DMX Says He Was Tricked Into Smoking Crack At 14 By His Mentor
"Why would he do that to a child? He was like 30 and he knew I looked up to him. Why would you do that to someone who looks up to you? A monster was born. I wouldn't do that to my worst enemy. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy, especially from someone who supposedly loves you," DMX said. "The person that I loved was a snake. He acted like a good person. He acted like he loved me."
Rapper DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, got emotional as he shared the disheartening story of how his crack addiction began during an interview on Talib Kweli's People's Party podcast.
"I'm in Yonkers, I come home from being in these institutions from age 7 to 14 and this guy Ready Ron was like an older brother to me. He would rap and I would do the beatbox. I looked up to him like an older brother. I loved him like an older brother. I didn't have any brothers," DMX said before beginning to cry.
Ready Ron suggested DMX write raps too and DMX proceeded to write his first rhymes.
"This guy, he introduced me to what would be the best part of my life, which would be the rap, but I was also blessed with a curse. The curse aspect of it was, I didn't smoke cigarettes, I didn't smoke weed, I didn't do anything. I was 14 years old," the rapper said.
"Me and my mans did a robbery one night and it was his birthday and we came back and were splitting the money. He came back with a blunt rolled up and he passed it around. I hit the blunt and I was no longer focused on the money. It f**ked me up. I never felt like that before. I later found out he laced the blunt with crack," DMX added as he cried.
During the interview, DMX went on to say that he struggled with addiction and his mental health throughout his entire life because of what happened to him as a child.
"There were things in my childhood that I just blocked out, but there's only so much you can block out before you run out of space," he said. "You never know when the things you stored away are going to spill out. I had to deal with the things that hurt me that I didn't deal with."
DMX’s drug addiction led to a number of stints in prison and he said he is still working through his problems and focusing on his sobriety.
"I didn't really have anyone to talk to about it because you know, in the hood, nobody wants to hear that," he told Kweli. "Nobody wants to help with talking because so often talking about your problems is viewed as a sign of weakness when its actually one of the bravest things you can do. One of the bravest things you can do is put it on the table and chop it up and let it out."
DMX is one of hip-hop’s highest selling artists and is one of the few artists to not only release two chart-topping albums in one year but also have his first five albums reach number one on the Billboard charts.
He also recently took part in a widely watched Verzuz battle with Snoop Dogg that brought in millions of viewers and became one of the most memorable battles in the series.