Earl Simmons, the pioneering hardcore rapper better known as DMX, died Friday after suffering a heart attack. He was 50 years old.
"We are deeply saddened to announce today that our loved one, DMX, birth name of Earl Simmons, passed away at 50 years old at White Plains Hospital with his family by his side after being placed on life support for the past few days," the rapper's family said in a statement. "Earl was a warrior who fought till the very end. He loved his family with all of his heart and we cherish the times we spent with him. Earl's music inspired countless fans across the world and his iconic legacy will live on forever. We appreciate all of the love and support during this incredibly difficult time. Please respect our privacy as we grieve the loss of our brother, father, uncle and the man the world knew as DMX. We will share information about his memorial service once details are finalized."
Rolling Stone reported that on Friday, April 2, DMX was rushed to the hospital after collapsing at his home. The next day, the rapper's lawyer, Murray Richman, confirmed that he was in the ICU in a coma and on life support. DMX remained in a vegetative state into the following week as hundreds of fans gathered around the hospital for a prayer vigil.
Following the mid-'90s hip-hop movement marked by trailblazers such as Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., DMX arrived with his debut album, It's Dark and Hell Is Hot, in 1998. He was often heralded for his unconventional juxtaposition of Christian themes with a gritty, uproarious exterior, easily discernible by his raspy flow.
Across his two-decade career, DMX released eight studio albums. His best-selling album to date, 1999's ...And Then There Was X, boasted popular singles like "Party Up" and "What These B*tches Want."
DMX has often been dubbed one of the most influential rappers of all time. His exaggerated delivery can be heard in modern-day artists such as JPEGMafia and Death Grips, while his Christian subtexts have undoubtedly touched Kanye West and Chance the Rapper. Kendrick Lamar has proclaimed DMX as one of his primary inspirations.
One way or another, DMX has impacted an entire generation of rappers, and his bold work will be remembered for decades to come.
DMX - Ruff Ryders' Anthem (Official Music Video)www.youtube.com
DIANA ROSS AND THE SUPREMES - FLORENCE BALLARD, MARY WILSON AND DIANA ROSS
Marc Sharratt/Shutterstock
Mary Wilson, member of the iconic girl group the Supremes, died Monday, February 8 at the age of 76.
According to a statement released by Wilson's publicist and obtained by NBC News, the singer died in her sleep at her Las Vegas home. Her cause of death has not yet been confirmed.
Alongside Diana Ross, Florence Ballard, and Betty McGlown, Wilson was a founder and original member of the Supremes, who in the 1960s were Motown's most successful act. With mainstream success rivaling that of the Beatles at the time, Wilson stayed in the Supremes until 1977, after which the group disbanded.
"The Supremes were always known as the 'sweethearts of Motown,'" Motown founder Berry Gordy said in a statement. "Mary, along with Diana Ross and Florence Ballard, came to Motown in the early 1960s. After an unprecedented string of No. 1 hits, television and nightclub bookings, they opened doors for themselves, the other Motown acts, and many, many others... She was a trailblazer, a diva and will be deeply missed."
The Supremes are one of the best-selling girl groups in the world, nabbing a dozen No. 1 singles in their early years; these include "Where Did Our Love Go," "Baby Love," "Come See About Me," "Stop! In the Name of Love," and "Back in My Arms Again," all of which Wilson sang on. After departing the Supremes, Wilson released two solo records
Wilson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, and received countless other accolades throughout her life that testify to her enduring legacy.
The Supremes - Stop! In The Name of Love [The Hollywood Palace - 1965]www.youtube.com
Academy Award-winning actor and Hollywood legend Christopher Plummer died today, DEADLINEreports.
Plummer's family confirmed that the actor, known for his roles in The Sound of Music and more recently Knives Out, died peacefully at his home in Connecticut. His wife of over 50 years, actress Elaine Taylor, was by his side. He was 91.
Born in Toronto, Ontario and raised in Senneville, Quebec, Plummer exhibited a love for acting as a child. In the early stages of his professional career, he took on an array of stage roles, including Marc Antony in Julius Caesar and the title character of Henry V at Connecticut's American Shakespeare Festival. He was a noted theatre aficionado.
In 1965, Plummer became a household name for his portrayal of Captain Georg von Trapp in The Sound of Music. The film has repeatedly been cited as one of the best of all time, and Plummer's performance was lauded by critics. However, aside from his relationship with scene partner Julie Andrews, he famously disliked working on the film. In interviews and writing throughout his career, he's referred to it as "that movie," "S&M," or "The Sound of Mucus."
"I was a bit bored with the character,'' he said in 2010. "Although we worked hard enough to make him interesting, it was a bit like flogging a dead horse. And the subject matter is not mine. I mean it can't appeal to every person in the world. It's not my cup of tea.''
For the next few decades, Plummer appeared on Broadway and in countless other films, including Waterloo,The Pyx, and The Return of the Pink Panther. He maintained a steady career, acting in well over 100 films.
But it wasn't until 2010 when Plummer would receive his first Academy Award nomination at age 80 for portraying the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station. While he ended up losing to Christoph Waltz, he seemed to have delighted in the recognition: "I'm very glad to get [a nomination]," he said. "I think nominations are the prize itself - that's the honor, to be nominated with all the other actors who have all done good work....What can I say except thanks all around?"
Two years later, however, Plummer would finally take home his golden statuette. He won the Oscar for Best Actor after starring in Mike Mills' independent drama Beginners as Hal, a man who dies of cancer shortly after coming out as a gay man. At 82, this made Plummer the oldest actor to win the award.
"You're only two years older than me, darling," Plummer exclaimed at his trophy during his acceptance speech. "Where have you been all my life?"
Christopher Plummer Wins Supporting Actor: 2012 Oscarswww.youtube.com
In 2017, Plummer starred as petrol-industrialist and patriarch J. Paul Getty in All the Money in the World, which earned him Golden Globe, BAFTA and Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor. One of his final projects was the 2019 mystery drama Knives Out, in which he starred in an ensemble cast alongside Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, and Lakeith Stanfield.
Lou Pitt, Plummer's longtime friend and manager, said in a statement: "Chris was an extraordinary man who deeply loved and respected his profession with great old fashion [sic] manners, self deprecating humor and the music of words. He was a National Treasure who deeply relished his Canadian roots. Through his art and humanity, he touched all of our hearts and his legendary life will endure for all generations to come. He will forever be with us."
Plummer remains an inarguable icon, who will be remembered for his unmatched talent and charm. He will be deeply missed.
Sophie Xeon — the avant-pop producer known mononymously as SOPHIE — died January 30 in Athens, Greece, where the artist was living.
"Tragically our beautiful Sophie passed away this morning after a terrible accident," SOPHIE's record label, Transgressive, announced in a statement. "True to her spirituality she had climbed up to watch the full moon and accidentally slipped and fell. She will always be here with us." SOPHIE was 34.
With abrasive and kinetic production, SOPHIE pioneered what would later become known as simply "hyperpop," the subgenre that includes left-field electronic acts like 100 gecs and Dorian Electra.
After originally keeping a concealed identity, SOPHIE came out as a transgender woman in late 2017; representatives told Pitchfork after SOPHIE's death that the artist preferred using no gendered pronouns. As much as SOPHIE revolutionized pop music, SOPHIE's critical achievements also marked unprecedented representation for the trans community.
Born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland, SOPHIE took an interest in electronic music at a young age, learning to DJ as a child. After cutting teeth in the U.K. underground club scene, SOPHIE met A. G. Cook, the label head of the influential record label PC Music, with whom SOPHIE would become closely affiliated.
After a string of singles and mixtapes, SOPHIE's first and only proper album, OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES, arrived in the summer of 2018, earning SOPHIE a Grammy nomination for the Best Dance/Electronic Album.
Delightfully over-the-top, SOPHIE's musical style is often imitated, but never replicated. SOPHIE's contributions to the music industry as a whole are palpable, as is the devastating loss of a modern-day icon. It's arguable that no producer in the 21st century was as influential as SOPHIE.
To remember a musical innovator lost far too soon, we've rounded up just a few of our favorite tracks that SOPHIE produced.
5. Charli XCX, “Vroom Vroom”
After SOPHIE's early singles garnered some moderate support from music blogs, a much-deserved breakthrough finally came when the producer was tapped for Charli XCX's 2016 EP, Vroom Vroom. With its cheeky opening demand — "let's ride!" — and an ascending syncopated synth riff, the EP's title track arrives like a shot of adrenaline straight into the bloodstream. As far as SOPHIE's catalog is concerned, the beat of "Vroom Vroom" is comparatively minimalistic, with platform-stomping percussion accentuating Charli's alternations between coy raps and falsetto singing.
"When I met SOPHIE, it was like: Wow, you get it, and you get me, and you also make me feel something," Charli told Vogue in 2019 about working on "Vroom Vroom." "There are very few artists who make me feel something up my core and make me wanna cry."
"Justice and Uffie made me feel something when I was 14, and I didn't really have that feeling again until I met Sophie," she added. "I felt this rush of: F**k, this is the coolest sh*t I have ever heard."
4. SOPHIE, “Is It Cold In the Water?”
Less a beat and more SOPHIE's best crack at a skyscraping ballad, "Is It Cold In the Water?" — from OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES — proved SOPHIE was more than a PC Music darling. Sprawling and grandiose, "Is It Cold In the Water?" follows the two most face-melting tracks on the album ("Ponyboy" and "Faceshopping") with a percussion-free ode to finding oneself in the midst of a directionless void.
"Is It Cold in the Water?" feels simple, yet it's full of intricacies and paradoxes. "I'm freezing, I'm melting," go the song's opening lyrics, as if to say that finding comfort and stability in a binary world is an impossible goal.
As the song's title is repeated in the chorus, it emulates the anxiety of standing at the edge of a pool; the water might feel uncomfortable at first, but it's always worth it to take the plunge. With a hardly-detectable chord progression and time signature, "Is It Cold in the Water?" represents the joyful freedom when you eschew society's molds.
3. Let’s Eat Grandma, “Hot Pink”
When it was time for the teenaged U.K. pop duo Let's Eat Grandma to follow up their impressive debut album, they did so with a bang. They recruited their labelmate SOPHIE to produce "Hot Pink," the lead single from the band's sophomore album, I'm All Ears.
Subdued verses are juxtaposed with earth-shattering, quintessentially SOPHIEan choruses. "Just paint it all in hot pink!" the band members shout, challenging the expectations that come with traditional femininity and asserting that it should be embraced by everyone without shame.
"We've always been into SOPHIE's music, even before our last record came out," the band's Jenny Hollingworth told Pitchfork during the album rollout for I'm All Ears. "She was so mysterious. You wouldn't expect that something so poppy could have such an emotional effect on you. We went to see her recently, and even though she's well-known, it felt like everyone was in on a secret."
2. SOPHIE, “BIPP”
For many, "BIPP" was the first SOPHIE song they'd ever heard. Arriving at the tail end of an era where electronic music was largely defined by white dudes who madeamockery of Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian cultures, SOPHIE's arrival shed a beacon of light.
Unlike the Skrillexes and the Diplos, SOPHIE didn't need to utilize a drop to make a certified banger. On "BIPP," SOPHIE manipulates a buoyant bass line like Play-Doh, letting your anticipation simmer until the only option is to hit repeat — no "yes, oh my God!" sample necessary. If there were ever a song that seemed to accurately hypothesize how clubs would operate in the distant future, "BIPP" does just that.
1. Vince Staples, “Yeah Right”
On paper, "Yeah Right" — a standout of Vince Staples' 2017 album Big Fish Theory — checks most of the boxes when it comes to West Coast rap tropes. "Is your house big? Is your car nice? / Is your girl fine; f**k her all night?" the rapper grills in the song's first verse, as if to paint his own "you vs. the guy she told you not to worry about" meme. And while the song boasts a small handful of high-profile collaborators, including a career-best verse from Staples' fellow Compton native Kendrick Lamar, it's SOPHIE's production that steals the show.
SOPHIE absolves "Yeah Right" of its trite materialism and makes it ooze with an enviable swagger. Its beat clanks like an empty soda can being thrown into a recycling bin, while its bass is practically tailor-made for blowing out your car speakers (unless, of course, your disposable income has funded high-quality subwoofers).
By the time the gang vocals in the chorus proclaim "boy, yeah right, yeah right, yeah right!," the song mimics the thrill of being welcomed at a packed house party. Not only could SOPHIE stretch the limits of production, but SOPHIE could make you feel effortlessly, peerlessly cool.
"Sophie was different," Staples tweeted in tribute to his collaborator. "You ain't never seen somebody in the studio smoking a cigarette in a leather bubble jacket just making beats not saying one word."
SOPHIE's music might've exuded carefree, club-ready fun, but SOPHIE also meant business; after all, SOPHIE was heralding an entire movement. You thought the pop revolution was reserved only for the straight, cisgendered male? Yeah, right.
Don Shula, one of the most beloved sports figures of all time and perhaps the NFL's greatest coach, died on May 4th, 2020. He was 90 years old.
Shula began his coaching career with the Baltimore Colts in 1963 and retired from coaching the Miami Dolphins in 1995, making him the record holder for most games coached in the history of the NFL. If that isn't impressive enough, he also holds the record for most games won (347) by any coach. Perhaps most memorably, he is also responsible for coaching the NFL's only perfect season in 1972, when the Miami Dlophins won all 14 regular season games, two play-off games, and ultimately beat the Washington Redskins to win Shula his first Super Bowl title. "People think we're a bunch of angry old guys who can't wait for that last undefeated team to get beat," Shula said in 2010. "We're very proud of our record, and if somebody breaks it, I'm going to call that coach and congratulate them. Until they do, it's our record, and we're proud of it."
According to the BBC, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Shula "will always be remembered as one of the greatest coaches and contributors in the history of our game." He continued in a statement, "He made an extraordinarily positive impact on so many lives. The winningest coach in NFL history and the only one to lead a team to a perfect season, Coach Shula lived an unparalleled football life." The Dolphins also issued a statement, saying, "Don Shula was the patriarch of the Miami Dolphins for 50 years," the statement said. "He brought the winning edge to our franchise and put the Dolphins and the city of Miami in the national sports scene. Our deepest thoughts and prayers go out to Mary Anne along with his children Dave, Donna, Sharon, Anne and Mike." The loss to the franchise was so significant, that even Dolphins president Tom Garfinkel released his thoughts on Shula's death: "Today is a sad day, Coach Shula was the rare man who exemplified true greatness in every aspect of his life. He will be so missed by so many but his legacy of character and excellence will endure. All my best to Mary Anne and the Shula family."
Shula will not only be remembered for the glory of that one perfect season, but for a career that was consistently excellent for the entirety of his 33 years as head coach. In fact, in all that time, he had only two losing seasons, twelve years apart. In total, teams led by Shula made it to the playoffs 19 times and appeared in the Super Bowl six times.
While it's remarkable that so many of Shula's records still stand given that he retired nearly 25 years ago, there is much speculation that Bill Belichick—given the dynasty he's created in the New England Patriots—may be coming for many of those records some day soon. "Don Shula is one of the all-time great coaching figures and the standard for consistency and leadership in the NFL," Belichick said in a statement. "I was fortunate to grow up in Maryland as a fan of the Baltimore Colts who, under Coach Shula, were one of the outstanding teams of that era. My first connection to Coach Shula was through my father, whose friendship with Coach Shula went back to their days in northeast Ohio. I extend my deepest condolences to the Shula family and the Dolphins organization."
Shula was not only an excellent coach, but a committed philanthropist. He founded The Don Shula Foundation to fund breast cancer research in memory of his first wife Dorothy, to whom he was married for 32 years before she died of cancer in 1991. The couple had five children together. He married his second wife Mary Anne Stephens in 1993, to whom he remained married at the time of this death.
Shula was also a long time member of the NFL Competition Committee—a group that evaluates NFL playing rules as well as regulations designed to improve player safety—a natural fit for a coach who was known for leading teams who rarely received penalties and valued sportsmanship above almost all else.
"If I'm remembered for anything, I hope it's for playing within the rules," Shula once said. "I also hope it will be said that my teams showed class and dignity in victory or defeat."
