DMX's legal team will play the rapper's songs in court in an attempt encourage a judge to show him leniency.
via Page Six:
The "Party Up" performer "may be too emotional to speak" at the March 29 sentencing for tax fraud, lawyer Murray Richman wrote in the filing. "We will ask to play a few of his compositions so that the court may understand him genuinely and his voice," Richman said.
"Ay yo I'm slippin', I'm fallin', I can't get up," Simmons, who has abused drugs, laments in the song "Slippin'."
The rapper behind " X Gon' Give It to Ya" is seeking probation when he is sentenced for cheating Uncle Sam out of $1.7 million on March 29.
His lawyer will argue that his client deserves leniency because of his tough upbringing and because Simmons' ability to work is the only way the feds will get paid.
"For any plan to be successful we must get Mr. Simmons back to work and in a healthy manner," Richman said. "He is one of the few people who indeed can achieve the restitution and make the government whole."
Simmons faces restitution of $2.3 along with a maximum fine of $100,000 fine in addition to jail time when he is sentenced before Manhattan federal Judge Jed Rakoff.
The feds have asked that Simmons get five years in the slammer for his "brazen, multi-year scheme," which included insisting he get paid in cash and having other payments sent to accounts set up for financial surrogates.
The hip-hop icon has been in federal prison since January after violating his bail by failing a drug test.
After Simmons tested positive for cocaine and opioids, including oxycodone, Rakoff – who gave the artist a pass on a failed drug test once before — revoked his $500,000 bond.
But his lawyer claims his mistakes can be attributed in part to his tough childhood, which included physical abuse by his mother who once beat him with a broom handle and knocked out two teeth, according to the filing.
"Despite the accolades, the literally screaming and adoring fans, he feels he is not worthy," Richman told the judge.
In a letter to the judge, Simmons apologized for a separate travel violation, claiming that his handlers' failed him.
"I can promise that if given another opportunity, it won't happen again," he said in the emailed letter.