![]() Watching the documentary right now is heartbreaking because it emphasizes his loss-to his family before anyone else. DMX died trying to do right, but unable to escape demons that followed him for decades. In the next scene, he sings Gladys Knight & the Pips’ cover of “The Way We Were” / “Try to Remember” with Halloween decorations and his blended family in the background. You’re my family,” DMX says while hugging his older children before the night comes to an end. Exodus plays with his older siblings while DMX and Simmons talk about how he’s coping with addiction. There’s a moment where he, Lindstrom, and his ex-wife, Tashera Simmons, get together with all of their children. The most gutting part of DMX: Don’t Try to Understand is that it offers a glimmer of hope. It’s a tragedy that DMX only lived to see 50, but it’s also a miracle that he made it as far as he did because his entire life was a fight to break free of the toxicity he learned from the very people who brought him into this world. ![]() His father was mostly absent and, as DMX explains in older footage and clips from VH1’s Couples Therapy, his mother’s abuse and abandonment had a lasting effect because it funneled him into the system. There’s a straight line between DMX’s mistakes with his children and his mistreatment at the hands of own parents. The film includes footage of their 2013 appearance on Iyanla, Fix My Life, where Xavier tells his father that he wants DMX’s sobriety to be part of their relationship moving forward and DMX chides him for trying to place a condition on it.ĭMX and Exodus Simmons in DMX: Don't Try to Understand. It’s as if he’s trying to do right by Exodus to make amends for the mistakes he made with Xavier, who he says, “Didn’t come with an instruction manual.” Xavier spends a lot of time discussing how rocky he and DMX’s relationship has been and how much some of his father’s decisions have hurt him. ![]() Earlier in the film, he calls Exodus his “inspiration”-the ultimate motivator to get his life in order. “Nobody wanna hear that,” he says before cradling Exodus in an attempt to comfort him. He’s a doting father in nearly every scene with Exodus (in 2019, he told GQ he was happiest when looking at his youngest son), save for one where he snatches a cell phone away from the boy, who bursts into tears. The film zeroes in on DMX’s relationships with Exodus and his oldest son, Xavier. It comes at the start of a season in which so many people look forward to seeing their loved ones, while others cope with either having strained relationships with theirs or having lost them altogether. The latter is where the documentary cuts deepest. The documentary’s throughline is DMX’s return-to his native Yonkers to Def Jam, home to his glory during the 1990s and early 2000s and to his family. A video for a new track entitled 'Last Hope' was released via the Internet on September 24, 2011, and was later included on The Weigh In EP released digitally on May 5, 2012. But it also offers glimpses of his relationships with his fiancee, ex-wife, and children, as he wrestles with past mistakes in an attempt to make things right moving forward. ![]() First and foremost, it shows DMX-who died of a cocaine-induced heart attack in April at the age of 50-struggling with drug addiction. It’s a difficult watch for several reasons. Throughout, the rapper attempts to revitalize his career while reconnecting with the people closest to him, specifically his family. The film, directed by Chris Frierson, follows DMX for a year following his release from jail, where he spent a year for tax evasion. If you appreciate the good, then you have to accept the bad.The holiday season and the dynamics that come with it-homecomings family-made the Thanksgiving Day release of HBO’s documentary, DMX: Don’t Try to Understand, particularly apt. And I don't even know that purpose because God has given me that purpose since before I was in the womb, so I'm going to fulfill that purpose…whether I want to or not, whether I know it or not because the story has already been written. One of the bravest things you can do is put it on the table, chop it up, and just let it out." – People's Party with Talib Kweli (2020) On religion: I didn't really have anybody to talk to… in the hood, nobody wants to hear that. Talking about your problems is viewed as a sign of weakness when actually it's one of the bravest things you can do. "I learned that I had to deal with the things that hurt me.
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