DMX‘s daughter, Sonovah Hillman Jr., is preparing a four-part docuseries to raise the awareness of drug addiction and the use of fentanyl — the single most deadliest drug in the United States.
According to a video posted to a GoFundMe page promoting the project, the 10-year-old shared that she had attended a 10-week program facilitated by Drug Abuse Resistance Education [D.A.R.E.], where she was schooled about the dangers of drugs and the ultimate addiction that would follow.
She later saw a clip on TikTok (shown in the video) from Growing Up Hip Hop, where Master P and two of his children Romeo and TyTyana had a heart-to-heart regarding substance abuse.
“I’ve had friends go through this and it took two years of being completely sober to really be like you can walk away from this,” Romeo says in the clip, making a plea to his late sister, who passed away in May 2022 after battling mental illness and drug abuse for nearly a decade.
“I lost my aunt and uncle to a fentanyl overdose and my dad to a drug addiction,” Sonovah said of her personal ties to the series. “Fentanyl is affecting every gender, race, class and age group.”
Digging deeper, Sonovah watched interviews of her late father as he talked openly about his drug addiction. This motivated her to talk to other children whose lives have been impacted by a similar struggle.
“I wanted to talk to other kids whose parents had died from an overdose or are still currently using,” she explained. “I came up with the idea to do a four-part docuseries on fentanyl and drug addiction. I wanted to talk to people about their experience, trauma, feelings, and come up with a solution to healing.”
Overdose deaths remain a leading cause of injury-related death in America, with a majority of those deaths involving opioids. Deaths involving synthetic opioids (largely illicitly made fentanyl) and stimulants (cocaine and methamphetamine) have also spiked in recent years, with a rather large uptick during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I’m ready to have the conversation that some adults aren’t even ready to have and try to find out the answer we all want to know. What can we do to help our loved ones get clean and stay clean?”
In April 2021, DMX was rushed to the hospital after he reportedly suffered a drug overdose and subsequent heart attack. Although medical professionals attempted to save his life, the Ruff Ryders legend ultimately passed away. He was 50-years-old.
According to Vulture, DMX died from a cocaine-induced heart attack, which resulted in a lack of blood circulation to the brain.
“It was cardiac arrest for a period of time, so there was no circulation to the brain,” a source at the Westchester County medical examiner office said. “[The acute cocaine intoxication] caused this chain of events.”
Further analysis of his urine showed the presence of cocaine, though no autopsy was performed. Instead, the cause of death was based on previous reports from medical professionals and police.
