The daughter of late rapper DMX took to the stage over the weekend and held her own on the mic during a show in Texas, where she remixed a few of her father's songs.
X was scheduled to play at Wildcatter Saloon in Katy, Texas in late May, but the bar decided to turn it into a tribute concert following his death earlier this year. Sonovah Hillman Jr., the late artist’s 8-year-old daughter, effortlessly flowed on the mic as fans and relatives cheered her on to renditions of songs like "Ruff Ryders' Anthem."
On Instagram, Sonovah later thanked the bar's owners for allowing her to perform her first concert, one that she said she’ll ever forget.
"Thank you so much @wildcatter_saloon I won’t ever forget you giving me the opportunity," the 8-year-old wrote. "My first concert [tongue sticking out emoji] forever grateful [praying hands emoji] big thank you and shout out to Justin, John, Carmen, and Scott. When I make it big I’m coming back. I promise. #FOREVERDMX."
Members from Ruff Ryders, including long-time member Drag-On, also performed during the concert.
The young femcee's mother, Sonovah Hillman, said her daughter doesn’t just look like her father but she also shares many of his traits, according to Revolt TV.
“Sometimes she looks just like him depending on the angle you catch her,” she said. “She has a lot of his traits as far as an artist. Writing is easy for her.”
As Blavity previously reported, the rapper died in April after suffering a heart attack as a result of a drug overdose. Although sources close to him said that he was at one point in a “vegetative state,” X’s family later shared a statement detailing that he was a loving “warrior who fought till the very end.”
The day before her father’s death was announced, the young rapper, also known by her stage name as JRX, shared a photo of her in front of the building that her father grew up in.
“We took this picture in the same spot. I’m walking in your footsteps. I love you dad,” she wrote in the caption of the photo.
During a memorial service weeks after X’s death, his daughter performed a personalized rendition of DMX’s “Slippin,” Blavity reported.
“He taught me to be strong, but it’s OK to be afraid/‘Cause sometimes it’ll show you how to be brave/I never give up, I give it my all/‘Cause I know I’m big, even though I look small/Lookin’ at my daddy’s picture on the wall…My brothers and sisters, we all stand together/Throw up the X, daddy forever,” she rapped.
According to Revolt, producers were in talks with the budding rapper about joining her father on a couple of songs for his posthumous album, Exodus, which released last week.
In an interview on the popular radio show The Breakfast Club, super-producer Swizz Beats, who contributed to DMX's recent album, revealed that the late rapper has plenty of unreleased music stored. He added that he would like to see the rapper’s legacy protected.
"I don’t want to just put things out, and even with the footage, we recorded the whole process of the album, and we could’ve been putting that footage out right now leading up to the album. But I’m like, ‘let's do something masterful with it. Let's treat it as art and curate it to where it adds to his legacy and is not just a blip of a moment that seems like it works, but you still don’t understand the whole story,” he said.
