DMX Mental and Emotional State Leading to Drug Overdose

It’s hard when you hear someone you know and/or love is in critical condition. You wonder what you can do to help, and for your conscience to feel good. You want to be able to contribute to someone rising through a fall. It seems though as for years well known rapper and artist DMX, Earl Simmons, has battled off and on with severe drug abuse. With a recent overdose, Simmons was placed in the hospital on his death bed. On April 9th 2021, he was pronounced dead.

In Simmons earlier life, as a young child, he dealt with physical and mental abuse from his mother, Arnett Simmons. His father abandoned the family as a painter escaping to Philadelphia. This left his mother angry. This goes along with her 2 still births and different boyfriends that were abusive and in and out of their lives. Ms. Simmons abused him from the age of 5 on. He spent a lot of his childhood in and out of boys homes, sleeping in the salvation army dumpsters, and landed in the School Street Projects of Yonkers, New York. With not having much of an example, DMX resulted to robbing and car jacking as a way to make money from middle school into the last boys home where he was told by a peer he had a talent and should continue striving to make it in the music industry. From there he was in and out of jail for petty crimes until he launched his career with Def Jam. Can you imagine a persons mental and emotional health in this state?

I want to dig deeper into his mental and emotional state, honestly. Learning about his childhood, and seeing it grow with him as an adult, you can understand the trauma this man had undertaken. His father was not around and his mother was abusive and unloving. Luckily, he was able to find love and a place in his music. It was his release. Understanding his early life can really result to a “click” or “lightbulb” when you listen to his lyrics. From the barking dogs to the dark demonic voice he carried throughout each track. Relatable to those who have undertaken the same hardships. Negativity can lead to more negativity. So aside from a release in his music, it seems as though he also found release in drugs.

Even though he had so much success with his music, was he really a happy man? Did he have love in his heart? Did anyone take a moment to check on his well being outside of the success in his career? There are a lot of genuine fans of DMX that have knowledge of his life and support through his career successes. But who really knew him? Stray dogs were who he turned to as friends with homelessness at the age 14. Someone he claimed as a mentor tricked him into smoking hard drugs at the same age. There wasn’t much positivity around for Earl Simmons to see light at the end of his tunnel. His career successes meant something I’m sure but at the end of the day he still felt empty and the drugs filled a void for him. What’re his 15 kids going to do now that they too are left without a father figure in their lives? How is their well being going to be? Are they going to be taken care of from the successes of DMX and his career? All of these questions will soon be answered.