New Delhi, April 10 -- The growling yet poignant rapper Earl Simmons, popularly known as DMX has passed away at the age of 50 on Friday in White Plains, New York.

On April 2, He had "a catastrophic cardiac arrest" (that his family called) and was admitted to White Plains Hospital. In the days that followed, he went into coma and life support "in a vegetative state."

Simmons had a line of No. 1 album in the last part of the 1990s and mid-2000s and sold a large number of records. He was the first musician whose initial five albums reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart. He was the champion artist on the Ruff Ryders label, frequently rapping over tracks by star DJ and producer Swizz Beatz. Rappers such as Eve, Drag-On, and the Lox, a gatheri...