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DMX Faces The Music: Judge Sentenced Him To A Year In Prison
A judge heard a DMX rap song before adding his own lyrics to a court proceeding on Wednesday, ordering the rapper imprisoned for a year in a tax fraud case.
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff took requests, accommodating DMX’s desire to hear his autobiographical hit “Slippin’” before DMX faced the music over his admission of guilt. The judge called DMX’s fraud a “brazen and blatant” crime that could not go unpunished.
The 47-year-old rapper, known to law enforcement and the courts as Earl Simmons, has been incarcerated since his bail was revoked in January. He sobbed during the proceeding as his lawyer Murray Richman recalled his nightmarish childhood.
“I never went to the level of tax evasion where I’d sit down and plot … like a criminal in a comic book,” DMX said when given an opportunity to address the court.
He said, at times getting choked up, that he “wasn’t following the rules.”
DMX, whose albums include “It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot” and “Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood,” recalled that the judge ordered him imprisoned in January for failing to obey bail restrictions that had allowed him to continue performing concerts while he received treatment for drug addictions.
“It woke me up,” he said.
Before that, he said: “I was in a cloud. I wasn’t thinking straight.”
Richman said DMX, who has appeared in movies such as “Last Hour” and “Romeo Must Die,” has been a model prisoner. Still, prosecutors sought five years in prison for him, citing a lengthy rap sheet and drugs.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Cooper said DMX engaged in tax fraud for six years after having paid taxes previously.
“He essentially went off the grid at a certain time,” the prosecutor said.
Richman said he wanted his client free to support his 15 children and pay back nearly $2.3 million in taxes that are part of a restitution order.
Another defense lawyer, Stacey Richman, called DMX “the American dream,” saying he raised himself out of the ghetto with music that was so inspirational that a former Troy homeless woman called the lawyers to say that hearing one of his songs stopped her from killing herself. The woman now is married and raising a child, Stacey Richman said.
As “Slippin’” played in the packed courtroom, DMX nodded his head slightly to the beat while some of his supporters nodded more enthusiastically.
“I’ve never seen a more horrific background in my life,” he said, describing physical and psychological abuse that left DMX’s teeth knocked out and led him to repeated encounters with the law at an early age.
The judge said that in the court’s view DMX “is a good man.”
“In many ways,” the judge said, “he’s his own worst enemy.”
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Composer Jonathan Brielle Guests On “Secrets of the Stage” With Host Quinn Lemley on Sunday, December 22nd, 2024
Composer Jonathan Brielle will be a featured guest on “Secrets of the Stage” hosted by Quinn Lemley on Sunday, December 22nd, 2024.
“Secrets of the Stage” is a tv show on MNN. Watch as Quinn Lemley pulls back the curtain and interviews artists, entrepreneurs and creators to discover their process “behind the scenes.”
Broadway: Jonathan Brielle wrote the music and lyrics for Foxfire with Jessica Tandy (Tony Award) Hume Cronyn, and Keith Carrdine; Off-Broadway: Himself and Nora (book, music, lyrics); Outer Critics Best Musical Nomination, Minetta Lane Theatre 2016; Circle Reperatory Company, NY: dozens of scores as Composer in Residence under Marshall Mason; Regional: Himself and Nora: American Theater Group production. Earlier versions include NYMF, James Joyce Center, Ireland and The Old Globe; Nightmare Alley (book, music. lyrics): Geffen Playhouse, Gil Cates Director, and NYMF. 40 Naked Women, A Monkey and Me (book, music, lyrics) The Eugene O’Neill Cabaret Conference, Axelrod Performing Arts Center.
Las Vegas: Enter The Night (book, music, lyrics) Stardust Hotel 12 years; MadHattan (book, music, lyrics) New York, New York Hotel; US Tours: Rugrats, Live! (Executive Music Supervisor); Goosebumps, Live! (Producer, Music) TV: Wonderama (music, lyrics) for the national television show.
Charitable Organizations: Executive Vice President of the Johnny Mercer Foundation (JMF), creating programs for federally funded schools in New York, Newark, Los Angeles, Miami and Atlanta. Writer/Producer in Residence of the Johnny Mercer Writers’ Grove at Goodspeed Musicals and helps oversee the JMF Songwriting Project at Northwestern University. Jonathan is the former National Projects Director of the Songwriters Guild of America. Jonathan is the Artistic Director and Founder of Vala, a new platform dedicated launching new musicals and providing Forever Free education for grades K-12. He continues to work from Brielle Studios, a state of the art recording facility. After 20 years in TriBeCa, his studios are now located in Tewksbury, New Jersey in a converted schoolhouse built in 1846.
Quinn Lemley is the star of Burlesque to Broadway and Rita Hayworth -The Heat Is On! Appeared on Good Morning America, Oprah and finalist on Shark Tank.
Bwy adventures: Barking Sharks; Sirens Of The Silver Screen; Born To Rhumba! Wanda and The King of Hair, Hollywood Goddess & Universal Language.
Films The Greatest Ears in Town – The Arif Mardin Story, Lucky Stiff, Picasso Would Have Made A Glorious Waiter.
She’s co-directed/produced, Rebel Rebel The Many Lives of David Bowie, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of The Wall, and The Ultimate Queen Celebration. She coaches and directs speakers and performers privately.
Recent charity performances include the Luce Foundation, Lifeforce in Later Years (LiLY), Pause for Peace, and Wonderama TV in Times Square.
Q’s sizzling 6 CDs are available on iTunes. Her latest recording The Heat Is On! Will be released in January 2025 not only on all online platforms but on cd and vinyl as well for preorders visit www.QuinnLemley.com .
Secrets of The Stage with Quinn Lemley about lifestyle & entertainment. Airs Every Sundayon www.MNN.org Channel 4 at 7:30 PM EST or subscribe at www.QuinnLemley.com
“Secrets of the Stage” is produced by Quinn Lemley and Co-Produced by Errol Rappaport for QuinnEssential Productions, LLC.
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