DMX

 American actor and rapper Earl Simmons, born December 18, 1970 and passed away on April 9 2021. His debut album It's Hot and Dark was released in 1998 to great critical and commercial great success. The album sold 251,000 copies during its first week. [5][6] DMX's best-selling album,... and Then There Was X came out in 1999. The album featured the hit single "Party Up (Up in Here). The 2003 singles "Where the Hood At?" and "X I'm Going to Give It to Ya" are also commercially successful. The artist was the first to ever have an album debut that reached No.1 on the Billboard 200 charts five times consecutively. In total, DMX sold over 74 million records worldwide. 8. DMX was in films like Belly, Romeo Must Die and Exit Wounds. He was a part of the 2006 reality television series DMX. Soul of a Man. It was primarily aired by the BET cable channel Never Die Alone. He wrote E.A.R.L., his memoirs in 2003. : The Autobiography of DMX. 9. DMX was introduced to the music industry at age 14 in 1984 when he beatboxed for Ready Ron. After getting a sentence for the stealing of an animal, he began to write his own lyrics. He also played at the local recreation center for children less than 14 years old. In 1988, when he was being in prison for carjacking he began dedicating the majority of his spare time writing lyrics , as well as meeting with K-Solo and rapping. After being released the following summer the rapper began creating and selling his own mixtapes where he rapped over music from other songs. He also sold them on street corners and helped build an army of fans across New York. Percee P as well as DMX were featured on The Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Show 1991, on which they freestyled. [1515 DMX will soon drop a demo tape that featured "Spellbound" as well as "Critical Condition", Three Little Pigs", The Original Author of Spellbound as well as "Unstoppable Force" later that year. It had a look similar to Big Daddy Kane and Rakim however, it was different from his later material. In 1991, The Source magazine praised DMX in its Unsigned Hype column , which highlighted hip-hop artists that were not signed. [16] That same year, Columbia Records signed DMX to its subsidiary label Ruffhouse Records, which released his debut single "Born Loser". In 1994, he dropped "Make A Move", his second single. Jay-Z, Ja Rule and Mic Geronimo performed a joint appearance on "Time to build", the iconic underground track. DMX died in 2021 following a heart attack caused by cocaine.