DMX: more terrier than pitbull

By Jordan Sargent

Published July 11, 2007

Would anyone have blamed DMX for phoning in his June 26 show at The Blue Note? The only man in the history of pop music to have five albums debut at No. 1 was really playing a show in Columbia? Who put him up to this?

But when X lumbered onto the stage dressed in a brown shirt and fatigue pants, he seemed, at the very least, to resemble his old, rabid self. Considering how the past few years of DMX's life have gone, that's not such a modest feat.

To recap for the uninformed: In June 2004, about 10 months after the release of his fifth chart-topper, Grand Champ, X and a friend were arrested at Kennedy Airport in New York after trying to steal a car while posing as federal agents. In April 2005 he was arrested for driving with a suspended license after he careened into a cop car. In October 2005 he pleaded guilty to two traffic violations and was sentenced to 60 days in jail. In May 2006 he was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport when he refused to wear a seatbelt on a transatlantic flight from New York. And to cap it all off, in February he was arrested again for driving with a suspended license after a cop nabbed him running a red light. The final tally was four arrests and a jail stint — all but one of which were driving-related — in the span of 32 months.

But when you've got a catalog as deep as DMX's (just ask KRS-One), it's wrong to assume the show would be a flaccid mess. X tore through his opening suite. He ended the three-song barrage by scaling the amps at the corner of the stage to kind of sing/rap "Party Up (Up in Here)" from 20 feet above the palpably geeked crowd.

Eventually, though, the surrealism of seeing DMX on stage from a mere 10-12 feet away wore off, and the show kind of lagged. X, to his credit, was more fervent and hyper than I'd expect any 37-year-old man to be, but his career as a live performer has hit a snag: Either he can no longer rap on beat to his own songs, or he just doesn't care to.

This led to lulls during the verses of his songs, where X would pant and bark seemingly random words until the song returned to the backing track-led chorus.

This was acceptable when he ran through his songs with actual choruses, but when the set turned ... introspective ... things oscillated between stagnant and mushy.

To his credit, he finally turned a Blue Note show into an event in which drunken white dudes stumbled over elementary-aged kids who just tricked their parents into buying them a light-up necklace from some guy panhandling inside.

But all the grandeur was officially dead as X unceremoniously walked off the stage after a trademark prayer. People mingled for about five minutes and wondered aloud if there would be an encore.

There wouldn't be, and not soon thereafter the house lights rose and everyone shuffled out, all thinking the same thing, whether they admitted it or not: Was that it?