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DMX will be posthumously ordained as a minister in his home state.
According to a report AllHipHop published on Monday, January 5, the late rapper, born Earl Simmons, will be ordained posthumously by the Gospel Cultural Center at the Foster Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church in Tarrytown, New York. DMX, who passed away in April 2021, was a gritty MC with notable street hits, but he was also an avid Christian and was dedicated to his faith. He openly prayed during his concerts and often integration spiritual themes into his music from his debut album, It's Dark And Hell Is Hot, to his final LP, Exodus.
“Earl Simmons wrestled with God in the public square, turning his pain into a ministry of raw truth,” said Bishop Dr. Osiris Imhotep, founder of the Gospel Cultural Center. “This ordination recognizes the divine calling he fulfilled every time he spoke a prayer into a microphone.”
Simmons will be ordained during a special ceremony at Foster Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church, which was once a stop on the historic Underground Railroad. The 164-year-old sanctuary was founded in 1860 and is one of the earliest African Methodist Episcopal Zion congregations in Westchester County. Simmons was born in Mount Vernon and raised in Yonkers.
Throughout his music career, DMX aspired to become a pastor and often preached the gospel to whoever would listen, including a woman who was down on her luck in 2013. While he was locked up in 2009, X said he was sent there to spread the gospel.
"I came here to meet somebody," he said in an interview with MTV at the time of his incarceration. "I don't know who it is, but I came to tell them that Jesus loves them. To tell them about the glory of God."
DMX's ceremony is set for January 10 at 3 p.m.