What Made DMX Resonate? (Light Work #12: Dark Man X)
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- DMX has died at the age of 50 after a lifelong battle with addiction and unresolved trauma. The irony is that those experiences of trauma are what brought him to rap superstardom in the late 90s and early 2000s. This video serves as a retrospective on what made X so beloved, but also why he was such a problematic and controversial figure. It looks to celebrate his contribution but also examines why he was so tormented and how to take away something positive from his painful life and abrupt loss. There are also a few smiles and some solid millennial nostalgia on the way.
I used this video because it has fewer comments for this comment to get lost in because I want you to know what your talking about is always worth making it to the end be it 10 minutes or over an hour. Your thoughts and your subject matter is worth making it as far as you go. You're doing a great job and I'm proud of you.
Every single time!
Honestly I am at the point where I'm just listening to them again
I just discovered this channel yesterday and I've already watched the Tyson episode twice and the Kanye double video.
@@trblessed1020 haha same!
The thing I remember most about X is how much he loved, adored, and cared for Aaliyah. In a way I've never seen another Black man in the media love a Black woman publicly, and how his intro to the "I Miss You" video hurt to watch (and still does hurt to watch). And something about "addiction" that people overlook is that it's the trauma--the constant and frequent trauma, the trauma that's born out of trying to be someone else for everyone else while they rarely try to let you be you because they expect you to be someone else for them--that causes people to feel like they have to rely on drugs and/or alcohol to function as a "normal" human being. People talk about "addiction" as if it exists in a vacuum, and that's inherently how we fail people with substance abuse issues.
That's because Aaliyah was a down to earth woman, and most people and rappers who knew her were drawn to that. He also had a strong bond with the "Everybody Hates Chris" actress Paige Hurd, who he treated as a daughter. I notice she and Aaliyah both had a similar vibe when it came to how they carried themselves. And you can see that it brought out a more sensitive side of him. X was not perfect but he was passionate and an influence. He was a real dude unlike a lot of modern men. But people overlook that because they focus on people's faults.
@@shadowgoon911 100%
When his son calls him toxic you can see how deep that cuts for DMX. That there is an open wound. He has deep trauma wounds in his life and he wasn't gonna be the man he wanted to be until he healed those wounds. They would drag him back to the site of the trauma over and over again and the coping mechanisms that he made up when he was a young angry kid were still going to be used all the way through his adulthood. Thanks for telling his story.
DMX may not be a preacher, but DMX is a preacher. Beautiful soul, hopefully resting peaceful.
As a 35 year old white boy from Brazil, who learned english listening to Hip hop, your videos really resonate deeply with me. I was raised to believe in a standard of masculinity based on respect or violence, which was all wrong, and took down my role models and almost took me down with it before I realized the error of my ways and began to reprogram myself.
brotha....this might not mean much but this video forced me to realize the source of an addiction I have was brought to me by someone I looked up to.
...
My mind is legit blown right now.......DMX resonated with me but damnnnnn I didn't realize how much!!!!! F.D 🙏🏾 From the bottom of my heart, thank you man, may God bless you.
X always resonated to me for the simple fact he stood in his truth despite how ugly it might of appeared on the outside. He’ll remain the testimony that sometimes the breakdown is the breakthrough. Throughout all the pain afflicted and inflicted he was still a trying man.
I'm truly speechless. I needed this to go through my grief over his loss. Thanks frat.
This was amazingly concise. I have to say that this gave me such depth & understanding for pain that the men in my life bear. Bravo 🙌🏾 …this channel is a breath of fresh air!
Here's a message from the Netherlands: I am really struck by your videos. As a young white man I grew up on Korn, Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson. I didn't really understand Hip Hop or Hip Hop Culture or African American Culture. But you are helping me understand a lot through your videos. You really brought your points home on DMX and what he meant to young Black African Americans. That he also sang about trauma and of living on the fringes of society. Things I related to in the music of Korn, Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson. I hope to see more of your videos in my time line.
laat maar weten als je vragen hebt of aanbevelingen qua muziek en de concept erachter.
The breaking the cycle you spoke to at the end, that reminds me of my friend James whose dad was born and raised in Texas and moved out here to California fifty something years ago. He told me a story about his pops where he made it a point when James was in his early teens at some point after letting off a handful of "peckerwood this and peckerwood that" he started to join in with his pops, and he put his hand on his chest and said something along the lines of, 'now hold on son. This is my own thing, I was raised differently in Texas, I brought you out here to get you away from that. You deal with everyone as they come. My problems aren't yours.' It was moving just to hear the story, because so few fathers, white or black aren't self aware enough to see their own shortcomings, their own hang ups, and really express to their kids why that's not something to emulate. I mean I had to realize my own father's shortcomings myself. He cheated on my mom several times and they ended up getting a divorce and my dad ended up drinking his way into bankruptcy (which my mom got dragged into as well) and about 7 years in prison. I had to examine his life and pick out the good parts of him to emulate and his faults to avoid out of the disaster his life became after he made bad choice after bad choice.
Sorry for the tangent, but anyways, I love your work. I just stumbled onto this channel and I love it, and this is the first time I haven't talked myself down from making any type of legit comment, since I'm just a guest here.
I resonate through X via his pain! No matter all the money, success and fan love inside he was still a son who was abused and made felt worthless by his mother! I dont understand his pain because i have experienced the same circumstance but because i didnt, I know how valuable my mother and father are and imagining a world without them is too hard to comprehend, so to be hated by them must be a different kind of trauma! I imagine if you peeled by the layers of DMX you'd find nothing but a simple man with a wounded heart and a broken dream!
DMX could have been someone I went to school with or played football with. I don't know what it is about NYC, but everyone there has multiple personality doppelgängers. To me, X was an amalgamation of childhood friends, ace honcho, and the many associates that just gave into drugs and would remain lost. In the beginning I was not a fan due to rumors about his drug use. By 1998, I couldn't care less. his music was undeniable, because the pain expressed through it is relate-able.
I absolutely ❤️your channel . Dmx early music resonated the sheer anger and rage I connected too - it was a space to be angry for injustice . I hope in his next life he find peace
Full disclosure, I never even heard of this guy before clicking on this video, but your tribute almost brought me to tears. There's such real love and thought here and I want to thank you for sharing it with the world. Wishing all the healing to DMX's friends and family.
You NEVER heard of DMX? How old are you? And where are you from!?
Damn FD, this video straight up made me cry bro. The struggle was real in X’s story. I see the struggle of my Father in X’s work and this just hit me real hard. Thanks man.
X was, for me and my brothers growing up in Northern B.C., Canada, the first artist to display anger and share why he was angry.
This helped.
Even as a stud, listening to DMX’s music made me feel like I was understood. The pain, the trauma, the addiction 😔🥺 RIP ❌
Ok you get major major hip hop points from me with the EL Producto respect ✊🏾
Hey F.D. you should talk about how White People music used to be! I missed the days where they were doing their own thing and not using hip hop influences to make a profit :(
Hmmm...
Maaaan, I used to rock with a lot of those rock bands, I was big into all those grunge bands, and Sublime was my shit, lol. I miss those real rock bands they are still out there, just not as commercially big anymore.
@@blubastud hmmm but rock originated as a black art from
@@blubastud Mmm... Sublime's blueprint is based on a 90's white pop interpretation of ska and reggae.
@@SCHRODINGERS_WHORE one of theeese nights😩🎤🎶🎶
This needs more views.
After you linked Nas to Kool G Rap I KNEW RAKIM was next and really glad you chose Follow The Leader. I can't explain what that song did to my brain the first time I heard it.
Hi F. D. Khalifa Mbowe highly suggested checking out your channel. Your views and opinions are so refreshing. All of the '90s nostalgia I've been seeing lately is making feel kinda old. 🤭 Great video. Thank you for discussing the shadow side of DMX, as well. May he rest easy. Take care.
As a person who grew up with an undiagnosed mental illness, feelings of social isolation and conflicts with my own spirituality DMX really resonated with me. Whether it was the internal conflict or the sense of rage it was something that hooked me. A lot of rap was that way. I came up in the 90s at the height of 2Pac and Biggie, the emergence of the Dirty South, etc. The opening monologue by DMX in this really hits. I know the music wasn't made for me and there is a lot that is problematic about it and my love of it. I embraced the nihilism and violence. I was almost one of those angry incels you see on the news doing bad shit (if you get my meaning). Thankfully this was pre-Reddit and the pipeline to extremism and violence wasn't as established. But if I was gonna go at my school my soundtrack would have been something like Ice Cube's Death Certificate. Metal was demonic and the soundtrack of people who bullied me (along with country music).
As a white boy in a small Southern town where I could count the number of black people in my school on both hands I know I have a weird view of black culture. I had my subscription to The Source (pre-Benzino) and was really interested in hip hop. I even had a Nu-South hat (if anyone remembers the confederate flag with the African flag colors). Then I grew up and realized how little I knew or understood and that the rage and sense of isolation and misogyny was from a much deeper and broader systemic set of issues. I guess what I'm trying to say is, when I was young, I loved the problematic parts but then I grew up and really began to understand and appreciate the culture that spawned the music. I know our experiences are not the same but I still felt it in my own way. I hope that makes sense. Great video as usual.
Thank you. I loved DMX. Like the way you love that cousin who stays in trouble who each and every time you try to tell them to stop. They look you ...smile and tell you it will be ok. And you believed it each and every time. My heart hurt when I heard of his passing. Thank you for this video.
Love this breakdown! Thank you for being a beacon of inspiration for us young people. Major Salute🙏🏾
I think your point 2 minutes in is so important. We live in a world of humans, not saints and devils. Learning to take lessons from these people with very complex and yes very dark pasts is a skill we'll have to learn going forward.
Yeah bruh...this is a great breakdown of X.
Thanks for including that Iyanla scene. It changed how she worked with men on her show.
I probably could take this entire video and overlay clips of XXXtentacion and it wouldn't feel wrong.
Side thought: we've known 3 rappers that donned the title of "x" dmx, xxxtentacion, and lil nas x. The only one alive is the one with a healthier perspective on their own masculinity.
That's a very astute (if not incredibly sad) observation
In awe at this, why did it hit so hard
Sadat x
Shout out to you FD. You hit it on the nose about X. Great dude but conflicted, charming dude but addictive. Man Thankyou for your take on this matter.
that clip of Canibus omg. Had to pause the video cause I was laughing too hard at that.
We both are about the same age. I grew up in Europe. With the death of 2Pac and Biggie Rap became way more visible and started to fall in love with the Hip-Hop culture and it never stopped. In my last year of high-school i met my black friend Devon (an American who spent one year in my school class and ⚽️club). We instant became friends and share our love for Hip-Hop. His CD collection was so important in a time before the internet. He told me about X in 98 and said “When I come back from Xmas with the fam in OH I will show you DMX. He’s amazing…” but he forgot the CDs. So in April 99 when I spent 2/3 in Florida I went with another by foot to the next Best Buy and bought many Rap-Albums incl. both from DMX. That 3 hour march through 95F was worth it.
I instant fall in love with DMX’s music because he display so many feelings and energy. He wasn’t like some kind superhero. Myself will struggle with some condition from the cradle to grave. Gotten bullied, outcasted… many times in my life DMX was so relatable…
Society has no empathy or sympathy fot most men, specifically black men. DMX had an abusive mother on top of a mentor that lead him down a dark path, i worked in a group home for a few years and I can tell you once those boys hit a certain age 16-18, its almost impossible to change their mindset depending on what they went through, As much as X had done for hip hop, If i could do a go back in time, i would have taken him out his environment and put in some suburban type place, grow up to be a professor, lawyer, wall street dude, if that meant those demons never got to him.
Um...those suburban people don't have half the depth ex had. X path was what he was meant to be even if he struggled. Why would he pretend to be something he's not? And he was rich, so I'm sure he lived in a nice neighborhood and that still didn't help. 😞
His first album will always be his greatest. When you talk about resonating, The Convo, that song resonates.
I laughed at that Cannibus bit waaaaaaay too hard.
Would you be willing to explain the humour of that clip? I obviously don't understand rap culture super well; is it just that it's ridiculous for someone to bring written material to a freestyle, and that they should come up with stuff on the spot no matter how bad they are at it? Is it more to do with Canibus, who I know absolutely nothing about?
@@kyleparker8494 It’s the sympathetic music, procrastination, and reactions in the background lol. I don’t really think you need to understand the culture of battle rap to get a laugh from it.
Real big fan of your light work essays Keep it up my man.
My introduction to DMX was his verse on LL Cool J - 4321.
As problematic as How's It Going Down was... that was my first favorite song from him but then came Slipping and that was on a level of soul baring that I hadn't heard since Pete Rock & CL Smooth - T.R.O.Y
I was just a kid when DMX popped into the scene. I was living in south central and suffering with depression and X will always have a spot in my heart. I can't imagine what on and off friends like Eve and his family are going through after losing him. Damn.
03:31 You wrong for letting this clip play out for so long 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣💔💔💔 This shit was really a heartbreaker no lie.
bless you as you bless us with these videos. may you find peace and light today, may you breathe bountiful breaths of love.
DMX hit when I was a brooding mixed kid who grew up with burning spear and led Zeppelin on the same mixtape. First record i got was Busta Rhymes anarchy and his feature on Why We Die cemented him as the emotional and grounded MC whom no other could eclipse, because his lyrics were always emotional and masculine.
Wow, 10:30 they were really wrong for that. Very painful to watch, missed opportunity for him and his son that may have caused a lot of damage. RIP DMX, may God rest your soul
But yeah I only really knew DMX from "Party Up" but my best friend told me more about his story and how he always tried to be a better person and give back.
This was a touching but hard look into his legacy, especially his sort of breaking the mold of popular hip-hop at the time and for years to come.
I actually met Lil Zane at the QT down the street from my crib in Sandy Springs a few months back
Damn what does it mean to be lil Zane in 2021?
@@FDSignifire 😂😂😂😂😂 nothing probably
I'm white , European , first time heard DMX 10 years ago and listen all his albums .
He was so great , unique , his voice , energy fires people on Woodstock 99 . He is not Tupac , Biggie , or Jay Z but in my humble opinion he saves a day (time ) after deaths of the two and rise of Eminem , 50 Cent , (Jay was there - ok ) and Kanye . His list of songs are in top 10 hip - hop artist ever .
There's a few things that set DMX apart. First of all was the raw-ness of it all and how he put his heart and soul and all that was real to him in his work. He was a devout christian and put it in his work like nobody else was or did, including many of the "punk rock" christian groups of the time and some gospel singers. He wrote his own gospels. He also never really glorified and made the gangster life seem all that appealing. Others tried to make it seem like a party all the time either in their songs or in their videos. X was like, "don't do this shit".
I'm less than a decade younger than you, so I missed DMX's introduction with Ruff Ryders, but was introduced through Cradle 2 the Grave, particularly the music video for "X Gon Give it To You". Growing up, I never did a deep dive into his music, but I loved the songs I knew by him. The hip hop I liked in high school was mostly lyrical miracle, and I felt like I had to do a lot of catching up on stuff from '77-'94. I spent a lot of time eating up the VH1 specials of the mid '00s catching up on Rakim, reading Check the Technique by Brian Coleman, and scouring the internet for mp3s off of blog sites. I even remember Canibus as the guy who introduced me to the term, "Poet Laureate", which either demonstrates how corny I am, how corny he was, or some combination of the two.
I am also an outsider to hip hop culture in many ways. I'm white, from the suburbs, and bi, so while I wasn't sure of my sexuality in high school, I knew there was something that separated me from most people. I just didn't have the language for it in era where the first play showing at my freshman year of high school was, "The Laramie Project", a play about the life and death of Matthew Shepard, one of two men who were lynched in the late 90's. I was terrified that what happened to them, could happen to me. These men, Shepard and James Byrd Jr. acutely demonstrated to me that hate was still alive and present, which gave me the insight later to scoff at people who talked about Obama's victory as ushering in a new era of a, "Post Racist Society" or whatever nonsense think pieces were circulating at the time. I won't pat myself on the back for that one too much, because I have fallen for other feel good traps since then. I was and to some extent, still am, insecure in my identity, so there was and continues to be some cognitive dissonance in the media I consumed then and now.
Up until a few years ago, I generally brushed off DMX's music because after hearing the explicit version of "Get it On the Floor", seeing repeated news articles about him getting arrested, etc. he almost seemed like a meme. It hurt to see him die because by the end, I had a better context to understand where he was coming from. His verse on the remix of "Real Friends" is heartbreaking now. I wanted him to get past the hell he was living in. I wish the same for many of the Black men and women I've either known through their celebrity or known personally. Your King Von video reminded me of how I haven't been able to process the sudden deaths of all these artists I've listened to or followed, including now Young Dolph and Virgil Abloh. RIP to them. I was in denial when DMX went into the hospital this time, magically thinking, hoping, he would survive.
Today, December 4th, is the 14th anniversary of Pimp C's death. He like DMX, is also a beloved, problematic and controversial figure. It is also the birthday of Jay-Z. This day for a long time has been a bittersweet day as a hip hop nerd, but I find it important to acknowledge their significance, without lionizing them. RIP to Earl Simmons, Chad Butler, and so many more.
Thank you for this video.
i Loved this DMX was such a big part of my childhodd. He was my dad's favorite rapper lol I think because of the fact DMX had such a dark past but such a good heart just like my dad. So I am so glad you made this video. Also can you please do a video on Source Magazine! Thank you for all your hard work, we appreciate it so much.
Thank you for these videos brother 💚
Thank you, always so much to learn from your vids!
After watching a few of your videos on Hip Hop - you def NEED to do a video on The Source.
bro i said the same thing. X was just a different era of xxx and juice and peep. They're more of my era but as little child i gravitated to X more than most hip hop artists back then.
I'm a Pakistani living in England & I bought my first Pitbull because of X. His pain comes through in his music. Worldwide 2Pac is the biggest rap artist but I'd say DMX is 2nd. More than Biggie & Jay. I witnessed it in different countries.
X was so NY, like the folk that made PlayStation.10:56 RIP Mr.Simmons, you were on another level.
Great tribute to Dark Man X. But you spent a little too long clowning Cannibus. Lol.
No idea who he was but felt pretty bad for him. Let him spit his shit yo
I really like this! Yes of course I have my issues with him(and his content), but the complexities he held are good to hold all at once.
I never knew about the Canibus journal reading at a rap battle 🤣🤣🤣. RIP Dark Man X
makes me smile thinking about him in a chorus in heaven with that rough ass voice of his
rebound into performing resilience
I was born and raised in NYC, my mother introduced me to Rakim as a child. I was in junior high school when illmatic dropped. G rap, Rakim and Nas we're all very, very different eras and time periods in Hip Hop. Nas was influenced heavily by Rakim and G Rap but no one ever said that he sounded like Rakim, they may have said he was the closest thing to how Rakim changed the game but nobody ever said he sounded like Rakim. X was very similar in sound to Onyx and Nine but he wasn't lumped in with them as sounding the same. Otherwise I'm following your channel for sure!
There definitely is this push and pull like the tides. I see it with my dad, the primary source for a lot of us I think for obvious reasons, and see it play out with other men. When it's brought up that there's more harm than good going on with the dynamics, I can feel them feeling but what about me, the harm I'm feeling to do good by all you. This shits hard. It's hard that I understand it and that undeniably, simultaneously it's still unforgivable at times.
I am a huge DMX fan. It is a story repeated too often of good hearted men that were cast into surviving life instead of living it. Trying to use a talent born of hurt and outcast. It is a story many Black men live. He was able to exhibit great talent while not succumbing to the hurt and pain. In the end it was too much and ended tragically like many others. The other side of the American dream.
X was irreplaceable and truly one of a kind
I needed this.
“A predictable result of the failure of society to protect and nurture young boys at an early age before they become monsters as adults”
Goddamn that hits hard.
saved my life
Mmmmm the dog. My dad hated him and it was my childhood. Dad had good taste in music but I loved dmx. The 90's were hilarious retrospectively
Would it be fair to say that the appeal of 2pac (at least pre-death row) and the Bone Thug guys were that they also regularly spoke about how much pain they were in and didn’t present themselves as kingpins so much as desperate and violent and longing for salvation? I realize that DMX was rawer in delivery than Bone and that 2Pac eventually abandoned that to shout out MOB over and over and posing as a mafia don, but Me against the World is pretty much the template for this kind of thing
I would think so. I think the appeal of X was definitely that he spoke to that pain and Pac did the same, even though he lost that energy, but people still connected to that old part of him
if you got 5 mics on the Source you were the man
Music should never be segregated around identity. No human has a monopoly on tunes or notes or sounds.
Brilliant!
Damn I like to forget about that Canibus loss the way I'd like to forget Drake loss to Pusha T. That Hurt soooo bad💯especially because losing to dizaster
4:10 is this not from a movie? 😭 Was this real life?
I loved X when I was younger, adored him, the rage, the lyrics, the inner demons, the barking, I was hooked. The Internet was not really popular back then, but when it became more widespread, and I started to read about him online, I will not forget the day I read that he ended up in prison because, among other things, he kept his dogs in unhealthy conditions. Broke my heart. A man who has always indetified himself as a dog treated these animals in such a way.
After many years, I started listening to him again. My first thought when I heard the news of his death was: maybe now he would get some rest. The second: man, he was so young.
Btw. whats up with his collaboration, if we could call it that, with bhad bahbie xd
This was an excellent video but I feel that comment around 5:00 about rap super stardom not being a thing really isn't true. A few years before X, Snoop was absolutely huge and breaking records and selling on the level of people in pop or rock were while still keeping it hard. And on the other side, you had your MC Hammers who were borderline Michael Jackson status for a year but very sanitized and clean.
You didn't have to go at Bis like that lmao
The canibus part 🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴
He was a real dude
But at the end of it all, the one overarching question remains: did he and his homies ever find 'Da Hood'??!!!!!!
Don't do Canibus like that, man. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
How you gon' pull out that Dizaster clip like that... Hahah being a huge Canibus fan, I was in straight up denial when that happened. I honestly had a conspiracy theory that Diz had kidnapped Bis' mom and broken his arm, and that's why he was throwing the battle. Now I mostly just think Bis is the GOAT when writing, but apparently, for some reason, when live, what happened happened. A little part of me still believes or wants to believe in the conspiracy theory tho haha
🙌🏿
Wow
Ayo does anyone what the song he uses for his intro is. It’s been stuck on my head for a while
Oohhh Canibus I def don’t remember him 😂
El-P is SICK - I first heard him through Run the Jewels. They’re fire
I LOVE this channel!! Nas = Cool G = Rakim? Now I can go listen to Cool G and Rakim cuz I like Nas’s flow. Thanks for the breakdown, this is the stuff I needed to learn from my big bros!
Okay last comment I SWEAR lol - WHEW that was a read about why so many never fully recover!! They’re not able to fully unpack and face that trauma head on for fear of being judged. That makes perfect sense as I see it in men in my family all the time. I always wondered ‘why? What’s keeping you there? I can see the gears turning so clearly you want something more than to experience the world through your trauma, but then you snap right back. Why?’ Wow. What a brutal cycle... 🥺
@@mystea840 so true…but also so very unfortunate that this applies to a lot of our people. I have been to therapy and some of my fam/friends still look at it with slanted eyes…I was sick and tired of being sick and tired, an old saying that held my truth…..
We used the Source to start the BBQ lol!
Why not many views or comments on this video. Weird... Who didn't love X ??
Master p was independent
Algorithm feeding comment.✅
First meme😭😭😭
Shook.
Why you violated Canibus??? He ain't deserve that!! 🤣 He was a victim of Gatekeeping as it pertains to his friction with LL Cool J and the resulting disavowing of Wyclef.
btw Soundgarden;
the ' White' group shown exactly when speaking about
' White ' people still being into their (own) thing , that album came out during the height of ' Grunge '
that video you showed when
illustrating ' White ' people still into
their own thing came out no later than 1995.
Now go back and redo that lauryn hill video
If you're so intellectually savvy?;
you should explain your perplexity
with the
(1st 16 bars ) of DMX's
WHERE DA HOOD AT?
OR?;
continue to impress yourself by
weaving seldom used adverbs
like 12:59 unthinkingly
into your commentary, whilst never
learning how to correctly enunciate
e)spe)cia)lly
and be the unfortunate victim of your own drowning in
' word salad ' dressing....
Mr " EC-specially" ,
This is the problem for people like you, who are so exacting;
unless you're always right you don't leave yourself the Right to
grow....
3:27 thru 4:40
every reason NOT
to watch your most recent upload.