The late emcee and New York icon DMX exploded into the mainstream in the late-1990s and became a formidable force during his 25-year career. With hits such as the ‘Ruff Ryders Anthem’ and ‘Where The Hood At?’, the Yonkers lyricist had a long reign concerning the charts.
However, the late musician, who died as a result of a drug 2021, was known to have issues with narcotics, but in an interview with Uproxx, the Grand Champ rhymer admitted that he got tricked into smoking crack. This drug would affect him for the rest of his life.
Opening up about how he had the wool pulled over his eyes during an appearance on The People’s Party podcast with Talib Kweli, the emcee (real name Earl Simmons) disclosed that when he was an adolescent, his mentor laced a blunt with crack cocaine.
Recalling the event, Simmons detailed, “I was in Yonkers. I’d just come from being in institutions from the age of seven to fourteen. This guy ‘Ready Ron’, he was like an older brother to me. He would rap, and I would do the beatbox. I loved this guy like an older brother.”
He continued, “I didn’t smoke cigarettes, I didn’t smoke weed, I didn’t do anything… I’m 14 years old. Me and my mans did a robbery one night, and it was his birthday, and we came back and split the money. I said, ‘Here yo, go get something nice for your birthday.’ So he came back with a blunt rolled up, and as I’m counting the money, he passed the blunt.”
However, Simmons was unaware that there wasn’t just cannabis in the blunt. ‘Ready Ron’ had secretly added some crack cocaine inside, and DMX was utterly oblivious to it when he began smoking it.
Continuing the story, Simmons remembered, “He passed the blunt around, and I hit the blunt, and I’m like, I was no longer focused on the money. I’d never felt like this, it just fucked me up, I’m like, ‘What the fuck?’ I later found out that he laced the blunt with crack!”
He added, “Why would you do that to a child?! He knew I looked up to him. Why would you do that to somebody 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 for someone that you supposedly love. Why would you do that?”
Simmons rapped about the experience on his track, ‘Pain’ where he rhymed, “I smoked crack at 14 for the first time / Given to me by a n-gga that I idolize / My love is real, but after that what I saw in his eyes / Was a snake and who I loved was just a disguise.” You can watch Simmons speak about the incident in the video below.