Fresh off dissing Jay-Z just a few days ago, DMX has landed back in jail for an apparent probation violation.
The Associated Press is reporting Earl Simmons, AKA the rapper DMX, was arrested in Phoenix for investigation of violating probation by using drugs. Court documents released Friday allege the 39-year-old performer used cocaine and OxyContin, failed to submit to drug testing, and drove on a suspended license.
The AP is also reporting that he is being held without bond in the county jail.
DMX’s attorney was not too impressed with the arrest. “It is very frustrating that the probation department would time it in such a way to violate Mr. Simmons right before the holiday and just a few weeks shy of the termination date of the probation,” Glenn Allen said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “Mr. Simmons has been working very hard and will overcome this setback.”
DMX was on probation for attempted aggravated assault for throwing a food tray at a jail guard, and theft for trying to using a fake name to avoid paying a $7,500 hospital bill.
DMX has been around the hip-hop game for ages. In 1991 he was in The Source’s unsigned hype section. About seven years later, DMX seemed like he would take over the hip-hop game, and he did for a short while. ‘It’s Dark and Hell is Hot’ is his first and still probably his best album but he continued to drop hits and albums continuously for quite a few years. In addition he was in a few movies including Belly and Romeo Must Die.
He has had so many arrests that it is hard to say where it all started to go downhill. There were reports of him being involved in a stabbing as early as 1999, the same year as his most successful album was released, ‘And Then There Was X‘. But at some point in 2004 he posed as an undercover agent and crashed a sports car into a security gate at JFK airport in New York City. And then there has been everything from animal cruelty charges (a la Michael Vick) to cocaine possession.
Of course he also has dropped a gospel album and taken up preaching. Still, I can’t remember the last good song he dropped. All I remember is reading about his most recent arrests.