Source: Stephanie Keith / Getty
The first of DMX’s memorial services was held on April 24, 2021 and family and friends gathered at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, New York. During his homegoing, many spoke and reminisced about the person X was. One highlight of the sad occasion was when one of his daughters remixed one of his songs and made it into a tribute to her father.
“My dad taught me to be strong,” she said on the stage surrounded with her siblings. “I learned so much from him. So I dedicate this song to him.”
The adorable youngster then went into her own rendition of DMX’s track “Slippin.” She replaced the chorus with: “Ayo I’m growin’, I’m learning to hold my head up/My dad is still holdin’ my hand so I gotta get up.”
She then rapped:
My brothers and my sisters, we all stand together/Throw up the X, Daddy forever/ I learned how to understand the good and the bad/ I look in the mirror and sometimes I see my dad/ I know he’s with God ’cause I know he loved him/When he was here he put nobody above him/He taught me how to pray when I wake up and when I got to sleep/Pray for my family/Pray before I eat/And Sometimes when I feel sad and weak, I can still hear him speak/ By all means, I’mma do what’s right/ Even in the dark, I’mma be the light/ I can do it even when I’m feeling sad/ You all call him DMX, I call him Dad.”
Eve also gave an emotional speech about the late rapper.
“I am seriously the luckiest, luckiest woman in the world to have been adopted by the Ruff Ryders,” she said. “But to have known DMX the way that I knew him, as a man, a father, a friend… this is so hard, y’all. What I pray, what I hope, I pray to God, I pray to our angels, I pray to our ancestors that his journey was smooth. I know that he will rest in power, rest in love, but most of all he will rest in peace.”
Swizz Beatz, X’s longtime friend and producer, also spoke at DMX’s homegoing and called out those who weren’t there for the troubled star when he was alive. He encouraged everyone to give people their roses while they could still smell them.
“I just wish all these people showed up for him when he was here,” he said. “You got thousands of people claiming who they are and tickets and things like that. This man needed everybody. He didn’t need everybody when he’s not here, he needed everybody when he was here. We have to learn to celebrate each other while we’re here.”
He added: “I want to be sent off with the same love that I had when you were standing next to me. The things that I’m witnessing from my brother’s passing was a big educational thing for me to learn. I’m glad I got to see it at this age. A lot of people aren’t your friends, a lot of people aren’t your family.”
DMX died on April 9, 2021 after suffering a heart attack and being on life support for almost a week. He was 50-years-old. He left behind his fiancée, Desiree Lindstrom, and 15 children.
DMX’s second memorial service will be held on April 25, 2021 at 2:30 p.m EST and be livestreamed on YouTube and BET.
