DMX

 DMX was the rap's most hardcore heir of 2Pac, the Notorious B.I.G. The most prominent Ruff Ryders rapper was a rare commodity known as a street-credible commercial artist with artistic and street cred. His rise to fame was actually a decade in the making and gave him a opportunity to build the dramatic image that helped make him one of rap's most distinctive personalities during his peak. Everything about DMX was unremittingly intense, from his muscular, tattooed body to his tough barking voice, which was the perfect fit for his trademark lyrical obsession with dogs. There was also substance to the style; much of his writing was woven to the distinction between the sacred and the mundane. He could weave stories of spiritual anguish and street crimes in the blink of an eye, but all of it was an integral part of his persona. It's almost like a hip-hop Johnny Cash. The result was so captivating that DMX became the first artist to have five albums (from 1998's It's Dark and Hell is Hot through 2003's Grand Champ) enter the Billboard 200 at the top. The final Ruff Ryders album Year of the Dog...Again was almost the end of his streak at six albums. Although he released his final official studio album, Undisputed, in 2012, he continued to issue singles through 2021. The ninth studio album and the first posthumous album, Exodus was released shortly after his death in 2012.