DMX

DMX, aka New York's rapper Earl Simmons, has the dubious honor of becoming the first musician to have all his first five albums debut at #1 on the Billboard charts, and the even more dubious honor of selling 670,000 copies during Christmas week of an album whose cover had him drenched in blood. DMX's raspy delivery concocted hardcore rap with noir and horror overtones on It's Dark and Hell Is Hot (1998), a bleak album mostly produced by Damon "Dame Grease" Blackman with hard-hitting drum machines (notably Get at Me Dog) and lyrically littered with references to horror cinema. The highlight is Ruff Ryders' Anthem (produced by Kasseem "Swizz Beatz" Dean).

Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood (1998), rushed out to speculate on the success of the first one, still contained one of his signature songs, Slippin' (produced by Michael "DJ Shok" Gomez), and one of the effective beat of Blackout (another Swizz Beatz creation).

The quality declined rapidly over the years with cartoonish albums like And Then There Was X (1999), containing the poppy single Party Up (Swizz Beatz again) and a mildly interesting What's My Name? (by Irving "Irv Gotti" Lorenzo and Edward "Self Service" Hinson), The Great Depression (2001), with We Right Here and Who We Be (both produced by Black "Mickey Davis" Key), Grand Champ (2003), Year of the Dog Again (2006), and Undisputed (2012). He became a parody of himself.

DMX died in 2021.