The song became one of the most beloved “Tunnel bangers. The video - a black-and-white affair directed by Hype Williams - was filmed at New York’s hip-hop meeting ground the Tunnel, where Funkmaster Flex held court on Sunday nights.

The song not only introduced DMX the solo artist, but introduced his trademark barking and growling, sounds inspired by his beloved pitbulls. Dmx, the New York rapper behind such iconic songs as Party Up (Up in Here) and X Gon’ Give It to Ya and the star of action movies including Exit Wounds, Cradle 2 the Grave and Romeo Must Die, died Friday. If it sounds like a mixtape rap, that’s how it started: The beat and hook were part of a freestyle for DJ Clue. His shout-rap energy made him a favorite in the outwardly angsty era of Woodstock ’99 and the nü-metal band Korn’s Family Values Tour, but he was also a shirtless sex symbol moonlighting as an actor.ĭMX recorded his debut Def Jam solo single amid the era of ’80s pop samples, big-budget videos and a general sentiment of getting “jiggy.” “I wasn’t down with all that pretty, happy-go-lucky ,” DMX said in “E.A.R.L.: The Autobiography of DMX.” He added that Sean “Puffy” Combs “had the radio on lock, the clubs on fire, had people thinking that hip-hop was all about bright lights and shiny suits and smiled all the way to the bank - X, on the other hand, still lived in the dark.” “Get at Me Dog” is pure, unfiltered rhyming over a loop of the disco-funk band B.T. He made giant pop crossover hits, but they bubbled with wildly vivid threats better suited for a grindhouse theater. DMX cut a unique figure for a superstar rapper: He’d battle his inner demons using the horror-centric imagery beloved by heavy metal bands, but his albums reliably offered heartfelt, often a cappella, prayers to God. 1, a feat no rapper has matched before or since.

Signed to Def Jam Recordings, his first five albums all debuted at No. He spent his final days on life support at White Plains Hospital in Westchester County after suffering a heart attack on April 2.ĭMX was one of the most recognizable M.C.s in the late 1990s and early 2000s, years when hardcore New York rap could still stake a claim as hip-hop’s central concern. Earl Simmons, the gruff, evocative rapper from Yonkers, N.Y., better known as DMX, died on Friday at 50.

X gon give it to ya cradle 2 the grave