YMMV / DMX

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• Harsher in Hindsight: Many after his death.
  • "Slippin'" becomes this after his fatal heart attack via drug overdose in 2021, which left him in a coma and ended in his demise just a week later.
  • "The Omen" starts with X dying on a hospital deathbed before getting revived by Damien, which becomes much creepier for obvious reasons.
  • "Lord Give Me A Sign" is another example, like Slippin, It all dealt with his personal demons ready to try to add a more positive affirmation that he'll go through whatever the Lord wants him to, In order to get closer to him.
  • His verse on "24 Hours to Live" and the song in general is centered around the idea that the rappers, as the name implies, only have one day to live and have to make amends before they pass. Needless to say, this song stings to listen to after X's coma and subsequent passing, knowing all of the good he wanted to do before he left us.
  • One particular line in "X Gon' Give It To Ya" becomes troubling to hear after X's death from heart failure:
    Go hard, gettin' busy with it, but I got such a good heart
    that I'll make a motherfucker wonder if he did it
• It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: His later albums progressively turned towards more pop-styled beats, which attracted criticism that it was moving away from hip-hop itself.
• Magnificent Bastard: "The Professional" from ... And Then There Was X: DMX is a prolific hitman who assassinates his targets in various ways. Introduced assassinating a mark by sniping him, X hides within a crowd to tail his next target, killing him and getting rid of the clothes and the weapon he used in order to destroy all evidence. X describes the various ways he can assassinate his victims, which includes using various disguises, bombing his target's car, stalking his target back home before making a noise to attract their attention to gun them down or hide in their target's car's backseat before strangling them to death once they're inside. While he admittedly enjoys his work, X isn't devoid of remorse nor professionalism or standards, putting aside his feelings while working and stating he's above hurting women or children.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Hooding" a video or flash animation. Example here, but make sure your speakers are turned down.
  • The usage of "X Gon' Give It To Ya" in conjunction with Mr. X from Resident Evil 2 (Remake).
• Narm: "Where the Hood At?" has shameless gay-bashing in its first verse, and then DMX callously telling his enemies to perform sex acts on him in the third verse. The cognitive dissonance in this song is unbelievable.
• Narm Charm: The frequent barking. While it can sound ridiculous to many, it's one of his trademarks for a reason.
• Nightmare Fuel: His "Damien" trilogy, particularly the second installment, "The Omen," which features a Dark Reprise of the chorus from the first song, and said reprise is sung by none other than Marilyn Manson. Even putting Manson’s vocals aside, the beat and lyrics are fairly unsettling as well.
• Older Than They Think: DMX was recording demos nearly a decade before It's Dark and Hell Is Hot was released.
• Retroactive Recognition: Not DMX himself, but his song "X Gon' Give It To Ya". While it has gained popularity in later years due to its usage in other media (see rest of the page for details,) few will recognize the song as the lead single for Cradle 2 the Grave, the movie where X himself was billed alongside Jet Li.
• Signature Song: "Party Up" and "Ruff Ryder's Anthem" were the original contender. "X Gon' Give It To Ya" has gained traction for its usage in Rick and Morty and later Deadpool. It also had gained significant traction thanks to the above mentioned Resident Evil 2 remake, plus its longstanding status as a popular party and drinking song.
• Unexpected Character: "The Omen" is a collaboration with Marilyn Manson. This was pretty surprising given that Manson had never worked with a rap artist before, and even more surprising given that he is the sole rock artist to be featured on a DMX song.

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