Rapper DMX performs onstage during the 2017 Soulquarius Festival at The Observatory on February 18, 2017 in Santa Ana, California. (Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images) DMX was born, Earl Simmons, in Baltimore, on December 18th, 1970. He later moved with his mother to Yonkers in New York where his early years would prove to be tumultuous. His father Joe Baker left the family when X was very young. His mother Arnett Simmons beat him badly and was largely negligent. He often got into fights at school and, at the age of seven, was jailed for stealing cakes from a market. At the age of 10, his mother enrolled him into a children’s home without his knowledge by tricking him into believing that they were just visiting the home. He was later arrested for arson for trying to burn the children’s home down.