Rapper DMX was granted

an early release from prison, after serving a month of a 70-day sentence for parole

violation.

The rapper was released from Rikers Island on Dec. 30, for good

behavior and because he had accrued credit for time he previously spent incarcerated.

DMX, born Earl Simmons, was sentenced to jail in November of

2005 after he pleaded guilty to violating the terms of his parole.

The Yonkers bred M.C., who recently ditched Def Jam for Sony,

was on parole for a 2004 incident in which he put flashing lights on his SUV

and chased another man through the parking lot of New York’s JFK Airport.

When police arrived, they found DMX with his pants down to his

knees, incoherent, attempting to assault another man over a parking space.

He violated the terms of his probation in that case in April

of 2005, when he struck a car, which in turn rammed a police cruiser on the

Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx.

DMX said he was

speeding because his wife was in labor. She gave birth three days after the

incident.