All About Laughs
The loss of hip-hop icon DMX has devastated many who considered him a friend and hero. Born Earl Simmons on December 18, 1970, DMX was a successful rapper, actor and songwriter, dominating song and film charts in the early 00’s. Many friends, family and fans gathered to pay their final respects to him over the weekend in a celebration of his life and legacy.
His service was broadcast on BET, and allowed everyone a final glimpse at the massive impact he had on others. During the event, his ex-wife Tashera Simmons and fiancée Desiree Lindstrom embraced and shared words about the man that meant to much to them. Tashera Simmons took to the pulpit at Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, where Sunday’s funeral services were held, and gave an emotional speech about her ex-husband.
“He said, ‘I’m here for the world. God put me here for the world … God birthed me to be in the world. I am not of the world. I’m for the world.’ And I said, ‘I believe that, Earl,’” Simmons said of her former spouse.
This moment between DMX’s ex-wife Tashera and his fiancée Desiree was really, really special #BETRemembersDMX pic.twitter.com/zrG76UauOJ
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) April 25, 2021
She went on to call Lindstrom up to the microphone, saying, “Real women do real things, I am a real woman and a woman of God, that (Lindstrom) woman is a woman of god.” She added: “And that’s why I love you.”
Also present was rapper Kanye West, who reportedly helped raise over $1 million dollars for the Simmons family thanks to a customer shirt sold during the service. According to TMZ and Page Six “Through his Yeezy brand, West collaborated with fashion brand Balenciaga to create a T-shirt in honor of DMX, who died on April 10, just days after suffering a heart attack at his home. All of the net proceeds from the $200 shirt will go to the late rapper’s family. Shirt sales raised $1 million and sold out within 24 hours over the weekend, during which time a public memorial for DMX took place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.”
Include in his goodbye service were video messages from DMX friends. Lyor Cohen delivered a heartfelt goodbye that divided some fans. “I knew you were going to run into a wall, the unfortunate thing is you took my friend Earl Simmons with you.”
Those close to the rapper or familiar with his story know that DMX considered himself to have multiple personalities, which he’s discussed in interviews. “They’re different things. There’s a few things, a few people in me—they get me through life,” he said an episode of BET’s Ruff Ryders Chronicles docu-series.
Ex-Wife Tashera Simmons elaborated on this saying “Earl is the child that could’ve been before his dad left and his mom just didn’t know how to handle him,” Simmons added that “X” took on all the trauma of the rapper’s childhood. “[X] is the angry one. DMX is the entertainer; he’s another protector of Earl, but so much nicer.”
