What's up, Doc? You know it, I know it, Will Smith knows it (Smith said of himself that he's better than 90% of rappers out). It's absolutely true. DMX is/was/forever will be a fraud...but only kind of. First off I should mention that he loved dogs, I'll give him that much. He talked about dogs a lot, he had dogs in his video, he hung out with his dogs, and did weird pseudo dog barks, and every new video of him that gets released anymore is basically public defecation. Not only did DMX spend his time thinking mostly about dogs, but he was also simultaneously confused about 'what these bitches wanted'. Take this sample of lyrics from one of the worst songs I've ever heard:
And then let's forget about his more recent metamorphosis into Ashy Larry for a second, and harken back to to simpler times for Earl Simmons. Times where his DMX-only brand of shotgun-blast aggression scared a large number of white suburban parents. Times where overalls with one strap undone became stylish for the first time since 1991. Times where out of nowhere it became cool to do slow front nose wheelies on street bikes. Now, I'm definitely NOT saying that street bikes were unpopular, but I definitely am saying that the general public didn't care all that much about slow nose wheelies before this video came out.
And then there's this beauty. This little gem. People weren't sure what was gonna happen on his comeback. They weren't sure what the sophomore would do after the alpha dog already established dominance. The strong man of rap had more than his fill of meat, what else could he do? Oh, I don't know, maybe come back with one of the hardest hitting (if short on truly interesting content) rap singles of all-time.
And what else did that album feature? You wouldn't believe it. That album featured songs like the lyrics I posted ^^^^ above. Oh, and then he was arrested for crack, and throwing stuff at prison guards, and more crack, and then he was arrested for impersonating a federal agent and trying to steal someone's car while high out of his mind on crack. Suffice to say his career went downhill. Or uphill, if you're a really fucked-up person who honestly just loves watching a good trainwreck (ME!).
So NeoGAF, I honestly think DMX deserves a short head nod of acknowledgement: He's the good, the bad, and the ugly.
