Whenever a beloved musician dies, fans have a tendency to cause that artist’s catalog sales to increase as they pay tribute and new fans catch on to artists they may not have paid much attention to before. DMX’s catalog was no exception — in fact, streams of his music increased by a huge amount according to Billboard, 928% since April 9, the date of DMX’s death.
Streams of DMX’s music increased to 75.7 million over the weekend following DMX’s death (audio and video combined) from 7.36 million, the two days before. The most streamed songs included “Ruff Ryders Anthem” (9.59 million; up 973%), “X Gon’ Give It To Ya” (5.79 million; up 900%), “Slippin’” (5.52 million; up 853%), “Party Up (In Here)” (5.20 million; up 941%) and “How It’s Goin’ Down” featuring Faith Evans (3.52 million; up 691%). Those streams had been going up for the week before DMX’s passing after he was hospitalized by a heart attack following a reported overdose that left him in a coma.
DMX’s autobiography also reached Amazon’s bestsellers list in nonfiction after he died, with the mayor of his hometown, Yonkers, New York planning to honor him with a memorial. Meanwhile, DMX’s label, Def Jam, received a backlash after releasing a pair of compilation albums when fans accused the label of exploiting his hospitalization.