DMX 'Here We Go Again' album

And then there was... the most eagerly anticipated hip-hop event of the year, as Def Jam recording artist and actor DMX - the only artist in history to have his first five albums debut at #1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart - unleashes his 6th album, HERE WE GO AGAIN (Ruff Ryders/Def Jam) set to arrive in stores on June 28th.

DMX is part of an elite group of multi-platinum recording artists, with over 15 million cds sold over the course of his illustrious career.

"Pump Ya Fist," produced by Swizz Beats, has been chosen as the first single from HERE WE GO AGAIN. For an advance listen, check out www.defjam.com.

Recorded at Hit Factory Criteria Studios in Miami, the track made its premiere on AOL Music as a "First Listen" last week - at midnight on Friday the 13th - and went into heavy rotation across the AOL network 24 hours later. The video for "Pump Ya Fist" was also shot in Miami, produced by Swizz Beats Productions and directed by Gil Green, who has worked with Lil' Jon & the Eastside Boyz ("Get Low," featuring Busta Rhymes, and "What You Gonna Do"), Elephant Man ("Jook Gal"), and more. News of the video's premiere will be announced in the weeks ahead.

Confrontational and doggedly uncompromising, HERE WE GO AGAIN is the long-awaited follow-up to 2003's platinum Grand Champ, which included the singles "Where The Hood At" and "Get It On the Floor." The album also featured collabs with Kanye West ("Dogs Out"), 50 Cent ("Shot Down"), Monica ("Don't Gotta Go Home"), Cam'ron ("We Go Hard"), the legendary Patti LaBelle ("Thank You"), and others.

It's been less than 8 years since DMX grizzled his way onto the charts as a guest rapper on LL Cool J's 1997 jam, "4,3,2,1," and Mic Geronimo's "Nothin' Move But the Money," followed quickly in early '98 by guest shots on Mase's "24 Hours To Live" and The Lox's "Money, Power & Respect." DMX and his Rough Ryders crew mauled the charts on June 6, 1998, when It's Dark and Hell Is Hot, his first production with Swizz Beats and Dame Grease, entered at #1. Pumped by a litter of single picks - "Get At Me Dog," "How's It Goin' Down" (with Faith Evans), and "Ruff Ryders Anthem" - the album stayed on the R&B chart for 103 weeks and was certified 4x-platinum.

During that incredible 2-year run, Flesh Of My Flesh, Blood Of My Blood was released in December '98, featuring another who's who of guests: Jay-Z and the Lox on "Blackout" (DMX returned the favor as a guest on Jay-Z's "Money, Cash, Hoes" and eventually joined Jay-Z's blockbuster "Hard Knock Life" Tour with Method Man/Redman), Mary J. Blige on "Coming From," and Marilyn Manson on "The Omen," to name a few. After entering at #1 (where it chewed up the competition for 4 weeks), the album went on to spend 72 weeks on the R&B chart and sales blew up to 3x-platinum.

DMX's third album, ...And Then There Was X, entered the charts at #1 on January 1, 2000. Another trio of single picks - "What's My Name," the all-time classic "Party Up (Up In Here)," and the unforgettable "What These B*****s Want" (featuring Sisqó, aka "What You Want") - kept the album on the R&B chart for 80 weeks and sent it to 5x-platinum.

Also in 2000, DMX made his film debut, in the lead role of Belly, the first film by video director Hype Williams. That same year, DMX also appeared in Romeo Must Die, the film that established Jet Li's career in America, directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak. The same director was responsible for DMX's third movie, Exit Wounds (starring Steven Seagal). A #1 box office opener, it won DMX a multi-film contract with Warner Bros. by the time the rapper's next album entered the chart at #1 in November 2001. The Great Depression spun off three single picks - "We Right Here," "Who We Be," and "I Miss You" (a eulogy to his grandmother, to the air of "Amazing Grace," and featuring Faith Evans) - maintaining the album on the R&B chart well into 2002.

Grand Champ marked DMX's 5th consecutive #1 debut (October 2003), a chart feat not likely to be matched again. By the time it was released, DMX had premiered that year in his 4th major film, a reunion with Jet Li and director Bartkowiak in Cradle 2 The Grave. The movie opened #1 at the box office and its Bloodline/Def Jam soundtrack, which led off with DMX's "X Gon' Give It To Ya" (one of three tracks he contributed to the album) struck RIAA gold. DMX's 5th starring role, the film noir Never Die Alone, from the pulp classic novel by Iceberg Slim disciple the late Donald Goines, opened in 2004.

Journalist Smokey D. Fontaine, co-author of E.A.R.L.: The Autobiography of DMX, which was published in 2003, called his subject, "One of the most memorable MCs of all time. The only artist who has spent a career inspiring followers around the world to bark and rhyme in loud bursts of manic, ghetto energy, only then to get them to read and rap and think and cry in private moments of honest thought and introspection. No one in hip-hop has ever done it better. No one has meant more."

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DMX - Here We Go Again