Who are DMX's siblings? All about sisters Bonita, Shayla and brother Montana who was once his manager
The death of artist DMX has left both, the music industry and fans mourning his loss. With tributes still pouring in, multiple musicians are opening up about their personal experiences with the rapper and the hardships he's dealt with, with regard to substance abuse.
DMX was first exposed to substance abuse when his mentor gave him a blunt laced with crack at the age of 14. Until then, the rapper had steered clear of it. The rapper had a very troubled childhood, seeing that he was expelled for fighting and throwing chairs at teachers and also booked for arson and assault. To make matters worse, his relationship with his mother was strained.
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In an interview with GQ, the rapper, however, made it clear he bore her no ill will: "Children don't come with a fucking instruction manual. She was 20 when she had me. Four sisters; I'm the only boy. Maybe she didn't know what to do with me," he explained.
How many siblings does DMX have?
As per the interview with GQ, DMX mentioned that he has four sisters. While they all possibly share the same mother, Arnett Simmons, it's unknown if DMX's father, Joe Barker, was father to any of them. The rapper possibly could have siblings from his father's side too, but this is also unknown. His two older sisters are Bonita and Shayla Simmons. However, not much information is available about them online and no mention of his other two siblings as mentioned in the interview.
His mother had him between the ages of 19-20 and around that time, Bonita was already 2 years old and Shayla was also close to her in age, seeing that she had them within a short period of time. Not much is known about them save for their names and relation to the late rapper.
Who is Montana?
Montana, DMX's former manager and the once Director and President of Ruff Ryder (and Rr Latino Music) was also considered like family in the rapper's circles. As reported by Nicki Swift, it looks like Montana hasn't been active on the scene for quite a while, seeing that there hasn't been any reported social media activity for a while now. The pair's relationship is also unclear, as most online sources mention only Bonita and Shayla as his sisters and the rapper himself mentioned in his 2019 GQ interview that he was the only son among four daughters. However, there is a possibility that Montana could be a sibling from his father's side.
The rapper's relationship with his siblings are unknown, however, he did come around to reconciling with his mother. In the interview with GQ, he spoke about how their relationship was truly a difficult one. "I found out I just knew things that she didn't know when I was only six years old" he explained, detailing one particularly harrowing incident. "I would get up at night sometimes to drink water because I was so hungry. And I saw something in her notebook that was open on the kitchen table. And it was wrong, so I erased it. I thought I was helping," he said.
"I don't know what she thought I was doing, but… I don't know if she thought I was trying to sabotage her or whatever. I don't know what she thought. But she beat two teeth out of my fucking mouth with a broom" he added.
"And I think about this today, I'm like, 'Okay, you saw me erase something in your notebook. What did you think I was trying to do? What could you have possibly thought I was trying to do?'" the artist reasoned.
He also opened up about his journey towards forgiveness. "In fact, I personally struggle with forgiving my parents. But until you learn how to forgive others, you can't forgive yourself. You can't forgive yourself if you don't know how to forgive," he explained.