January 20, 2009 | 6:40 pm

Awaiting prison time, DMX still wants to be a minister

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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Remember when MC Hammer got all jazzed for Jesus? Well, I didn’t realize this but DMX wants to follow in the former rapping footsteps. I guess he tried this back in 2003—that was before he was “arrested at the John F. Kennedy International Airport on charges of cocaine possession, criminal impersonation, criminal possession of a weapon, criminal mischief, menacing, and driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol while claiming to be a federal agent and attempting to carjack a vehicle”—but then went back to rapping at Mase’s advice. Yes, the former Puff Daddy protege is also a minister now.

Last month DMX pleaded guilty to drug possession, theft and animal cruelty, and is awaiting sentencing of at least 90 days in prison. But DMX is again talking about giving ministry a try:

Though his situation may appear bleak, the popular rapper tried to look at it in a positive light.

“I came here to meet somebody,” said the rapper, referred to in the interview as simply “X.” “Don’t know who it was, but I’ll know when I see him. And I came here to give him a message. And that message is Jesus loves them.”

For those familiar with DMX, the rapper’s latest statements sounds not too different from what he claimed in March 2003, when he said he planned to retire from rap and turn to preaching.

What most will likely find odd, however, is the explanation he offers in defense of the profane and violent lyrics that lace his songs and how he even encourages his children to listen to them.

“It’s just slick talk; it’s not something to be taken literally. Evidently, if I was doing that, I wouldn’t be rapping,” he said.

“It’s word play, poetry,” he added.

DMX was also quick to note that the central messages to his songs are contained at the end of them and that the course he takes to deliver that message is to gain the attention and the credibility of his listeners.

“What it boils down to, and it always boils down to, is a gospel song and a prayer,” he said. “Every album I ended with a gospel song and a prayer.”

Though many may have their doubts about DMX, considering his present state, the rapper’s hope for those not familiar with him is that they withhold judgment.

“Don’t have an assumption on who I am until you’ve met me,” he said.

“You can’t look at … one instance and determine who that man is,” DMX contended.

Bone Thugs

True, but multiple run-ins with the law doesn’t really quality as “one instance.” DMX’s statements evoke for me the cognitive dissonance I struggled with when, as a kid, I read through the jacket of a Bone Thugs ~N~ Harmony CD. Each member was effusive about their Lord Jesus Christ and how God had saved them and was the provider of everything they had achieved and how they loved Him and all that. But the album was full of hits like “Mo’ Murda” and “First of the Month”:

‘Cause it’s the 1st of the month and now we smokin’, chokin’, rollin’ blunts
And sippin’ on 40 ounces thuggin’ come come we got the blessed rum

Anyway, Hammer is after the jump: