To the younger folks who may not know who DMX was:

I’ll start by saying there’s a reason it’s now cool to be vulnerable and expose your deepest darkest struggles in hip hop music. It wasn’t always a thing.

Your favorites incorporate a hybrid sound of trap and Top-40 rock bands from the 90s, they’re basically rap rock stars. So was DMX. The first one actually.

The first real authentic #HipHop artist, a true New York emcee, to be embraced in the rock world, and become a rockstar himself. Marilyn Manson feature on an album, he toured with rock bands and performed at Woodstock 99, a 30-years-later reboot after the original in 1969.

It’s Woodstock, so the crowd is white as fuck. Some people thought it was crazy a hip hop artist was headlining and criticized how far it strayed from the first festival.

Then DMX did this:

And nothing was the same since.

Remember this is all after Pac had just died. We were mourning him because of what we knew he was about to do, because of that unique energy they brought. So outside the box, raw, powerful.

It’s a similar effect some of y’all would have had with Mac Miller, JuiceWRLD, Peep. The best example to compare would actually be XXX, who credited DMX as a major influence.

Despite his struggles the beautiful thing about DMX is that he didn’t go out crazy young like most of these artists with that raw, tormented energy. He was almost brutally honest through his music and wore on his sleeve the demons he was fighting.

But instead of those haunted souls we lost way too soon, before they even got started, DMX got to live his life. Even though 50 isn’t old, you get a sense that he left no stone unturned.

That’s what’s being remembered today. DMX was truly loved. His music got his fans through some shit, and anyone who’s ever met him was positively effected by the interaction. I hope this gave some perspective to those who may truly not understand. #RIPDMX