When Yonkers rapper DMX was recently arrested for allegedly raping and sodomizing a 29-year-old woman, a chill ran down the collective spine of the hip-hop nation. Touted as the next Tupac, DMX, however, lacks the eloquence of the late Shakur to fend off media sharks. In a recent New York Post article, reporter Lisa Robinson, obviously looking for some shred of a quote to convict DMX in the public arena, uses a cheap trick to undermine his character. By highlighting the meaningless detail of the rapper's speech pattern that punctuates each sentence with "you know what I'm saying," Robinson implies that his "language of the streets" is a signifier for a character-less man. Though DMX denies ever being incarcerated for rape, drugs, or murder, Robinson continues to press him about any assault and battery charges. He replies, "Nah, there's no money in assault and battery"-an honest but ill-advised answer. Maybe the premium on street credibility is so high that DMX can't divorce himself from the grimy street image he lives and portrays, even for the sake of seeming mildly remorseful for the illegal things he might have done in the past. But more importantly, maybe The Post should have included his past criminal history in one paragraph in an objective news story about the rape charges and not have tried to manufacture a story out of a few less than thoughtful quotes.
