American rapper DMX has canceled his upcoming string of shows to return to rehab and focus on his recovery, Rolling Stone reports. The 48-year-old actor has been known to speak openly about his struggles with crack cocaine addiction, which he fell into when he was just 14, as well as his experiences living with bipolar disorder.
“In his ongoing commitment to putting family and sobriety first, DMX has checked himself into a rehab facility. He apologizes for his cancelled shows and thanks his fans for their continued support,” the rapper’s Instagram account wrote.
DMX missed his appearance Thursday at Def Jam’s 35th-anniversary party in Brooklyn, a performance at a Three-6-Mafia reunion concert on Saturday, and was quietly removed from Sunday’s schedule at New York’s Rolling Loud festival. The move mirrors his decision to reenter rehab back in 2017, which also led to him canceling a series of shows.
Back in 2016, DMX was found unconscious at a Ramada Inn with no pulse, per The Daily Beast . After police performed CPR, his pulse returned, and he was reported to be in stable condition. Although DMX’s camp suggested he suffered from an asthma attack and the rapper said he was suffering from bronchitis for a few days beforehand, a witness at the scene suggested that he snorted an unknown powder before his close call with death .
“Given DMX’s history, both are equally likely to be true,” reads The Daily Beast report. “But every time his name pops up in the headlines, with mentions of drugs and health and this ominous, lingering feeling of impending tragedy, we’re reminded of how far he’s fallen — and how upsetting it is that he can’t seem to stop the spiral.”
Although DMX has reportedly been in and out of jail for years, he appears to have been on the up lately. After a prison stint for federal tax evasion charges in November 2017, DMX was released and has been keeping busy since. He ran a 20th-anniversary tour for his first album, It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot , and performed at big-name festivals such as SXSW and Rolling Loud: Miami .
In an interview with GQ in September, DMX spoke about his time in jail and revealed that going back gets harder for him as he ages.
“There’s so much more to life,” he said when pressed about why his most recent stint was so tough, adding that jail was a “playground” before he “really had a life.”