Up next in 10
How DMX & Ruff Ryders Changed Hip Hop: The Story of “Stop Drop” | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
Apr 15, 2021
DMX was more than just a rapper; he was a spiritual force that lifted up the streets and the entire world. In this moving tribute, we sit down with the visionaries behind Rough Ryders Entertainment to celebrate the life, legacy, and heart of Earl Simmons.
The conversation dives deep into the history of the Rough Ryders movement, from the early days in Yonkers to the global phenomenon that redefined hip hop culture. D Dean, the founder of Rough Ryders, shares personal stories about the first time he heard X rhyme on 125th Street and the moment he realized they had something truly special. We also explore the incredible duality of DMX, discussing his deep-rooted spirituality and the profound influence his grandmother had on his faith.
Listeners will get an inside look at the man behind the mic, including his legendary acts of selflessness and his commitment to helping those in need. The guests also provide important updates on the upcoming posthumous DMX album, which features collaborations with artists like Snoop Dogg, Pop Smoke, and the Griselda crew. Additionally, the discussion touches on the importance of supporting family members through addiction and the steps being taken to protect DMX’s estate for his children.
✨ Chapters ✨
0:00 Honoring the Legendary DMX
2:50 Personal Memories and Reflections
5:40 How the Family is Coping Today
8:15 The Story of Signing DMX in Yonkers
11:20 The Turning Point: Stop Drop Video
14:00 DMX’s Spirituality and Roots
17:10 Stories of Selflessness Off-Camera
20:00 Navigating Addiction and Family Support
23:15 The Impact of Woodstock 99 and Tours
26:00 New Album Details and Features
29:10 Protecting His Legacy and Estate
31:00 Final Tributes and Fan Stories
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
i'll tell you from the street
0:03
yes legendary iconic
0:06
he lifted us and continue to lift up to
0:08
so many ways keep the round of applause
0:11
going
0:12
from the time that man came out in the
0:14
90s me on the west coast
0:16
dissecting lyrics finding strength in it
0:19
same thing happened across the board
0:21
across the world
0:23
iconic in so many ways but you can never
0:26
do it alone have to be
0:28
right you can never do it alone you was
0:30
only as strong as the people around you
0:32
and the family around you so keep those
0:34
supplies going because it
0:36
was their vision rough rider
0:39
entertainment the dean family it was
0:42
their vision
0:43
that saw the talent and decided to put
0:45
the energy and investment in it
0:47
and present him to the world eve
0:50
deluxe swiss bees drag on gin fiend
0:54
come on
0:58
in the legendary dmx
1:02
they have visionaries when they brought
1:04
in that car culture
1:06
that bike culture that canine culture
1:12
representing the streets and beyond to
1:14
corporate
1:15
accomplishments wanted to have this man
1:20
and salute
1:21
him for protecting and
1:24
cradling and carrying and supporting and
1:26
being there for that man
1:28
earl dmx simmons when none of us was
1:30
there
1:30
[Applause]
1:32
he on the line right now from rough
1:34
riders entertainment give it up for my
1:36
man d
1:36
d d what up baby d what up with you
1:39
brother
1:42
wow come on d
1:45
d i love you i love you brother tell
1:49
your family i love them
1:51
i love you thank you very much babe we
1:54
appreciate you
1:56
absolutely man we we've done so much dee
1:59
is
1:59
is is it's interesting man i've been
2:01
watching going online and seeing all
2:03
these different pictures my own personal
2:05
testimony different pictures of
2:07
that people posted with themselves in
2:09
dmx and i was in it
2:10
and it made me reflect it made me
2:14
made me reflect on how many times i
2:16
actually got a chance to just interview
2:18
that guy
2:18
and and be around them and the last time
2:21
i saw him was that the sound set heather
2:23
b was with us and and big horse was with
2:25
us
2:25
in minneapolis and he performed and
2:27
martin he was one of the headlining
2:28
performers in sound set in minneapolis
2:30
and
2:31
and just reflected man it made me think
2:33
of you guys and all that you have done
2:35
and i want to say thank you
2:38
to rough riders and entertainment yeah
2:41
i want to say thank you absolutely thank
2:44
you brother
2:46
you're welcome we appreciate you and uh
2:49
of getting on the show with you and
2:50
speaking to people whatever
2:52
is neither but for x we we participate
2:55
because we got to keep them alive
2:57
regardless no matter what
2:59
absolutely absolutely man um
3:02
how how is his family how are the family
3:05
doing how is his kids doing
3:07
i know it's hard right now i mean right
3:09
now it's pretty hard so everybody's uh
3:11
grieving
3:12
quietly everybody's in their place right
3:15
now in their own little space
3:17
and they taking it you know you gotta
3:19
when it comes to these situations
3:21
we have to um adjust to them you know
3:24
it's not nothing you look forward to it
3:26
but when it comes
3:27
they know like everybody over here is
3:29
pretty much you know we gotta deal with
3:31
with strength and we build everybody up
3:34
that's not strong so they can deal with
3:36
it the right way and maybe
3:38
understand why he's not here understand
3:40
why he was there
3:41
he did it he did his job he served the
3:43
purpose and
3:45
for us we feel like you know it's god's
3:48
calling it's all in god's hands so when
3:50
he say
3:50
his time is time yeah and uh
3:54
we all have our time right dee yep we
3:56
all have our time
3:58
um man can you talk to me about um
4:01
prior to him um going into the hospital
4:04
what was the uh
4:05
last time you actually got a chance to
4:06
talk to him how was it
4:10
last time i spoke to him probably
4:15
maybe like could have been like
4:18
a month ago but i speak to i speak to
4:22
his own
4:24
as many people as around which is craig
4:26
i speak to them every day every other
4:28
day to make sure he's all right
4:30
i'm like pressure for him he don't want
4:31
to talk to me every day
4:33
[Laughter]
4:36
i'm not the one you want to talk to so i
4:38
gotta i gotta talk through people
4:40
to him that's how i work i always worked
4:44
it
4:44
with him but if he if i get to him then
4:46
it's really a problem
4:48
so um i was um speaking to
4:51
craig and he would just give me an
4:53
update on everything
4:55
uh or how he's doing his different
4:57
things so
4:58
i spoke to him probably a month ago but
5:01
but but
5:02
it's all a blessing things happen for
5:04
everybody
5:05
and we we we you know we just deal with
5:07
it and we keep it moving and
5:09
keep them in our prayers that's all we
5:10
can do absolutely man i want to ask you
5:13
um
5:14
it's such an amazing story i thought bet
5:16
did a great story too when they
5:18
they covered the history of rough riders
5:20
and and you start finding out more
5:22
behind the scenes things that happen as
5:24
you guys develop this
5:26
entire movement man but you remember fun
5:28
times like the first time you met dmx
5:30
what was it about him what did you see
5:32
or what did he do to make you think
5:34
okay this guy we gotta sign him to us
5:39
you know what when i see my
5:41
brother-in-law
5:42
used to go to school in yonkers which
5:44
where chinese which is the guy that
5:47
introduced them
5:48
to um dmx so he had um
5:52
he was talking about rap so you know if
5:55
you know us way we're from the streets
5:57
we're
5:57
in the street period it wasn't nothing
5:58
to talk about if the music was a
6:00
blessing for us
6:02
to prevent us from going to jail or
6:03
getting killed or whatever it may be
6:05
so he came up with a um he had an artist
6:08
and he was like i got a
6:09
i got a guy named dms and he took my
6:12
brother
6:13
to go see him and then he listened to
6:16
him for a little while i probably came
6:17
back in town
6:18
a couple of days later he bought them to
6:20
me
6:21
i was on 125th street right there on one
6:24
inside i remember this
6:26
and he pulled him up and he got off the
6:27
car and said oh i got a rapper right
6:29
here and i was like
6:30
okay that's what's up so just listening
6:33
to him listening to him and then
6:35
i say you know like we always would say
6:37
someone said let me hear something
6:39
and then he just started rhyming and he
6:41
was rhyming he was rhyming
6:42
and you know what happened i never paid
6:45
attention to um
6:47
music other than what i would listen to
6:48
on the radio but when i heard him
6:50
i just felt something different i was
6:52
like oh yeah he he
6:54
he has what it takes so i just felt it
6:56
from right there that he was uh
6:58
he was special i just knew he was
6:59
special the whole time
7:01
yeah yeah well you you got a good eye in
7:04
there brother
7:04
yeah indeed hey hey hey deep
7:08
will you look at me do you get that same
7:10
feeling that i'm supposed to know what
7:12
you know what
7:16
that's so crazy yeah that's how it goes
7:20
it was a blessing and you know
7:22
everybody's special in your own way
7:24
you know you're great at what you do he
7:25
good at what he do you just know people
7:27
that are gifted and they
7:29
they're good at what they do so you got
7:30
to just let them do what they do and
7:32
support them so
7:33
i'm not good at everything i'm just good
7:35
at what i'm what i'm good at you good at
7:36
what you good at
7:38
you just happen to be good at getting
7:39
the message across yeah it is
7:41
facts we got d dean from roughriders
7:44
entertainment founder of roughrider
7:45
entertainment hb
7:47
yeah dean what's up it's heather how you
7:49
doing
7:50
hello how are you doing beautiful how's
7:52
it going i'm good family i'm good what
7:54
up to you so glad to hear your voice
7:55
especially during this time
7:57
we would we spent a lot of time this
7:59
morning talking about obviously
8:01
um actually celebrating his life and his
8:03
legacy in his career but for y'all
8:05
as a as a company um what was that
8:08
breaking moment for you guys when you're
8:10
just like
8:11
yo we we made it we did it was it
8:14
was it belly coming out was it that
8:16
first album was it the two albums coming
8:18
out
8:18
in one year what was that defining
8:20
moment where you just was like yo this
8:22
is crazy
8:24
you know when we thought it was crazy
8:26
for me but i wasn't really paying
8:28
attention
8:29
i was just doing the music because i
8:30
love doing music but
8:33
the the moment that we probably really
8:35
really
8:36
seen was going to be something big is
8:38
when we did
8:40
the video stop drop when we had like 100
8:42
bikes
8:45
so the movement it looked we've seen
8:47
that it was um
8:48
we had it was bigger than what we
8:50
expected to be and we it was the stop
8:52
drop
8:52
that made me say whoa this this is i
8:55
gotta focus
9:00
it's not a game
9:03
yeah he got pick up
9:07
they got your full attention after
9:09
you've seen that you gotta be like
9:10
and it was you know what it was um it
9:13
was a give and take for us because we
9:15
grew up
9:16
you know we from we from where everybody
9:18
else mostly come from
9:19
or say they come from and we was doing
9:22
all the other things
9:24
none of the right things at this point
9:25
in life so we have to make a transition
9:27
if you're going to do this or you want
9:29
to do this so we have to make a
9:31
transition
9:32
to stop doing the things we were doing
9:34
and do we decided just to put all our
9:36
energy into
9:38
building the company and dealing with
9:39
him
9:40
[Music]
9:45
okay stop dropping you saw all the bikes
9:47
you knew you had to focus
9:49
okay that's really [ __ ] man
9:53
right there right tracy yes indeed you
9:56
know what i'm wondering dean if you
9:57
don't mind sharing
9:59
if you were a spiritual man before
10:03
meeting x you know we spent all this
10:05
morning just touching on his
10:07
duality and how for a lot of guys they
10:09
didn't have
10:10
the words to even begin a relationship
10:13
with god
10:14
you know what i mean to explore that
10:15
other side of them so i'm
10:18
i'm wondering how that um united you
10:21
guys
10:23
with spirituality yes he was so
10:25
spiritual
10:26
you know what it was he's more spiritual
10:30
than me like i'm spiritual
10:32
but he's spiritual so it was i think it
10:35
was
10:36
his grandmother if i'm not mistaken she
10:38
was spiritual
10:40
so she probably kind of installed that
10:41
in him and i kind of remember him his
10:44
grandmother
10:45
he was he always looked up and loved his
10:46
grandmother more than anybody
10:48
so she probably installed it in him to a
10:51
degree
10:52
and he just kept it and kept running
10:53
with it so i'm almost positive it was
10:55
his grandmother
10:56
that installed that in him mm-hmm and
11:00
did you see
11:01
like with everyone in your circle were
11:03
you able to
11:05
notice like a shift in people's
11:07
relationship with their spirituality
11:09
just
11:10
due to the influence of dmx
11:14
yeah i think i've seen a lot of it with
11:16
him definitely because
11:18
you know he was so it wouldn't even be
11:21
that it would be i see a ship right
11:22
there on the spot cause he'll walk by
11:25
and we might be walking in not all the
11:27
time but sometimes
11:28
there'll be somebody that might need
11:30
money or homeless so he'll just stop
11:32
sit there on the floor with him give him
11:33
money talk to him and then people would
11:36
sit in there probably for
11:37
two three days and they'll get up and
11:38
walk off with him
11:41
well i've seen them make that type of
11:42
impact on certain people
11:44
wow um well that's that's so powerful
11:48
man
11:48
it it's you know we we've been talking
11:51
about this
11:51
all day dear phil the brother's still
11:53
with us right now round of applause man
11:55
that brother's
11:55
energy is still with us in us
11:59
you know and as we celebrate his legacy
12:01
you know
12:02
uh i want i want to make sure people
12:04
know who he was be
12:05
off the mic and off the camera if you
12:08
can man can you speak to the type of
12:09
person dmx
12:11
uh was when he wasn't on the mic when he
12:13
wasn't on the stage when he wasn't on
12:14
the camera like what kind of activities
12:16
would he get involved with with
12:17
community and people and family
12:21
well as time grew on see
12:25
as time grow because we've been with him
12:27
about 20 years probably more
12:29
but as time goes on things get better
12:32
you get smarter
12:33
you get wiser you see things differently
12:36
so at the beginning it was a rocky road
12:38
because you know he was having trouble
12:39
with
12:40
his his addiction so those were the hard
12:43
times and
12:44
we just stuck it out with him for
12:46
however long it took because we believed
12:48
in him that much
12:49
that we knew whenever he do get his time
12:52
to
12:52
uh shine he was shining so we stuck with
12:56
him
12:57
we had him probably eight years before
12:58
he even got a deal
13:00
but we just believed in them and and we
13:04
walked them through the whole
13:05
we walked him all the way until he got
13:06
to where he got to go and it was it was
13:08
a struggle
13:09
but after a while we had so much passion
13:11
for the music
13:13
we lost track of everything else we just
13:14
believed in him we just believed in him
13:16
and his music
13:17
and it was not nobody can tell us no
13:19
matter how long it took
13:20
we just believed that we knew one day
13:22
when he get it when the people get a
13:24
whiff of them
13:25
they would understand exactly who he was
13:28
they had to see him they never get we
13:30
had to make sure they seen him
13:31
before he got to this day and he passed
13:33
so the world know who he is
13:34
so we felt like we did uh we did our job
13:37
with him and that was a great thing
13:38
that's all we want them to know
13:40
he didn't exist no y'all did a
13:42
phenomenal job and you continue to do it
13:44
uh because i know there's other projects
13:46
coming uh you mentioned his addiction
13:48
and i don't want to harp on it too much
13:50
but
13:50
i also don't want to sweep it under the
13:52
rug and uh recently
13:54
yeah i was talking with ariza and we
13:57
talked about odb
13:58
and you know and i asked her man what
14:01
what what
14:02
what do you do when you in that
14:04
situation when your brother is dealing
14:05
with
14:06
addiction and and i know you guys all
14:08
fought hard
14:09
to help him during those times but
14:12
what did you find if if there's other
14:16
folks that's dealing with that you know
14:18
they have a close
14:19
loved one a family member somebody they
14:20
work with that's dealing with addiction
14:23
based on your experience what
14:25
suggestions would you make to the people
14:26
that's around that person
14:30
well when you know when
14:34
i was just speaking to somebody
14:35
yesterday and if
14:37
in all reality there's probably
14:41
one person in everybody's family that's
14:43
on drugs some way somehow
14:46
so you have to embrace that
14:49
and um you just got to try to help as
14:52
much as you could because
14:53
some people you can help and some people
14:55
you're not going to be able to but
14:58
you still gotta have love for me you
14:59
still gotta support them
15:01
as much as you could and help them out
15:04
as much because you know what happens
15:07
you never know when it's gonna click
15:08
because i think people want jokes
15:10
and then one day they wake up and just
15:12
stop but you can't never
15:14
stop talking to them because as soon as
15:16
you stop
15:17
then they don't hear no voices but they
15:18
don't they gotta hear your voice
15:20
some other people's voices on positive
15:23
things and
15:24
eventually one day they might wake up
15:25
and they click
15:27
so you just always got to stay talking
15:29
to them never give up
15:31
never give up never give up all right
15:34
hey i appreciate that dee dee dean is
15:36
with us
15:37
you know they say to i remember going to
15:40
the rough rider
15:41
was it the rough rider cash money tour
15:44
yeah yeah yeah yeah dude
15:47
they say that's one of the biggest tours
15:49
hip hop has ever made
15:51
you know man you got it what's the
15:53
what's like
15:55
man you got a something that just blew
15:57
your mind on tour that you saw happen
15:59
with dmx on stage
16:03
yeah you know what as time went on it
16:06
was a repeat because
16:08
i just was being amazed
16:11
because i know his tone and how he talks
16:13
so i just didn't
16:14
be amazed how he was able to control the
16:17
crowd because you gotta remember this
16:19
he's probably the only artist that he'll
16:22
talk
16:22
he'll be talking more than doing music
16:26
just be talking to the people giving
16:28
them advice and
16:29
telling different things and he'll drop
16:31
a song here talk again
16:33
and they would just sit there and let
16:34
them talk they didn't even care they
16:36
would just let them talk
16:37
so he was doing talking just as much as
16:39
he was doing music but he was talking
16:41
trying to reach the people
16:46
the clip of that woodstock tour i want
16:48
to say 99
16:50
that that's you know over 5 million
16:51
people view were you there that day
16:55
nope i wasn't scared but a couple people
16:57
when i didn't make it
16:59
you didn't make it that day these sound
17:02
like keeping
17:04
you were selective when you went out on
17:05
the road
17:08
look look i i go wherever with him to
17:11
protect him we do whatever we got to do
17:13
but he happened to go and i don't think
17:15
i know i didn't go that time's out to
17:16
remember but a couple of my
17:18
people was with him and i was somewhere
17:20
else i parked with someone else but
17:21
he was there and you seen i mean it was
17:23
so many people out there
17:24
it was amazing it was amazing um
17:28
i wanted to ask you uh i i saw he did a
17:31
great
17:31
conversation with drink champ shout out
17:33
to nori uh efm
17:35
um giving him a big round of applause
17:36
over at a drink champ
17:38
and he talked about an album you know
17:41
are there plans what are the plans
17:44
moving forward with rough riders and
17:46
and dmx's music
17:49
well what we did was i was in my
17:52
i was in uh california probably like a
17:55
couple of months ago
17:56
so we did about we did another album on
17:59
them that
18:00
like i probably did most of his albums
18:02
personally
18:04
but this album right here is probably
18:06
one of the best albums we ever did with
18:10
the one we got right now that we're
18:11
going to release some and it's just
18:13
incredible
18:14
i can't wait to um hey man
18:17
you gotta like that's a talk you know
18:19
people put that on it you know d
18:21
i understand it but what makes this
18:23
better than them amazing albums he
18:25
dropped in the past
18:28
because what he's talking about
18:31
and how it was structured like you're
18:33
not going to do the way these
18:35
the songs are now then there probably
18:37
wasn't like none of the other ones
18:39
because we had this we had a system with
18:41
him we knew how to work the project so
18:43
me and swiss we would just get together
18:46
and craig
18:47
we would get together and we would we
18:50
would structure certain things a certain
18:51
way
18:52
to make it easy for him to just rhyme so
18:55
we tapped
18:56
into a lot of different things so we got
18:58
uh i got one song that's called
19:01
and this is before you even pass is is
19:04
that
19:04
is called um when when i say
19:08
dms you say the great when i say dmx you
19:11
say the great
19:13
so we that's a good song he got a lot of
19:14
good big songs so
19:16
he he he got a song what bono he did but
19:19
it's not bono
19:20
but he did he did a pretty lot of good
19:24
songs with different people so
19:25
he normally do the album himself but we
19:28
did uh we
19:29
we did a lot of features with this one
19:32
is there a tupac feature on it
19:36
no it's uh we got a we got a uh
19:39
the griselda boys we got um
19:42
we got a pop smoke um
19:47
what's we got we got we got snoop
19:50
we got a couple of people on i don't
19:51
know mortal kombat but he got he got he
19:53
got he he got a good out was almost very
19:55
good
19:56
okay uh man d dean is here man there's a
19:58
lot of people on the lines man if you
20:00
don't mind holding on with us bro they
20:02
just want to
20:03
pay homage and tell stories um let me
20:06
ask you this for his kids a lot of
20:07
people
20:08
are hoping that his kids will be well
20:09
taken care of and
20:11
and just so just to ease folks minds
20:13
what kind of provisions if any are you
20:15
guys thinking to make sure his kids
20:17
are the recipients of his residuals or
20:20
you know
20:21
[ __ ] own his legacy
20:24
well you know with that becomes
20:26
structure that's that's going to all go
20:27
back to the business and
20:29
lawyers and we got to see how to uh
20:32
divvy it up between all the kids and
20:34
make sure everybody gets uh um are they
20:37
fair share and
20:38
it's just making sure everything is
20:40
assets and everything goes to the kids
20:41
so that's
20:42
something we got to do with the lawyers
20:43
and structure
20:45
okay all right um and then finally matt
20:48
who who was one of his favorite artists
20:50
that you knew of that he would talk
20:52
about a lot like
20:53
who did he bond with most
20:56
he burns she would argue
21:00
he probably is like
21:05
i would say
21:08
he was a loner so he he got along with
21:11
he got along with most of us but he did
21:14
good with cam he likes to cam
21:16
he likes it um he like to snoop because
21:19
we just did
21:20
we just worked with him so i definitely
21:22
know he
21:23
he liked to snoop because we we did our
21:26
album
21:27
some album we did the snoop studio so he
21:30
found it with
21:31
snoop uh um
21:34
uh what was that other guy's name um
21:38
oh he liked the pop smoke pop smoke
21:42
yeah he liked him before he passed so a
21:45
couple of hours that he did like
21:47
he never really talked about as much as
21:49
we made we had to
21:51
get into him doing features so we did
21:53
most of this song
21:54
this album was with uh a lot more
21:57
features so
21:58
he was getting into dealing with more
22:00
people and stuff so he didn't have
22:02
he got along with knives he got along
22:03
with khalifa
22:05
all the monsters i'm embracing them we
22:08
all worked together
22:09
in the studio when we was in california
22:11
so those were the last people that i
22:13
know that he had a
22:14
good rapport with and then when is the
22:17
album slated to come out
22:20
you know what we don't even have no date
22:22
we just um
22:23
we're mixing right now as we speak and
22:26
then
22:27
we're probably going to have a couple of
22:28
conferences after we do the barrio and
22:30
everything
22:31
then we can get into the business right
22:33
now we we're not pretty much um
22:35
thinking about that as much as we
22:37
thinking about the
22:38
funeral arrangements that we're doing
22:40
right now okay we'll keep us posted on
22:42
that man we got d
22:43
dean from rough riders entertainment we
22:45
talking dmx
22:46
[Applause]
22:48
we got ken on the line from l.a say what
22:50
up the d ken
22:52
hey ken hey what's up dude what's up
22:54
what's up how you all doing this morning
22:57
how you doing good good good
23:00
i just uh i just want to share a story
23:03
back
23:03
at the beginning of my i'm a tv director
23:05
and i'm in la
23:07
and we had a dmx on militia right
23:10
back about 20 years ago at the beginning
23:12
of my career
23:14
and uh and man he uh we
23:17
we prepared for him we said all right
23:18
he's coming but you know my experience
23:21
back then i said well he's probably
23:22
gonna be a little late so i said
23:24
we're gonna give him a six-hour window
23:26
i'm gonna expect him six hours
23:28
after his call time so right on the
23:30
money he came six hours later
23:32
but we shot everything we needed and
23:35
i'll never forget he's
23:36
he pulled in we were in downtown l.a and
23:39
he's coming up figure rolling street i
23:40
think we're at the mayan
23:42
um uh place to shoot and he came
23:45
flying up the street by doing about 60
23:47
miles an hour
23:48
in reverse
23:50
[Music]
23:51
[Laughter]
23:54
wow 60 miles in reverse
23:57
in reverse i swear i'm no joke and
24:01
he and he swung the car into the
24:02
driveway in reverse
24:04
and jumped out and he said what you need
24:07
from me dog
24:08
yeah i said i need three takes so he got
24:11
up there and he did three takes
24:13
and i got it and he's like that's it
24:16
dawson that's it but i got it
24:18
and it is not only and it actually
24:21
helped my career because i was just
24:22
starting off as a director of my career
24:24
and it was on upn and i was trying to
24:26
make my mark
24:27
and when the studio saw that that um
24:30
that piece that he did i think he was
24:32
going what's my name
24:33
man they lost their mind they were like
24:35
oh my god it looks like a video oh my
24:37
god kid
24:39
you know we're going to give you more
24:40
episodes so i want to i just want to
24:42
thank that brother for
24:43
helping my career and giving me some
24:45
good laughs because man i
24:46
that dude i loved him man he was he was
24:49
he was a great dude
24:51
and i i really miss him he was
24:53
definitely
24:56
a good brother so you know what the main
24:59
people that was with him
25:00
during that time because i never really
25:02
had to go on a road personally when he
25:04
was out
25:05
but ali was when i'm probably most like
25:07
ali
25:09
ali ali and sammy ali you on the phone
25:13
yeah you know
25:15
you remember that i don't remember that
25:16
you remember
25:19
you know what i remember uh you know
25:21
about actually you know
25:22
um like the brother just mentioned you
25:24
know he was just so
25:26
in tune with everything he was doing you
25:29
know um
25:30
sometimes we would get places a little
25:32
bit later than scheduled but we would
25:34
always plan for that in advance
25:36
right like listen you know if it was for
25:39
six o'clock we tell them
25:41
it's three o'clock and we just try to
25:43
get there around seven
25:44
eight and that's just because he's such
25:45
a free spirit you know and um
25:48
and he was known for like you know he's
25:51
gonna come in and knock it out
25:53
and you know a lot of people say that
25:55
like you know they call them one take
25:57
oh simmons like you just get in there
25:59
and just kill it and
26:00
um it was a natural like that
26:03
natural i'll leave man ali yo this is
26:06
sammy right ali sam is that your last
26:08
name molly
26:09
don't put too much on it yesterday okay
26:12
ali used to do the rims right
26:14
[Applause]
26:15
you know that's how um that's how uh
26:19
that's what i was doing before um i met
26:21
you know rough riders and dmx yeah man
26:24
ali man give this man a big round of
26:26
applause i know you were um
26:28
[Applause]
26:29
with dmx thick and thin throughout it
26:32
all man
26:33
um from your personal perspective what
26:36
made that man happy
26:40
oh man you know um
26:43
helping others made him happy the smile
26:45
on his face when somebody would say
26:47
you know when he did you know he did
26:49
stuff for
26:51
for nothing you know and when you see
26:53
them say thank you and god bless you
26:55
like that smile
26:56
that he had on him would just carry on
26:59
for the rest of the day
27:01
um i've seen him literally take the
27:04
jacket off his back and put it on
27:06
somebody and you know
27:09
he was never materialistic he actually
27:12
you know gave me a shot he you know shot
27:15
that i didn't even know i wanted
27:17
you know and changed the whole
27:20
trajectory of my life he's one of the
27:22
most selfless people i've ever met
27:24
and you know it's just never going to be
27:26
the same without him for me
27:28
personally and um you know i'm going to
27:31
keep his legacy alive and love him
27:32
forever he's he's just one of the most
27:34
kindest
27:35
giving people i've ever met literally
27:38
given
27:39
he gave us all definitely gave more than
27:42
what he took 100 percent
27:44
okay more than what he took man that's
27:45
sadly ali you was basically managing
27:48
them or was it what was your title with
27:49
them friend and manager
27:52
well you know when i first started with
27:54
him he was just like look just come on
27:56
the road with me i'm not you know
27:57
and and i said he just wanted me to just
28:00
be there for him and you know i want to
28:02
say he was my teacher he taught me
28:04
everything
28:04
and um along with me
28:08
why and you know everybody else i was
28:11
involved
28:13
you know they took me in and i'm forever
28:15
grateful for that you know it's 20
28:17
some odd years later and we're still a
28:19
family you know
28:20
um they um they adopted me into the
28:23
family
28:24
and i'm forever grateful to to to ex for
28:27
that
28:28
absolutely uh ken by the way thanks for
28:30
your call ken you're a citizen out of
28:32
l.a
28:33
way in the morning all right uh we gotta
28:36
we're gonna go to amora's on the line
28:38
from connecticut grand rises zamora
28:40
hey amara hey what's up sway how are you
28:43
doing great
28:44
we got we got d on the line and ali on
28:46
the line from roughriders entertainment
28:49
yo i have to let you guys know i have
28:51
the distinct privilege of having an
28:53
internship at def jam when dmx first got
28:56
signed so i was sitting there in the a
28:58
r library dumping it at me dogs going
29:01
you got to be kidding me this guy
29:05
is a huge hit he's amazing
29:08
so i used to walk around the halls
29:09
barking now
29:14
i was one of three white people at the
29:16
label so i made myself really
29:19
stand out and i said you know they said
29:21
why are you why are you barking i'm like
29:23
this this stuff is so amazing
29:26
he is going to be huge and then i got to
29:29
meet him and i was like
29:30
you're really kidding me that this man
29:32
with so much faith
29:34
has the courage to speak the way he's
29:36
speaking
29:37
i mean he started my artist career
29:40
i said you know if this guy can rap
29:42
about jesus and rap about god and rap
29:44
about believing yourself and
29:45
having a tough life like maybe i should
29:48
put my voice in the game
29:50
because i was rough-pounding you know
29:52
and i had that rocky kind of touch
29:54
and um by the way big jeff says hello
29:57
i'm on my way to
29:58
have a meal with him to talk about dmx
30:01
and
30:01
uh reminisce you know my life
30:05
my job wouldn't have been the thing
30:06
without him hey hey maura let me hear
30:08
you bark let me hear your bark what does
30:09
it sound like now
30:15
represent baby
30:17
[Applause]
30:20
you see it got people barking man listen
30:23
let me see hey man hey d
30:27
you know i'm um i want to make a vow to
30:30
be
30:30
better connected with you guys man and
30:32
um know that this
30:34
any platform i'm rocking with is a
30:35
platform for you guys
30:37
and um i'll leave you too man i know
30:40
your history brother
30:41
i know your history and uh and i
30:43
appreciate man i want to say thank you
30:45
you know i want to say thank you i can't
30:46
speak for the world but i don't think
30:48
anybody in the world would disagree
30:50
thank you for which you guys have
30:52
continued to present to this world in
30:54
the way of culture and bringing us dmx
30:57
um and we're going to continue to
30:59
celebrate him
31:00
and as information comes in please let
31:03
us know
31:04
um in terms of services and and and
31:06
everything like that okay
31:09
yes we will we'll keep you updated wait
31:11
thank you for having us we appreciate
31:13
you
31:13
absolutely absolutely y'all want to say
31:17
in closing about dmx
31:20
when i say dmx you say the great
31:25
long-lived dms the great long-lived dmx
31:28
the great thank you ali
31:30
good to hear your voice d good to hear
31:32
your voice send my love to the family
31:34
brother we here for you okay
31:36
all right thank you i appreciate it
31:39
every time brother every time
31:48
[Music]
31:54
[Music]
31:55
you
#Arts & Entertainment