle Verzuz.

The rapper’s most famous narrative rhyme involves having a conversation with the devil – a play about battling his own temptations. “At the time, X was in a really dark place, in and out of jail,” producer Dame Grease told Okayplayer. “He told me he thought he was spiritually in hell and could hear the devil talking to him. He wanted to find a way to restore that feeling. “This was followed by two sequels, including” The Omen (Damien II) “, also in 1998, with a guest appearance by shock rocker Marilyn Manson, who had a notable influence on hip-hop and influenced modern Gothic artists such as Travis Scott and Lil Uzi Vert among others. The second sequel is “Damien III” (2001).

On this bloody, emotionally rough track DMX meets his difficult upbringing, his time in various institutions and his addiction with a sober eye. It was a personal and vulnerable look at his life and struggles in the style of Diarist rappers like Tupac Shakur and Scarface. “X was slippin ‘for a while – six months, a year,” Ruff Ryders founder Joaquin “Waah” Dean told The Fader. “He wanted this song to affect people’s lives.”

Perhaps the most indelible DMX song “Party Up (Up in Here)” has a singable, dizzying chorus that denies the nimble, strict trash talk in the verses. (“Look, your ass is about to be missed / you know who’s going to find you? An old man is fishing.”) “It’s called ‘Party Up’ but it’s very disrespectful,” DMX told GQ, adding, ” The beat is for the club, I just spit out a few real ones [expletive] to. “The long-lived track has a long lifespan thanks to its use in films like ‘Disappeared in 60 Seconds’ and TV shows like ‘The Mindy Project’. Earl Simmons has a conversation due to interpolation in ‘Meet Me Inside,’ a song between Alexander Hamilton and George Washington describes, even a written contribution in the time-defining musical “Hamilton”.

The 2000 film “Romeo Must Die” was the first for R&B superstar Aaliyah and the second for DMX. Although they don’t play love interests in the film, they teamed up for this song from the soundtrack, a tune in the form of hip-hop-soul duets like Method Man and Mary J. Bliges “I’ll be there for you” / You is all i need to get through “It’s almost like DMX refusing to meet R&B halfway though: he’s rhyming a non-apologetic street narrative while Aaliyah plays a beleaguered partner who just wants him to be safe.

“Who We Be” is a simple list of political and personal grievances that comes with the roaring fire of an AC / DC song. It was the third and final DMX song to be nominated for a Grammy, but he never took one home.

Although it was a moderate hit when it was released as a single from the soundtrack “Cradle 2 the Grave” in 2003, “X Gon ‘Give It to Ya” has ultimately become the most popular DMX song of the streaming era thanks to its use in the “Deadpool” films and, on television, “Rick and Morty”. DMX intended it for his fifth album, “Grand Champ”, but when he saw its potential, “Cradle 2 the Grave” producer Joel Silver intervened. It went platinum in 2017, almost 15 years after its release.

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