The rapper and actor DMX was rushed to a hospital in White Plains, New York on Friday, after an overdose triggered a heart attack, according to TMZ. A source told the outlet that the performer was in a “vegetative state.”
Word of his condition spread on Saturday when Eric B. of the group Eric B. & Rakim uploaded an image of himself with the 50-year-old star, with the caption “Please pray for my brother DMX” followed by hashtags #dmx #ericb #dmxhospitalized.
DMX, born Earl Simmons, has spoken about his issues with addiction in the past. On a recent podcast with Talib Kweli, he said that a mentor tricked him into smoking crack when he was only 14. ” I later found out that he laced the blunt with crack. Why would you do that to a child?” he asked. In October 2019 he cancelled tour dates to check himself into a drug rehabilitation clinic.
Over the years, DMX has been nominated for three Grammys and has won two American Music Awards. His first three albums, released in 1998 and 1999, went 4x, 3x, and 5x Platinum. He has had legal issues over the years, including charges in 2008 of animal cruelty, and was found non-responsive in a Ramada Inn parking lot in Yonkers, New York in 2016.
He was working on a new album featuring the hip hop group Griselda Records, U2’s Bono, and the late Pop Smoke, a New York-based rapper who was killed in Los Angeles last summer at the age of 20.
Calls for prayer and healing vibes lit up social media as the news broke. Some notables making their feelings known included Viola Davis, Gabrielle Union, Missy Elliott, and Ja Rule, with whom DMX had a longstanding feud that ended in 2009.
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