The reason why DMX played his song to a judge in court
DMX lived a life marked by legal issues, beginning in his teenage years and lasting, pretty much, until the end of his life.
The rapper was sent to jail so many times throughout his lifetime, reportedly enduring about 30 separate stints behind bars. He was convicted for crimes ranging from reckless driving, robbery, drug and weapons possession, and animal cruelty. But towards the end of his life, he was in trouble for tax-related issues.
During the summer of 2017, DMX was charged with several counts of tax fraud. He had failed to file his tax returns appropriately during a five-year period in which he reportedly made at least $2.3 million in earnings. This was a serious situation, and, in November that year, he pleaded guilty to one of the tax fraud charges.
In March 2018 DMX was sentenced to a year in prison, which would be followed by three years of supervised release. He also had to pay $2.29 million to the government. There’s no question that the rapper was punished for his crimes, but it could have been much worse for him.
The maximum sentence that DMX could have received was five years imprisonment, but he managed to avoid that outcome. He did so in a novel way—he played one of his own tracks in court.
The song was ‘Slippin’,’ lifted from his second album Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood, which had been released in 1998. The song is about DMX’s difficult life circumstances growing up, which he had to learn how to deal with. It is about his effort to make changes for the better.
“See,” DMX raps on the song, “to live is to suffer / But to survive / Well, that’s to find meaning in the suffering.”
The song demonstrates the tough circumstances that DMX was born into, while also illustrating his desire to become a better person. His legal representatives argued that the song spoke to the fact that DMX, growing up, had never been given the tools or know-how to prepare him for handling money in later life.
The tactic worked. The judge, after hearing the song, declared that DMX was a “good man,” and he was given a lesser sentence than the potential five years he might otherwise have had to endure. He was sent to jail before being released in January 2019, just two years before he died.