Looks like everyone’s favorite gravel-voiced rapper won’t be shutting ‘em down or opening up shop for the remainder of 2018.
DMX has been sentenced to one year behind bars for tax fraud.
This despite playing one of his most memorable hits for the judge in hopes of getting off with a more lenient sentence.
Yes, it was an unusual legal strategy, but believe it or not, it may have paid off.
X (real name Earl Simmons) was facing five years behind bars for evading $ 1.7 million in taxes.
Manhattan federal Judge Jed Rakoff went easy on the father of 15 (!!!) with a one-year sentence, describing Simmons as “a good man” who is “his own worst enemy.”
It’s unclear if Rakoff was moved by the lyrics to “Slippin"” a 1998 DMX hit that Simmons’ lawyers played in court so that the judge could hear their clients’ story “in his own words.”
Whatever the case, Simmons got off light in terms of time behind bars, but he’ll be burdened by a heavy debt to Uncle Sam when he gets out.
The rapper has been ordered to pay $ 2.3 million in restitution
Prior to sentencing, Simmons wept and asked for leniency so that he could spend time with his 18-month-old son who suffers from a medical condition.
“I was in a cloud. I was in a cloud,” Simmons told the judge, attributing many of his past mistakes to drug use.
“I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“I didn’t believe that s–t stank,” Simmons continued.
This week’s sentencing is the latest in a long line of troubles for Simmons.
In 2016, the rapper nearly died of an overdose, and he has reportedly struggled to remain sober in the years since.
Prosecutors pushed for a harsher sentence, arguing that Simmons knew exactly what he was doing when he bilked the federal government out of millions.
“This is not a lapse in judgment. This is not a 1-year-old thing,” said assistant DA Richard Cooper.
Simmons has been in prison since January of this year when he violated his probation by testing positive for cocaine and opioids.