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Dark Man Excluded: The Forgotten Legacy of DMX
May 3, 2019, is the date. A venue is sold out in Detroit, Michigan for an artist in a standing room only hall. The energy is palpable and everyone anticipates the main act coming on stage, as he is fashionably late. Fast forward and there he is, DMX standing on top of a speaker rapping like it is 1999. This was the 20th-anniversary tour of his first album, “It’s Dark and Hell is Hot”, an album that itself has become forgotten to history much as the artist that crafted it all those years ago. Yet here he was, with the same energy and ferocity that he came onto the scene in his 20’s. Now an older man, a wiser man, reflecting on his life and this tour is a full circle of sorts.
DMX represents many things to a millennial rap fan. The songs that he crafted in the early part of his career are anthems at bars and parties to this day. Iconic songs like “Ruff Ryders Anthem”, “Party Up”, and “What’s My Name” are songs that can be recited by so many. Yet DMX is also a cautionary tale of being unable to make a transition, of being unable to leave an old life behind despite achieving success on the highest level. What has resulted is a forgotten legacy. An artist that bridged the gap between the old New York hip hop scene into the modern globalized hip hop scene of today.
