DMX Freed From Rikers Island Rapper DMX was granted an early release from prison, after serving a month of a 70-day sentence for parole violation. DMX was released from Rikers Island on Dec. 30, for good behavior and because he had accrued credit for time he previously spent incarcerated. DMX, born Earl Simmons, was sentenced to jail in Nov. of 2005 after he pleaded guilty to violating the terms of his parole. The Yonkers bred M.C., who recently ditched Def Jam for Sony, was on parole for a 2004 incident in which he put flashing lights on his SUV and chased another man through the parking lot of New York's JFK Airport. He violated the terms of his probation in that case in April of 2005, when he struck a car, which in turn rammed a police cruiser on the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx. DMX said he was speeding because his wife was in labor. She gave birth three days after the incident.