Kanye West & Balenciaga Raise Over $1 Million For DMX’s Family

Two days ago, Kanye West’s Yeezy brand commissioned a run of T-shirts designed by Balenciaga to honour the late rapper DMX. Fast forward less than 24 hours… and they’ve sold out entirely.

This came after the passing of the legendary rapper DMX (real name: Earl Simmons) on April 9th after suffering a heart attack at the age of just 50.

The shirt includes a graphic of Simmons with “R.I.P” printed above, his stage name “DMX” emblazoned beneath, and two crosses on either side. The right sleeve sports his date of birth while the left sports the date of his passing. On the reverse reads: “In loving memory.”

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The shirts were priced at US$240 apiece and were launched on the website DMX-tribute.com during his memorial service over the weekend. TMZ later reported that sales of the shirt raised upwards of $1 million to the late rapper’s family.

Legendary producer Swizz Beats publicly asked West to attend the memorial show “DMX: A Celebration Of Life” in Brooklyn on Saturday, as he was a close friend to the leader of the Ruff Ryders record label. Kanye West not only attended the service but performed with the Sunday Service Choir, which DMX had opened for with a prayer in the past.

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With Barclays Centre at 10% capacity, Kanye and his choir kicked off the event performing Soul II Soul’s ‘Keep On Movin’, the Clark Sisters’ ‘You Brought The Sunshine’, the hymn ‘Jesus Loves Me’, as well as their original song ‘Excellent’. In attendance was notable members of the hip-hop collective, such as Nas, Swizz Beats, Eve, Jadakiss, Styles P, and Drag-On.

A class act by Mr. West.