DMX, the rapper also known as Earl Simmons, leaves Manhattan federal court in August 2017 after an appearance in his tax fraud case. Photo: AP/Larry Neumeister.

Playing the music video for one of his own hit songs for a federal judge at a sentencing Wednesday did not spare rapper Earl Simmons, better known as DMX, from receiving a one-year prison term for tax evasion.

But Simmons' defense team said playing the video for DMX's 1998 song “Slippin',” in which the rapper describes his struggles early in life and his desire to improve himself, may have been a factor in swaying U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York from taking the government's recommendation of up to five years in prison.

“I think the judge saw visually just the type of life he lived,” said defense attorney Murray Richman, who told reporters that he was not pleased but “not totally dissatisfied” with the sentence.

Simmons, 47, was convicted of not paying $1.7 million in taxes between 2002 and 2005.
Simmons pleaded not guilty after he was arrested and indicted in July and, at the time, Richman said his client had relied on hired hands to take care of his tax obligations while he focused on his work in music and film.

Simmons later changed his tune and, on Nov. 30, pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion. Simmons' bail was revoked in January for violating the terms, and he has been incarcerated since.

Simmons appeared in the courtroom in a blue jail uniform and occasionally turned to family sitting in the courtroom. While he addressed the court, Simmons took responsibility for not paying his taxes, saying he did not willingly plot to cheat the government “like a criminal in a comic book,” and briefly choked back tears when he mentioned his youngest child, who was in the courtroom.

“I hired people and I didn't follow up, and I knew that I should have,” Simmons said.

In a statement issued after the sentence, interim Southern District U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said Simmons “stole from the American taxpayers when he earned millions of dollars but failed to pay any taxes on his income.”

“Today's sentence shows that star power does not entitle people to a free pass,” Berman said.

In a sentencing memo filed last week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Cooper urged Rakoff to use Simmons' sentencing to “send a message” that “star power does not entitle someone to a free pass,” noting Simmons earned a substantial income after the subject period and that his songs still get played.

“The defendant's crime was a brazen one,” prosecutors said in the memo. “He earned millions of dollars in recent years, including personally receiving stacks of cash at the end of musical performances.”

Additionally, Simmons' criminal history is both long and varied, prosecutors argued, containing 29 different offenses spanning three decades, including jumping turn styles and firearm charges.

But Simmons' defense team, which also included Stacey Richman and Renee Hill of Richman Hill & Associates, emphasized in court filings and at the sentencing the challenges that their client faced during his upbringing. Simmons grew up with an abusive mother and without a father in the household. He was first arrested when he was 15 years old.

Probation and Pretrial Services recommended that Simmons receive a three-year sentence while his defense team pushed for no jail time.

In imposing the sentence, Rakoff agreed with the government that Simmons' case was a “brazen and blatant” example of tax evasion, but said he also considered Simmons' hardscrabble background in his calculation, saying that the “sins of the parents are visited on the child.”

“Mr. Simmons is a good man but a far from perfect man,” Rakoff said. “In many ways, as he has said, he's his own worst enemy.”

In addition to the prison term, Simmons was sentenced to three years of supervised release. Rakoff imposed no fines for Simmons, but imposed $2.2 million in restitution.