Even so, It's Dark and Hell Is Hot is a tremendous debut, laying out DMX's complex persona with candor, from his faith in God to his fixation with canine motifs, and doing so with dramatic flair. DMX's most successful release is their third studio album. According to the sources, he has sold more than 19.8 million records worldwide in his career, including over 18.1 million in the United States alone. The long running length of It's Dark and Hell Is Hot does wear you down after a while, since nearly every song here sans "How's It Goin' Down" hits hard and maintains the album's deadly serious attitude. This discography is an overview of the musical works of the American rapper DMX. It helpes that his album includes a few mammoth highlights ("Ruff Ryders' Anthem," "Get at Me Dog," "Let Me Fly," and "I Can Feel It") as well as a light, mid-album diversion ("How's It Goin' Down"). DMX came from the era of skits on rap albums, and on his 1998 debut, It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot, he offers up an upfront prayer that serves as a functional mission statement for his entire career. He professes an ideology that stresses the inner world - characterized by such qualities as survival, wisdom, strength, respect, and faith - rather than the material one that infatuates most rappers of his time. And Then There Was X (1999) The Great Depression (2001) Grand Champ (2003) Year of the Dog. His rapid ascent to stardom was actually almost a decade in the making, which gave him a chance to develop the theatrical. The foremost Ruff Ryders MC was that rare commodity: a commercial powerhouse with artistic and street credibility to spare. Further unlike so many other hardcore rappers from the time, DMX is meaningful as well as symbolic. Discography It's Dark and Hell Is Hot (1998) Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood (1998). DMX was the hardcore rap heir to 2Pac and the Notorious B.I.G. He also collaborates with muscular producers Swizz Beatz and Dame Grease, who specialize in slamming synth-driven beats rather than sample-driven ones. He showcases his chiseled physique on the arresting album cover and trumpets his animalistic nature with frequent barking, growling, and snarling throughout the album. DMX (rapper) Earl Simmons (born December 18, 1970), known professionally as DMX, is an American rapper and actor. Unlike so many other hardcore rappers who are more rhetorical than physical, DMX commands an aggressive aura without even speaking a word. Just as rap music was reaching its toughest, darkest, grimmest period yet, following the assassinations of 2Pac and Biggie in the late '90s, along came DMX and his fellow Ruff Ryders, who embodied the essence of inner-city machismo to a tee, as showcased throughout the tellingly titled It's Dark and Hell Is Hot.