DMX to be posthumously ordained as minister
DMX is set to be posthumously ordained as a minister following his death in 2021.
The late Yonkers rapper (real name Earl Simmons) will be honoured in a ceremony at the Foster Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church in Tarrytown, New York.
According to AllHipHop, DMX is scheduled to be recognised by the Gospel Cultural Center with a service on January 10th at 3pm.
Bishop Dr Osiris Imhotep, founder of the Gospel Cultural Center, said, “Earl Simmons wrestled with God in the public square, turning his pain into a ministry of raw truth. This ordination recognises the divine calling he fulfilled every time he spoke a prayer into a microphone.”
The church was founded in 1860 and is one of the earliest African Methodist Episcopal Zion congregations in Westchester County. The ceremony will include scripture from Acts 17:31.
DMX died on April 9th, 2021, at the age of 50. His cause of death was a cocaine-induced heart attack, which caused brain and organ failure.
The rapper included religious themes in his lyrics, most noticeable on tracks like ‘Lord Give Me a Sign’, ‘Ready to Meet Him’, and ‘Angel’.
DMX once revealed that he had read the Bible three times, and his favourite read as a child was a Jehovah’s Witness book.
Speaking in 2020, he told GQ, “I don’t need to have a goal in mind. I just need to have a purpose. And I don’t even know that purpose, because God has given me that purpose since before I was in the womb, so I’m going to fulfil that purpose.”
His posthumous album, Exodus, was released in May 2021. It featured Jay-Z, Nas, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, The LOX, and many others.