Yonkers rap legend Earl Simmons best known as DMX, became an international superstar, but he never forgot where he was from, even though the city of hills failed him so many times.

DMX son of 19-year-old Arnett Simmons and 18-year-old Joe Barker.

Barker moved to Philadelphia and was largely absent from his life.

DMX went through a disjointed childhood that included being beaten by his mother and her various boyfriends so badly that he lost teeth and sustained numerous bruises and cuts on his face. Due to poverty, he slept on the floor with roaches and mice crawling over him in the night.

When he was 7, an aunt got him drunk on vodka. The same year, the hungry boy was jailed for stealing cakes from a market.

DMX was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness but became disillusioned with the faith after his mother rejected a $10,000 settlement after he was hit by a drunk driver while crossing the street because Jehovah’s Witnesses are taught to be self-sufficient and do not accept charity.

One summer, his mother locked him in his bedroom, allowing him to only exit for trips to the bathroom.^[

At the end of the fifth grade, at age 10, Simmons was kicked out of school and sent to the Julia Dyckman Andrus Children’s Home for 18 months.

 In what he described as a defining moment of betrayal, his mother tricked him by telling him they were just visiting the home, then she enrolled him there..

When he was 14, Simmons began living on the streets of Yonkers to escape his mother’s abuse, sleeping in Salvation Army clothing bins, and eventually found comfort in befriending stray dogs that walked the streets at night.

DMX met Ready Ron, a local rapper, who was impressed with his beatboxing skills and asked him to become his partner. Simmons chose the name “DMX”, which came from an instrument he had used at the boys’ home, the Oberheim DMX drum machine.

It later was also interpreted as “Dark Man X”

As teen he turned to robbery as a way to survive on the streets of Yonkers.

DMX became addicted to crack cocaine when he was 14 years old, after Ready Ron tricked him into smoking a marijuana cigarette laced with the drug.[40][99]

He also said that he had developed a bipolar disorder from his troubled childhood and drug use.

And some people wonder why the Yonkers memories caused him to self medicate himself throughout his life.

DMX was a Christian and said that he read the Bible every day.

DMX later became transitional deacon in the Christian Church and aspired to become ordained as a pastor.