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DMX is back in the doghouse. The troubled rapper was arrested and brought to a Phoenix jail on Tuesday (March 9) for using illegal drugs.

According to Reuters, the Yonkers-bred MC, born Earl Simmons, admitted to a probation officer that he had been abusing cocaine since he was released from jail nine months ago. He is currently facing five counts of violating his probation and being held without bond.

“Of course it is unfortunate and painful to see Earl incarcerated, as there are a lot of rumors and lies surfacing regarding the details of his personal and professional state,” X’s manager, Nakia Walker, told XXLMag.com. “However, thank God for a great team—family, friends, pastors and doctors. Collectively, I am excited to say that X’s team is putting forth every effort to ensure the success of Earl’s health and career. We appreciate the support of his fans. Please stay prayerful, as X will return.”

DMX’s attorney, Gary Jenkins, spoke to tmz.com, where he revealed that the rapper is seeking the help of Celebrity Rehab doctor, Drew Pinksy. “[DMX] has been battling addiction for some time, and he’s in need of treatment,” he said. “We’re hoping that maybe Dr. Drew might be able to help him.”

DMX served 90 days in a Phoenix’s Tent City prison last year on drug, theft and animal abuse charges. While locked up he was sentenced to probation for throwing a food tray at an officer. —Jesse Gissen

You know I don’t do this, but… props to Ludacris for having the number one album in the country.

The other day, in a post about my new favorite video ho, the girl with the towel wrapped around her in Luda’s video for “How Low” (if you’ve seen it, you know which one I’m talking about), I mentioned how the video might not air very many times, since no one seems to give a shit about this Battle of the Sexes album, but apparently I was mistaken.

I checked this site’s news section just now, to see if Lil Wayne has met Fleece “Booty Warrior” Johnson yet, and I saw where Battle of the Sexes is set to debut at the top of the Billboard 200 next week. I was shocked. Granted, it’s only expected to sell about 120,000 copies, which is only an impressive figure by 2010 standards, but that’s still enough to make it the number one album in the country.

Unless you count my boo Ke$ha, which some people don’t (haters), this might be the last time a female rap album is the number one album in the country evar - barring something unexpected, like Foxy Brown posing for photos like the ones she took for Ill Na Na, with her new jumbo size cans. Which actually don’t strike me as being all that hot, despite their size (it might be what I heard about her personal hygiene), but I find myself compelled and drawn beyond my will to stare at them every time they pop up in a YouTube video. Like this one she just put out with Ron Browz. I’m not gonna lie - I watched that like three times.

The only other thing I could think is if Lauryn Hill got her shit together, at least for as long as it would take for her to record another album. You see how many people ran out and copped that Sharday album (don’t google Sharday), not to mention Susan Boyle. People like the idea of an older women taking one more go at it. If they let Queen Latifah sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl, who knows what the response to a new Lauryn Hill album might be. She must make a dollar every time a cracka-ass cracka in a Hawaiian shirt sings a Bob Marley song in a bar on a Thursday night. Otherwise, she probably would have tried that shit a long time ago.

When I saw that Ludacris was putting out an album full of guest appearances by female rappers, of course my initial thought was that he’d run out of ideas and was just trying to buy himself some time before he put out his next real album. If Battle of the Sexes didn’t sell worth a shit, he could just claim it’s because it’s got a lot of women rapping on it, and people don’t want to hear women rapping any more than people want to hear a woman tell a joke.

But maybe Ludacris knew what he was doing. I don’t think Ludacris knew an album full of collaborations with female rappers would sell as well as it has, but maybe this is part of an overall scheme to build his female audience, for his movie career (where all of the real money is), and the fact that people actually bought it was an unexpected bonus. It does seem to follow in a pattern I’ve noticed of him pandering to women, seemingly for no apparent reason. Like that time when he was so adamant to get on Oprah (no Stedman). And that godawful song “Runaway Love.”

As I’ve discussed here before, there’s no money to be made these days being a man. Hoodrats have all the money. I’ve learned this the hard way. I’ve spent years and years developing my craft as a writer, when I could probably make way more money posting pictures of celebrities, if it wasn’t for my testicles and being prepared to do the right thing, whatever the cost - the two things that make us men. Nullus. If only I could be as cynical as Ludacris. I could escape this shanty town before one of the natives steals my laptop, in which case I’d be really shit out of luck.

Attention all beatmakers: XXL wants to hear what you got. We’re now accepting instrumentals from up-and-coming producers to be featured with XXL’s original video content on one of the most popular online hip-hop destinations, XXLMag.com.

If selected, your track will be heard by millions of monthly visitors as the backdrop to our on-camera interviews with some of the biggest stars in the rap game, along with a guaranteed on-screen credit when your beat is used.

Rules:
No samples allowed under any circumstance.
No drops.

If interested in submitting your work, hit us up at: xxlmagbeats@gmail.com. —XXL Staff

Savior from guerilla nation on Vimeo.

Last night (March 10), XXLMag.com previewed the collaborative project from Nas and Damian Marley, Distant Relatives, and it seems as if is the long awaited album is almost ready to see the light of day.

The disc, set to come out through Universal Republic in either May or June, features cameos from Lil Wayne, Joss Stone, K’NAAN and Jamaican music legend Dennis Brown, as well as a bonus track with Junior Reid. All 14-songs, which were dedicated to the hoods in America and Africa, were produced by Marley, who seamlessly merges the worlds of hip-hop and reggae.

Distant Relatives singles, “Strong Will Continue” and “As We Enter,” have already made their way online.

Nas and Damian previously worked together on “Road to Zion” for Marley’s 2005 solo effort, Welcome to Jamrock —Brooklyne Gipson

Peep the official track listing below:

1. As We Enter
2. Tribal War (feat. K’NAAN)
3. Strong Will Continue
4. Leaders
5. Wisdom (Sabali)
6. Count Your Blessings
7. Disappear
8. The Promised Land (feat. Dennis Brown)
9. Nah Mean
10. Angola (Friends)
11. My Generation (feat. Lil Wayne and Joss Stone)
12. Africa Must Wake Up (Feat. K’NAAN)
13. BONUS TRACK Ancient People (feat. Junior Reid)

[Editor's note: XXL has learned that one more song, "In His Own Word," will also be included on the album]

Every now and then, it pays to peer into the nearest mirror. Practice a bit of the old self-evaluation. You know, size yourself up from time to time. The most effective way to better one’s self is to chin-check one’s self, I think, and this applies just as much to a person’s fandom as it does his or her career, or relationships.

I do so quite often on all fronts of my life, and this week I’ve been experiencing a real stop-and-think stretch, rooted in the blog I wrote here two days back. The topic was my favorite soundtrack cuts, and, looking back on the randomly selected list, the post was another sad example of my unconscious East Coast bias. The impulses were there to include The Dove Shack’s “Summertime in the LBC” (The Show) and MC Eiht’s “Straight Up Menace” (Menace II Society), but, instead, I opted for the NY-heavy posse joint “Uni-4-Orm.”

Complacent is as complacent does.

Don’t act like coastal bias is an urban legend—it’s as real as taxes and aliens (they do exist, I tell you!). I know because I’ve come to grips with my own fit of the disease, and I’ve been on a one-guy crusade to rectify the dilemma as soon and as painlessly as possible.

Rather than simply post a hodgepodge of nostalgic jams for the sheer audible pleasure of it, I’m taking a trip down memory lane today, my laptop acting as the steering wheel. So much for “business never personal;” sorry Erick and Parrish. This is an I-am-Sigmund-Freud-for-the-time-being exercise. Better yet, it’s an effort to prove to myself and the comments board regulars, who are quick to crucify any and all biased bloggers that, I’m deeper than Big Apple rap.

That’s right, always entertaining peanut gallery—don’t think I forgot about the minor firestorm that blazed after I assembled a “horror movie theme samples” rundown and overlooked a bulk of Three 6 Mafia beats. I’m still indebted to you all for that one.

The interesting thing, to me, about my unwavering slant toward all things Wu-Tang, DJ Premier, Boot Camp Clik and the such is that the first hip-hop music I was exposed to was gully-to-the-core West Coast gangsta rap. Back when your New Jersey-born narrator was no more than nine years old, my older brother—who’s six calendars my senior—and our cousin (same age as my elder sibling) were diehard N.W.A. fan; yes, they were the suburban teens wearing Raiders coats made by Starter and lip-synching MC Ren lyrics into their bedroom mirrors. We’ve all had our shamelessly-out-of-our-element moments, so don’t judge them.

If you think two 15-year-old White kids locked in a room bumping Straight Outta Compton is a trip, just imagine my single-digit-aged ass sitting right there with them. I was the wide-eyed rugrat, mesmerized by everything my older bro did, so of course I followed he and our cousin into the latter’s private den; the guy owned over 50 rap CDs, a tower of foreign sounds that both excited and intimidated me. Perhaps that’s why I was so quick to love hip-hop—opposites attract, after all.

We visited my aunt and uncle every Sunday for dinner, so I was guaranteed at least one uncensored exposure to hardcore rap a week. The menu opened up beyond Eazy-E’s crew, though; King-Tee, DJ Quik, The D.O.C. and Boo Ya Tribe all gradually seeped through the speakers. In hindsight, I can say in confidence that those pseudo listening sessions in my cousin’s bedroom are what turned me into a hip-hop junkie, and, in turn, a member of the XXL staff. Which is why I find my preferential treatment of New York tunes so odd; my affinity for this culture certainly didn’t start in the sleepless city.

In fact, the first rap song to earn the distinguished keep-on-repeat handling in my world was Above the Law’s devastating “Murder Rap,” off the Pomona, California group’s 1990 opus Livin’ Like Hustlers. It’s got to be the piercing sirens. Ominous and nihilistic, “Murder Rap” makes perfect sense as one of my all-time cherished records; I’m the same guy who saw Grindhouse four times in theaters just so I could repeatedly watch the four-point-of-view car crash sequence in Quentin Tarantino’s half, Death Proof. Darkness reigning supreme within a piece of art is my Hefty bag, always has been, will be until my inner clock stops.

And on that note, I’ll leave you with that Above the Law masterwork. Think of it every time you see my byline attached to a somewhat-NY-centric blog post here on XXLmag.com, and try not to condemn. I’m a work in progress. —Matt Barone

Above the Law “Murder Rap”

Ludacris should change the name of his tune from “How Low” to “How High” after hitsdailydouble.com released their latest sales projections.

According industry insider’s estimates, based off of the one-day sales figures, Luda is believed to sell around 120,000 copies of his new disc Battle of the Sexes in his first week on shelves. The numbers should be enough to take him to the top of The Billboard 200 album charts this coming Wednesday, March 17.

If the estimates prove to be true, it will be the fourth time that Luda has held down the No. 1 spot. 2003’s Chicken-N-Beer, 2004’s The Red Light District, and 2006’s Grammy-award-winning LP Release Therapy all held the coveted spot in the past. At the same time, Luda’s last album, Theater of the Mind, earned the No. 5 position in 2008, after selling 214,000 units in its debut week—a significantly higher amount than the BOTS approximations.

Battle of the Sexes is the Atlanta-based rapper’s seventh studio effort for Def Jam, and features appearances by Nicki Minaj, Eve, Lil Kim, Trina, Trey Songz, Ne-Yo and Gucci Mane among others. —Elan Mancini