DMX is cracking down on his former mentor Ready Ron for letting him do drugs as a teenager.
In an emotional new interview with Uproxx, rapper DMX is recalling the first time he smoked crack. The anecdote is a sad one as, according to X, it was his mentor at the time, someone he trusted, that led him astray. The rapper was visibly flustered as he struggled to get through the story in the interview. When he composed himself, he managed to reveal that he was only 14 years old at the time when his mentor passed him that first laced blunt.
“Everything in my life is blessed with a curse,” DMX began. “I didn’t smoke cigarettes, I didn’t smoke weed, I didn’t do anything, I’m 14-years-old.” The rapper explained that he was at a birthday party where he gifted his friend money. Upon his friend’s return, he had a blunt that he tried to pass to X but the rapper denied it the first time. “He came back with a blunt rolled up. And as I’m counting the money, he passed the blunt,” he explained before adding that he rejected it.
When it came back around, it was Ready Ron who passed it to the rapper the second time, and he obliged. “I was no longer focused on the money. I’ve never felt like this. It just f*cked me up,” said DMX. He revealed that he later found out that his mentor laced the blunt with crack. “Why would you do that to a child?” an emotional DMX asked in the interview. “Why would you do that to someone who looks up to you?” X went on to add that he wouldn’t wish it on his worst enemy. “A monster was born. That monster was born,” he added.
The events of that night inspired DMX to pen a song called “Pain,” which he recited on Uproxx. “I smoked crack at 14 for the first time / Given to me by a n***a that I idolize / My love is real but after that what I saw in his eyes / Was a snake, who I love was just a disguise,” he raps. The rapper later reiterated that the person he loved was a snake, and he just acted like he was a good person.
DMX thanked the interviewer for “opening up that door” and helping him to have an outlet. He maintained that drugs were never a problem but rather a symptom of a bigger problem. The rapper also said he’s learned that he has to deal with the stuff he’s been through that he did not address in the past so he can avoid a meltdown or it coming out in the wrong ways later.
“So often talking about your problems is viewed as a sign of weakness when it’s actually one of the bravest things you can do,” DMX said.
