With the non-stop, pop-pop of stainless steel. But whether ferocious, amped up, or introspective, the MC remained grounded by his faith, which, especially in the later years of his career, he approached with nothing short of absolute devotion. It's what you hearin' (listen) It's what you hearin' (listen) X gon' give it to ya (what) Fuck waiting for you to get it on your own, X gon' deliver to ya (uh) Knock knock, open up the door, it's real. The chart-topping artist’s songs included Party Up (Up in Here) and X Gon’ Give It To Ya. And Then There Was X, where even the anthemic “Party Up” served as a prime example of DMX's uniquely intense take on hardcore hip-hop. American rapper and actor Earl Simmons, known by the stage name DMX or Dark Man X, has died, his record label says, after he suffered a heart attack during what media reports said was a drug overdose. Though the rapper’s two sides may seem to have been at odds, he always thrived when he let his emotions fly unrestrained. DMX would revisit that sensitivity on the heartfelt “Slippin’,” from 1998’s Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood, which found him expressing a desire to live a less tumultuous life. Deadpool using X Gon Give It To Ya was a great moment too.
That’s not to highlight his peak in order to tear down his more recent material, as doing so is a major disservice to X’s personal, and often difficult, journey through life. On his 1998 debut, It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot, DMX's aggressive vocals projected his imposing presence across songs like the minimal, clanging “Get at Me Dog” and rowdy breakout “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem.” But X scaled back the pugnacity on that same album’s introspective “How’s It Goin’ Down,” which featured R&B singer Faith Evans and painted a picture of a complex relationship headed down the wrong path. Some of his biggest singles - X Gon Give It To Ya and Get It On The Floor come to mind - featured the same violent intensity as his deeper cuts. Born Earl Simmons in 1970, the Yonkers-raised MC arrived as the physical embodiment of unbridled energy-a one-man distillation of fellow rugged New York acts like Wu-Tang Clan. With DMX, a man blessed with a vicious bark of a voice, there was no such thing as half-stepping.