DMX Sets The Record Straight, "I've Cut These Thieves Out Of My Life"

New York rapper DMX is clearing the air on his management team after reportedly receiving backlash over multiple missed shows set up by former employees.

According to him, X's management changed following his release from prison last summer.

"I fired my old management team the day I got out of prison," X said in a statement. "My money and career have been sabotaged for long enough. Makin' music and performing for my fans, that's what I'm doin' now. The Dog is back and I've cut these thieves out of my life." (Statement)

X's manager, Jason Fowler, claims his client has been slated to appear at multiple incorrect concerts.

"We're hearing reports of people making deposits for shows, only to find out that it was a fraud." says Jason, "All bookings must be through his new management team, because DMX is not responsible for any transactions that are not through J-Mike Management & Entertainment." (Statement)

Not only having given up on his ex-management team, X is finally drug-free.

DMX tells TMZ, he has finally kicked the drug addictions that kept him behind bars for years -- and he has his children to thank. X tells us, coke was his greatest demon after his latest prison release in July -- "Everyone was taking advantage of me with my finances, trying to put me in thedirection to fail. I have 10 kids. I have to drive them in the right direction, so I let the cocaine go." The rapper -- real name Earl Simmons -- says God also helped him through ... telling us, "I am on a spiritual road to do right in my life. I am leaving out all negativity and going to stay on the right road to positive." (TMZ)

Over the summer, he promised to make a strong return to the music industry following nearly a year-long stint behind bars.

"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)