Rapper DMX has been spared the maximum jail term for tax evasion after persuading a judge to listen to one of his hit tracks.
The 47-year-old was given a year behind bars and ordered to pay €1.9m for tax evasion.
The rapper, real name Earl Simmons, managed to convince Judge Jed Rakoff to listen to Slippin' before handing down the sentence.
The rapper claimed the song would illustrate how tough his life had been.
DMX and some of his supporters nodded to the beat of the song as it played in the packed courtroom, with lyrics including: "To live is to suffer, but to survive, well, that's to find meaning in the suffering."
Slippin'
The musical interlude, coupled with the US rapper's admission of guilt that he "wasn't following the rules" by not paying his taxes, appeared to have something of a worthwhile outcome.
Prosecutors had been pushing for a five-year prison sentence, but Judge Rakoff settled on one year for someone he said was a "good man" who had been "his own worst enemy."
Manhattan Federal Court had heard how DMX - whose 2003 song ,X Gon' Give It to Ya, was featured heavily in the hit Marvel film Deadpool in 2016 - had endured an abusive childhood and been abandoned by his mother at a young age.
He had also battled a drug habit.
