Rapper DMX ‘off life support following heart attack’

The artist’s representative says he remains ‘concerned’ about the 50-year-old.

Rapper DMX has been taken off life support after suffering a heart attack, his lawyer has said (Haydn West/PA)

By Benjamin Cooper, PA

April 04 2021 12:58 AM

Rapper DMX has been taken off life support after suffering a heart attack, his lawyer has said.

Murray Richman told US media he remained “concerned” about the 50-year-old whose real name is Earl Simmons.

“DMX is in the hospital presently, he’s been in the hospital as the result of a heart attack,” Richman told New York’s PIX11 News in a video tweeted by the network.

DMX rose to hip hop’s heights during the 1990s in New York (Yui Mok/PA)

“He has been taken off the life-support system and is breathing on his own. But we are concerned.

“It would be disingenuous of me to suggest that I’m not a worried man at this particular point.”

The Yonkers, New York-raised DMX was signed by Columbia Records in 1992 and has collaborated with Jay-Z, Ja Rule and LL Cool J as well as acting in films including Romeo Must Die and Cradle 2 the Grave.

The American rapper has battled health issues throughout his life (Haydn West/PA)

He suffered bronchial asthma as a child and has admitted to previous health problems including being addicted to crack cocaine.

He was resuscitated and taken to hospital in February 2016 after being found unresponsive in a hotel parking lot in Yonkers, an incident he later said was due to an asthma attack.

TMZ reported the latest hospitalisation was due to a drug overdose but Richman told US media he did not know if this was the case.