HOW TO BE A POLITICAL PLAYA: NOTES ON POLITICS, ORGANIZING, & LOBBYING

APRIL 2024 EDITION: Remembering Hip-Hop artist DMX, Where My Dawgs At?!

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I was born and raised in Mount Vernon, New York - Money Earnin’ Mt. Vernon – which is in Westchester County, New York. Many Hip-Hop fans are aware that numerous legendary Hip-Hop and R&B artists hail from Westchester County, for instance, Masters of Ceremony, Brand Nubian, Heavy D & the Boyz, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, the Lox, Mary J. Blige, and of course DMX. This month’s edition of the How To Be A Political Playa newsletter is dedicated to remembering DMX. One of the greatest and most accomplished Hip-Hop artists, DMX, died at the age of 50 on April 9, 2021. Last week was the third anniversary of his passing. Even though he was born in Mount Vernon, he is associated more with the town that raised him – Yonkers, New York, or YO!

While DMX has won numerous awards throughout his storied career, the thing that stands out the most to me about him as a rapper is the passion he displayed when both recording and performing. In fact, when he performed at concerts, he would display so much energy and be sweating like crazy due to the effort he would put forth. DMX could display rage, anger, sorrow, or lead the audience in prayer, during one of his legendary performances.?

He had serious range as an artist, to say the least, and he could make you feel whatever emotion he was feeling at the time whenever he recorded or performed. When DMX was angry fans could feel that anger in their bones. When he was happy fans would be elated and when he felt unworthy of God’s glory, he could make fans feel that in their very soul!? That could be the reason that many hip-hop fans compare him to Tupac, although he did not have the political perspective that Tupac had.

True fans know some of the stats when it comes to DMX:

·???????? He is the only rapper to have his first five studio albums debut at # 1.

·???????? He is the first living hip-hop artist to have two albums go platinum in the same year.

·???????? He won the 1999 Billboard Music Award for Top R&B album artist of the year.

·???????? He won the 2000 American Music Award for Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop artist.

Nonetheless, DMX is the rare Hip-Hop artist who cannot just be defined by the number of records sold, the number of awards, or number of movies or television shows he appeared in. In fact, he is one of the few Hip-Hop artists that could be argued who is bigger than Hip-Hop. The thing about DMX is that he was a real person. Whether it was his various run-ins with the law, or him crying on Iyanla Fix My Life, deep guttural weeping where viewers were able to hear the snot building up as he was crying, his humanity was always on display. The interesting thing is that even though DMX would often show his emotions, NOBODY saw him as weak or anything less than the man that he was. In fact, quiet as kept, people saw him as more of a man because he was not afraid to show his emotions! He was the dog! He was strong regardless of whether he was boo-hooing with snot coming out or not! That is rare. There was nothing soft about DMX, at all! And, as odd as it seems, he had the spirit of God within him even though he had his various bouts with drug abuse. In fact, his home going service/funeral was amazing and displayed the love that his many fans had for him.

I can’t believe that X has been gone for 3 years! Like most Hip-Hop heads I feel like I knew him, because we all have someone like X in our lives. That is why he resonated with so many people.? Every time I saw videos of him praying at concerts it moved me.

Despite my love and respect for DMX, he was not perfect. He was very flawed and had the ability to wild out at any moment. The video of him cursing out Iyanla Van Sant does not portray him in the best light, at all. But this is why people had love for him because they felt that DMX was no better than anyone else just because he was a Hip-Hop star, which is something he believed as well even though he also felt is was the BEST Hip-Hop artist. Also, he had no problem showing the rawest aspects of his personality. When Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars it went against the image that he had crafted for himself throughout the years. DMX always embraced the fact that his image was complex.? He was not the good guy, the bad guy, the religious guy, nor the guy on drugs. DMX was not any of those things singularly – he was all those things. He was a multi-faceted human being who was both grimy and God fearing at the same time.

I wish that DMX was alive to participate in the 50-year Anniversary of Hip-Hop back in 2023. At the time of his death, it looked like he was gearing up for a major comeback and his voice would have added so much to those celebrations. But alas, it was not meant to be. DMX passed two years prior to the celebration. He was missed and he is still missed today.

DMX was indeed a Hip-Hop original. As he often said, Where my dawgs at?! As a Que Dog myself, I appreciate the response to that question: Right here dawg!

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Hashim Shomari, Government/Political Affairs Consultant

(Hashim Shomari is the Author/Publisher of From the Underground: Hip-Hop Culture as an Agent of Social Change.? He provides government affairs/political strategy consulting services in New Jersey and New York on behalf of his clients in the cannabis, affordable housing, healthcare, financial service, and economic development sectors.)

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