Due to the coronavirus pandemic, capacity inside the Barclays Center was limited to 10 percent with only close friends and family being allowed inside.

Kanye and his Sunday Service choir kicked off the memorial with several songs before DMX’s family, which included his fiancée Desiree Lindsrom and the late artist’s children, remembered how he changed the world with his music and presence.

Nas, who co-starred in movies and collaborated on numerous songs with X, spoke during the ceremony. He described the late rapper as a “long-time friend” and “Hip Hop icon,”.

“It’s an honor to be here tonight but at the same time, it’s a sad day. It’s a glorious day,” the Queens rapper told the crowd. “I just want to say I’m honored to be here.”

The First Lady of the Ruff Ryders, Eve, also spoke standing next to Swizz Beatz. “I am seriously the luckiest, luckiest woman in the world to have been adopted by the Ruff Ryders, but to have known DMX the way that I knew him as a man, a father, a friend,” she said.

 “This is so hard y’all. What I pray, what I hope, I pray to God, I pray to our angels, our ancestors, that his journey was smooth. I know that he will rest in power. Rest in love, but most of all he feels rest in peace.”

DMX passed away on Friday April 9 after suffering a heart attack following a drug overdose a week earlier. He was admitted to White Plains Hospital in White Plains, New York on April 2 and was described as being in a “vegetative state.” He never regained consciousness.