The Grammy nominated rapper,DMX, at the age of 50, has opened up in the past about his struggles with drug addiction, for which he attended rehabilitation on several occasions and is now in a hospital after a cardiac arrest.
DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, was at his home around 11 p.m. Friday when he suffered the heart attack, his longtime lawyer, Murray Richman, said. He was immediately hospitalized in grave condition, he said.
DMX continued to be on life support Saturday and was not breathing on his own following a heart attack, his lawyer said, contradicting an earlier statement on the musician’s condition.
Medical personnel at the critical care unit at a White Plains, New York, hospital began working on Simmons immediately and had to resuscitate him, he said.
The attorney said he did not know what caused the heart attack.”Earl is a sweet guy,” Richman said. “Earl was a person who could tell such a story. He was a person with such depth. It’s a heartbreaker.”
In an interview last year on rapper Talib Kweli’s People’s Party show, DMX said his drug abuse started at age 14 when his then-mentor gave him a blunt laced with crack.
