After spending nearly a year in federal prison, DMX is a free man once again.
X, whose real name is Earl Simmons, was serving time at the Gilmer Federal Correctional Institution in West Virginia for tax evasion. He was also ordered to pay $2.3 million in restitution.
TMZ had the first pictures of the rapper after he got out of prison. The mercurial rapper, who from 1998 to 2002 was one of the most popular and best-selling hip-hop artists in the business, has battled drug and alcohol addiction and had numerous brushes with the law over the last 15 years.
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At the time of his sentencing, he claimed to not realize how serious his crime was and apologized for other run-ins with the law, saying, “I was in a cloud. I was in a cloud. I wasn’t thinking straight.”
Last week, Page Six reported that X would also like another opportunity to appear on Iyanla Vanzant’s “Fix My Life.” His infamous first appearance six years ago featured him storming off of the set while screaming “shut the f—k up” at Iyanla.
“Earl — that’s what I call him — wrote us again,” Vanzant said to the gossip site. “The last thing I said to [him] was, ‘You will never have the opportunity to speak to me again.’ But that was before I realized that I failed him.”
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Along with possibly fixing his life, X is apparently also planning on dropping a new album and possibly doing a biopic. His most recent album was 2015’s Redemption of the Beast, which was an unauthorized project that was a victim of a dispute between DMX and is former label Seven Arts Music.
X must also pay $2.3 million in restitution to the federal government and he also has to start outpatient programs for substance abuse and mental health.