Prodigiously talented and equally tortured rap pioneer DMX has accumulated a multitude of fascinating stories over his life and career that have been punctuated with many legal entanglements and jail stints.
One such shocking anecdote that DMX, born in New York as Earl Simmons, shared during the newest episode of the N.O.R.E. & DJ EFN‘s “Drink Champs” podcast, is the fact that he was arrested and charged with 13 robberies at age 15.
During their effortless banter, rapper-turned-show host N.O.R.E. asks the rap legend, “So, has there ever been a time where the police came to you to give up other people?”
DMX blew N.O.R.E. back with his answer. “I’mma say the third time I got arrested. I was 14-years-old–I’d just turned 15 and I got charged with 13 armed robberies.”
N.O.R.E. exclaimed in surprise, “13?!,” to which X nodded and said, “13, yeah, yeah.”
“So we go to the police station and when you walk in the police station, (there is) a map,” DMX continues. “They have a map of the city in a precinct and I see wild thumbtacks, but there’s none on my projects, and I wondered, ‘How the f— did they know where we live at?’
DMX then went on to say the interrogators asked him ” ‘Do you want a donut?’ … ‘Do you want to tell us what happened?’” X says he remained hush, but they told DMX his friends were “singing like The Temptations.”
That’s when X said he began crying with “tears of anger” and began rebelling.
DMX, 50, has endeared himself to his fans throughout his career because he unabashedly shared the fact that he struggles with addiction and mental health issues and that his arrests have been about as numerous as the hit songs he has churned out.
Flip the page to hear the interview in full.
