In a new interview with GQ, DMX explains the difference between traditional church and Kanye West’s weekly Sunday Services, which he previously participated in as a guest, leading an emotional prayer that was shared on social media earlier this year. DMX, who was recently released from prison after serving out a year on tax evasion charges and revealed in the interview that he is back on Def Jam, the label that released his seminal debut album 20 years ago, said he “didn’t know what to expect,” but that he “enjoyed it.”
When asked how he got involved with Sunday Service, he says Kanye “reached out,” and gave his impression of the proceedings, saying, “I wouldn’t call it a church service. There’s no word.” He does give the Service some credit, though: “It’s joyful, which God says to do. We about to make a joyful noise. I enjoyed it. It was moving. I didn’t know what to expect, though.” He also explains the passionate prayers that have come to define his musical performances, which led to the invitation to Sunday Service.
“I pray before I go onstage with everyone in the room,” he says. “And I end my show with a prayer onstage. And I’d say maybe 65 percent of the time that I get offstage, I’m so emotionally overwhelmed, I just break down… I just take a minute for myself and just, I thank Him, I praise Him. And I’m like, ‘Thank you, thank you.’ I’m like, ‘Who am I to deserve this?’ We all bleed the same blood.”
DMX says he’s working on a new album, which will be released through Def Jam, and he is scheduled to join Juicy J and Three Six Mafia on their vaunted reunion tour later this autumn. He finished his own It’s Dark & Hell Is Hot anniversary tour this spring.
