Update on DMX's Condition Is Not Encouraging

Lawyer says rapper is breathing, but brain activity is minimal
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 4, 2021 5:01 AM CDT
Update on DMX: 'There Is Little Brain Activity'
In this Sept. 23, 2009, file photo, DMX arrives at the 2009 VH1 Hip Hop Honors at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, in New York.   (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, File)

Saturday night brought an update on rapper DMX's condition, though not an encouraging one. His longtime lawyer, Murray Richman, confirmed that the rapper suffered a heart attack around 11pm Friday while at home. While TMZ has reported it was caused by an overdose, Richman said he did not know the cause. NBC News reports the 50-year-old, whose real name is Earl Simmons, was resuscitated at a hospital in White Plains, New York, and put on life support. TMZ's sources suggest paramedics initially spent 30 minutes trying to resuscitate him, and that the lack of oxygen during that time was very damaging. Though media initially quoted Richman as saying DMX was breathing on his own, he later clarified that the rapper remained on life support. "There is a little brain activity," Richman was quoted as saying.

The AP quotes Richman as saying, "I'm very sad about it, extremely sad. He's like my son. He's just a tremendous person, tremendous entertainer, tremendous human being. And so much to offer, so much to say. Not the run-of-the-mill rapper. A person of great depth." DMX has battled drug problems for years, and NBC News flags a 2020 interview in which he discussed taking a hit from a blunt that his then-mentor gave him at age 14. He later learned there was crack in it, and said that hit launched his drug abuse. "Why would you do that to a child?" DMX said. "He was like 30, and he knew I looked up to him. Why would you do that to someone who looks up to you?" (More DMX stories.)

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