After a slew of arrests that have landed DMX in the news for the past two years [click to read], he is now attempting to make a mark in the world of mixed martial arts (MMA), a dangerous full-contact fighting sport. In December, X will take on CEO of Power Moves Entertainment record label Eric Martinez, who also plays a role as a member of DMX‘s management team. The event will go down in the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center in Alabama.
Dubbed “Alabama Pride,” the fight will be on the undercard of former UFC fighter Tank Abbott and former professional heavyweight boxer Butterbean‘s match. Not much has been made clear about the preparations DMX has taken for the fight, nor is any info coming out about why the rapper has chosen to partake in the sport. He is, however still working on music as well.
The match will take place on December 12 at 8:00 P.M. in Alabama.
In other news, Pharoahe Monch has officially left Street Records Corporation, opting to go the way of the indie. He expressed that he was unsatisfied with the label and how they handled the release of his ’07 album, Desire [click to read]. “[SRC] offered us a scenario at the end to do another album,” he explained to XXL, “and I just felt that the way the industry is going and the experience that I have and the professional people that I know, I felt like what they were offering, I could come close to doing that myself. So I opted out.”
Pharoahe started his own record label W.A.R. (We Are Renegades), and said that the new move would give him more control of his own music. His upcoming album, also to be titled W.A.R., is scheduled to drop in early 2010. He will be recruiting some familiar names to work on the project. “Fortunately I am blessed to be in a position with Mr. [Denaun] Porter,Talib Kweli, Black Milk, Styles P, and Cee-Lo Green and all these people [who] are just contributing to the record without it being a label scenario, because of the love that we have for each other and the understanding of where the industry is right now. It’s a lot of bartering going on.”
This will not be the first time Pharoahe has announced news of collaborating with old friends recently. After a long delay, he reconnected with former Organized Konfusion [click to read] partner Prince Po on stage last Friday, much to the surprise of fans. Although they do not plan on putting out an album any time soon, they did record a track together, promising that that “the song is insane.“
