And as the record quickly transitions from street anthems (“Get At Me Dog”) to love songs (“How’s It Going Down”) and dark conceptual confessionals (“Damien”), X showed he could tackle any subject with verve while making you feel his emotions right in the pit of your stomach. When X barked, “That DMX n***a is a motherfuckin’ problem,” on his debut album’s explosive intro, the whole world felt it. To millions of people, X, with his warts-and-all honesty, was an artist that felt reassuringly human and down-to-earth.įrom Tupac to Cardi B, there are few rap artists who arrive in the mainstream already feeling fully formed, but it was clear Earl “DMX” Simmons was among them.

Yet, this only benefited the listener, with X sounding hungrier than the stray dogs he used to feed in the streets of Yonkers. And as he graduated from doing DJ sets at parties to actually rapping, X would intimidate his opponents (including an emerging JAY-Z) during rap battles by barking like a pissed-off pit bull.īy the time his introspective debut album It’s Dark and Hell is Hot dropped on May 12, 1998, X had already been through more trials and tribulations than your average 27-year-old. X felt a particularly strong affinity with stray dogs animals cruelly forgotten by society, who must persevere in order to survive.

Stewart, who produced) is set largely in a New York nightclub owned by Chazz Davenport (Gabriel Mann), who finds himself torn between the affections of rival singers Crystal (Bijou Phillips) and the mysterious new chanteuse Madelaine (Izabella Miko).Having spent most of his childhood in and out of children’s homes, a teenage DMX would wander the streets of Baltimore (and later New York City) befriending dogs and taking part in everything from robberies to drug dealing in order to make a living. Wallace King’s convoluted and often laughably over-the-top screenplay (based on a stage musical written by Glenn M. John, Aaron Neville, BB King and other soul/R&B veterans - has little going for it other than its undeniably atmospheric visuals.

This music-infused drama set in the 1930s is all too redolent of its stage origins and - despite a musical score featuring numbers sung by the likes of Etta James, Natalie Cole, Dr. An unwieldy combination of film noir and film musical, “Dark Streets” doesn’t manage to be effective on either level.

Dark streets & darker secrets