Days ahead of rapper DMX's Friday passing, fellow hip-hop artist Master P criticized hip-hop for not doing enough to support musicians who struggle with addiction. The iconic rapper died in a White Plains, New York hospital and is believed to have suffered an overdose.
“DMX is an icon, and I just hate that we have to wait till something happens to one of these guys, or to one of us, before everybody really starts saying how much they care, and they love you,” he said in an impromptu interview with TMZ. “I mean, we gotta figure out how to prevent that…Drugs done killed a lot of our great ones, and sent a lot of ’em to prison, and I’m praying for DMX and his family. And I hope that people start celebrating these icons while they’re alive, imagine all the stuff we could’ve prevented for DMX, to help him.”
In addition to Master P’s criticism of the hip-hop community, mogul DJ Funkmaster Flex also argued that more could have been done to prevent his hospitalization, as Blavity previously reported.
“The music business is a gorilla. It’s a bottomless pit of happiness or depression,” the Hot 97 DJ said, according to Page Six. “I don’t wanna say people don’t help you but I do want to say there are people who actually know [when a star is struggling, but don’t help sometimes].”
“People can find the picture… that they had with the person that’s going through a tragedy in 30 seconds,” Flex added. “But you haven’t called that person in 10 years. Let me see the picture of you when you went afterwards to his house because you was so concerned.”
Funkmaster Flex continued with the importance of honing in on people's struggles and how having done so with DMX could have helped future artists.
“I know he shares his demons and we may have to amplify that demon and amplify his story and his feelings so that the next generation can kind of see a little better, a little clearer,” the 52-year-old said.
Master P also suggested that the hip-hop industry unionizes in order to prevent artists from reverting back to their old ways.
“I feel like hip-hop need some type of union,” he added. “The NBA have it. What happens when a guy fall off? After he done sold millions of millions of records—even a female—what happens? Think about it, the NBA, when they done, they go to SportsCenter, they can sit around—where do hip-hop go? Go back to the hood.”
The 50-year-old multi-hyphenate also thinks education could be the catalyst for change and possibly prevent the next generation of rappers from succumbing to their struggles with substance abuse.
“I think it starts with education. I want to really start educating our people and letting them see that– even LeBron and KD, Kyrie Irving, everybody that represents Black Lives Matter, when the NBA talks about they're putting money back into HBCUs, I want to see where that money go at," he said. "The education that we can invest in the next generation, we can prevent this. If you look at all the heroes and stars that we lost– I mean, hopefully, God turns this around. DMX, come back to us. Let's see if the people that's out here that's making noise for him be there for him."
As Master P continues to pray for DMX to make full recovery, he mentioned how unique the "Party Up" rapper truly is.
“There will never be another DMX, he’s one of a kind,” he added.
