DMX, indicted on new charges. This is something like the 5th time in 3 months. X, what happened? I know there have been a number of claims that Earl was a heavy abuser of drugs back in the day, and although he claims he has stopped, he clearly has some type issues beating him down.

But I don’t want to focus on the negatives of Dark Man X, I want to remember one of the artists who changed my youth and kept me going back to the record store dropping cash on CD’s. This was a time when you had to have the CD - no Ipods or mp3s. I was 16, first time with an ID, and I had this crappy Sony discman, plugged into the tape deck of an ‘84 BMW 5 series, and X kept it running. After the first album Its Dark and Hell is Hot came out I was ready for more. With guest appearances on Mase’s Harlem World in the classic “24 Hours to Live” and to the numerous pose cuts with his Ruff Ryders crew, the music kept moving. And 10 months later Flesh of Flesh, Blood of my Blood was released and X sat with 2 albums in the top 100 at the same time, released less then a year apart.

Within a couple years I had bought about 150 CD’s and why not? Gas was a dollar a gallon and I had a completely expendable income. With all that music, both DMX albums stayed heavy in the rotation. I remember my parents hating the music I was playing - I came home one day to find a post it note on my CD jewel case for Flesh of Flesh, Blood of my Blood that read from my Dad, “Why do you listen to this awful music.” I can’t really blame him, the dude was covered in dripping blood on the cover, and it was so grimy and dark, but thats part of what I loved about it, his music was so different. Maybe it was teenage angst, or the need to rebel in my own way, but it certainly led way to my obsessiveness with music.

I know I wasn’t the only one effected by the growl of DMX. In a recent web interview with The Sound of America’s Youth, Blu of Blu and Exile fame talk about his similar growth as an artist around the mid 90’s and the influence of Earl Simmon’s music. This was an artist that would rap about rapping a girl in front of the father and tracks later be dropping full 3 minute prayers to close his albums.

Its not to say there aren’t artist today that I keep on repeat as well, and I haven’t blasted a DMX album in ages, but for the time in my life, the music was right - and its always hard to watch these people fall slowly in the public eye.

To help remember DMX as he was, here are some of favorite tracks I could find on IMEEM:

More Hip hop linkage:

Nas Nest Two Albums Produced by Dr. Dre & DJ Premier?

Dr. Dre Says Detox is Coming This Winter