W e’re all prudent enough to know that words have power. You really have to watch what you say. I love the Bible verse about life and death being in the power of the tongue. When God created the earth, he did it with words. Names are obviously words. My sister Issa has educated me on how words carry vibrations. So what’s in a name? I’d like to think of a name as a potent vibrational seed deeply rooted in our universal garden that is nurtured or disrupted. Every time we hear, read, or say it.
For something so important, it’s ironic how we don’t get a chance to pick them. What they call you has a lower authorization than what you call yourself. Hip-hop artists, also known as rappers, often exercise the authority to create their names. As a result, we have grown adult men with aliases like Method man, Jadakiss, Puff Daddy, and Juvenile. Some characters don’t last, some are as hollow as a one-hit wonder, and some are the actual name given to the artist at birth.
Recently a dynamic hip-hop icon transitioned to the spiritual realm. Earl Simmons, better known as DMX, may have learned the power of a name. What I find most compelling about X is his consistent honesty. He knew who he was, and he consistently delivered on it that identity in his art and his being. Does he really talk like that in real life? Yes. He’s constantly barking. He must really love dogs? Hell yes. He’s still barking; when will he give the gimmick? Bitch, Never. He was who he was. I’ll remember him as an outlier, a timeless being that felt rugged and natively foreign. DMX was/is the truth. But not the truth like “Paul Pierce”; X was our hard, ugly truth. You know, the type of truth we prefer to cover up but can’t ever run from. He put HIS truth in his name: Dark Man X, DMX, or simply X. …X like Malcolm or X like X. His art was often dark and gritty, like his name. That’s what’s in his name.
At the end of every life well lived, we hear stories recounting moments shared by those alive. What’s ironic about the rumors about X is that he was always giving, honest, authentic, vulnerable, passionate, and transparent. Moments with People like X have the power to resurrect what’s dead in you. But I wonder if Dark Man X knew just how much light he omitted? By now, we know what’s in a name, but what do you call yourself?
