DMX Dropped His Debut Album, “It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot” 25 Years Ago Today
Back before 50 Cent’s debut LP, “Get Rich Or Die Tryin’”, (which also celebrated a big anniversary recently and I blogged about), this album “It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot” was up there with Biggie’s “Ready To Die”, and Wu Tang’s “Enter The 36 Chambers” for greatest rap album debut ever.
I originally wrote this about the album back when Simmons passed away in 2021…
Barstool Sports - People really do forget or don't realize just how massive DMX was 20 years ago.
In 1997 he was a bigger free agent than KD, Lebron, or Giannis. He'd created so much buzz on the mixtape circuit and on huge features that he had every record label under the sun barking up his tree (pun intended).
When people heard him on Ma$e's "24 Hours To Live" the buzz only grew louder. His unmistakable raspiness in his voice, hard core lines with his high energy cadence that sounded like he was shouting was one of a kind.
There’s a famous story of Irv Gotti signing on to Def Jam as an A&R and immediately wanting to sign DMX. The execs laughed at him so he threatened to quit.
Gotti took the president of Def Jam at the time, Lyor Cohen, and Dame Dash to a studio to hear DMX in person. They arrived to find his jaw wired shut, due to a brawl he got in a day earlier with somebody. He still rapped for them and blew them away.
(Something tells me that had Murda Inc. and Gotti been successful in signing him, 50 Cent would have thought twice about mounting the all out attack he did on them in the early 2000s.)
He eventually took a deal from Lyor Cohen and Def Jam and put the label on his back, coming straight out the gates flying, with one of the biggest debut albums of all time- It's Dark and Hell Is Hot which he released in May 1998.
To say this album was massive would be a giant understatement.
You couldn't walk through a parking lot without hearing a track off it pumping from a car, or when turning the dial on your radio.
We're talking arguably the greatest intro track on a rap album ever (2nd place 50 Cent's GRODT)
The track was SO fire that the biggest boxer of all time, Mike Tyson, used it as his walk-out song for his return fight after the infamous Evander Holyfield incident.
We're talking Ruff Ryders Anthem. A song so big-time that it still goes just as hard 24 years later.
Every rap album in the 90s needed to have that quintessential rap/r&b smooth joint for the ladies and X had his along with Faith Evans with "Hows It Goin Down?"
Another monster Swizz and Dame Grease hit- "Get At Me Dog"
And of course "Stop Being Greedy"
The debut set the tone for the next 5 years in hip hop and shifted the dynamic not only back to the East Coast, but to the aggressive, in-your-face, street-tough sound. It didn't just have hits it had anthems that have stood the test of time decades later.
Ruff Ryders were the coolest crew on the fuckin planet. Everybody wanted to rock their jackets, and race four-wheelers down the streets. DMX was a megastar.
His debut album was still white-hot in the streets and on radio when 7 months later on December 22nd he dropped Flesh Of My Flesh, Blood Of My Blood, seemingly out of nowhere.
At the risk of repeating myself with something I find myself saying far too often, where the hell does the time go?
It feels like just yesterday this album and DMX were all the rage. You blink and 25 years has flown by. Damn