After appearing in a New York court today (March 28), DMX has been sentenced to a year in prison for tax evasion.

The father of 15 owes $1.7 million in back taxes and previously pleaded guilty to knowingly participating in a “multi-year scheme to conceal millions of dollars” from the IRS. He did so by taking cash for performances which he did not report in his income reports, and funneled money from royalties to financial surrogates over the years, according to TMZ.

Now DMX will have to pay the price. His 12-month sentence is not as harsh as the prosecutors in his case would have liked, they pushed for a full five year sentence. X will sit behind bars for a year and will undergo three years of supervised release when he's let out.

We previously reported that DMX's lawyer planned to play the judge at least two of DMX's songs before the sentencing, believing that the Yonkers rapper would be too emotional to speak. He chose "Slippin'" and "The Convo," which he believes flaunts the "beauty of mind and his genius" to listeners.

There was some discussion that DMX had a shot of getting enrolled in a rehab program instead of facing jail time, after former NBA star Jayson Williams rallied to have the "Right and Wrong" rapper attend his faith-based rehab center. He argued that DMX was a "sick individual" whose substance abuse problems led him to evade paying his taxes. If you recall, X was put back behind bars for violating the conditions of his bail after being spotted ordering several shots and proclaiming his love for God.

Evidently, the judge felt that jail would be a better place fo DMX to learn his lesson.

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