DMX Says His Bite's Back, "[There's] A Lot Of Wack Rappers Out There"

Recently freed rapper DMX has provided an update on his forthcoming solo album, Redemption of the Beast, and said the project has brought him back to his rap beginnings.

With production courtesy of Swizz Beatz and Dame Grease, X plans to put out the LP around December.

"I kind of took it back to how I felt on my first album -- the hunger, the energy, the hardness of it," says the 40-year-old rapper (real name: Earl Simmons), who was released from prison on July 19. "I've had a lot of late nights in the studio, getting it in, getting it back to where it's supposed to be," says DMX, whose last album, 2006's "Year of the Dog... Again," has sold 344,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The rapper also notes that the lyrical focus of the album will be "bringing hip-hop back to where it's supposed to be. It's not at a good place right now... [There's] a lot of whack rappers out there. It's too corny." (Billboard)

Having recently spent four years behind bars before making a music comeback, rapper Black Rob talked to SOHH last week about X's return.

"First of all, I just want to tell him I love him, man," Rob told SOHH. "He was one of the reasons why I wanted to go so hard all the time in my music. When I met him, it was like, 'Oh sh*t.' When we were in the cipher, we were going in. You hear me? Like, going in because nobody was backing down. N*ggas was going. Rhyme after rhyme, line after line. When I met him, it was like this is my dude. X used to come pick me up from my crib on 118th. He used to hit me up like, 'Come on downstairs, dog, we getting outta here.' Me and him used to drive around with the dogs in the back of the motherf*cking truck, driving around getting high and doing what we do and the things we loved to do, man. Big shout outs go out to him. I love him to death and I just want him to come on back and maybe he feels like this ain't his calling no more. He's real spiritual. You feel me? Maybe he feels like this ain't his calling no more." (SOHH)

Run-DMC's DMC recently talked to SOHH and gave his opinion on X's woes as of late.

"There's no such thing as f*cking stars," DMC told SOHH when asked his opinion on DMX's publicized legal woes. "When you look up into the sky, you don't see one star. DMX, David Beckham, Michael Jordan, none of us motherf*ckers is more important than anybody else on the face of the Earth. DMX, keep your head up because you're human and we all make mistakes. DMX is better than 98 percent of everybody out right now. If we're talking about records, ain't nobody had two number one's in the same year. As problematic as DMX is, nobody made street [relevant] records with the passion and purpose and understanding that his crazy a** did." (SOHH)

Last month, X became a free man after serving time behind bars stemming from a probation violation.

Stop us if you've heard this one before. DMX, the rapper-actor/jail magnet, was released from a Yuma, Ariz., prison today after spending seven months locked up for violating his probation. After he was met by a small coterie of family and friends, DMX (real name Earl Simmons) headed over to his probation officer to check in, then went on a little shopping spree. Along the way, he caught up with those closest to him and unveiled his plans to revive his dormant career. (E! Online)