July 11, 2006 @ 5:31 pm

Rappers’ Wives: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

Aliya S. King

Felecia Howse’s youngest son pops out of his parents’ bedroom on the first floor of their massive house in an Atlanta suburb. He is naked and not the least bit ashamed. “Potty!” he screams. His brother, two years older, tells him to put on some clothes. The baby yells, “No!” and begins to run around. Felecia takes a deep breath and smiles. An aspiring singer, she is married to Steven Howse, 31, better known as rapper Layzie Bone, of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Between them, the couple has seven kids at home, and they’re raising the four children of Layzie’s brother, who’s currently incarcerated. “Even with all of this,” she says, sweeping a hand toward the far corners of her mansion, “in order for me to count, I have to contribute.” She elaborates: “I have to be completely satisfied. And that happens when I’m singing. If I’m not happy around here, nobody’s happy.”Being married to a man whose rap quartet has sold more than 30 million records worldwide doesn’t mean that your son will somehow potty-train himself or that you can necessarily afford a live-in maid. It also doesn’t mean that you’ll give up your aspirations of being a singer, a designer, or an author. right The wives of hip hop celebrities have all the trappings of their husband’s successes: huge diamond rings, impressive homes, and luxury cars. But there are some things these women want that just aren’t for sale, and their real lives rarely match the fantasies of the girls who dream about marrying a wealthy rapper. Often alone while their husbands work far from home, these women raise children and manage households. Fighting insecurity, they try to keep the fires burning in the bedroom, though it’s well-known that rappers, married or not, cavort with admiring honeys. But most of these women were with their men before the money, the videos, and the fame. And they insist they’ll be there long after. Not without a cost, though. Tashera Simmons, 34, first ran into DMX when she was 10 years old and he was 11. Raised in Yonkers, N.Y., in a strict Muslim household, she was not allowed outside except to go to school. On a rare, unsupervised trip to the store one day, she says she watched as Earl Simmons, her future husband, robbed an old woman. “I knew he was bad,” says Tashera. “But I’d never had any excitement in my life, so he was like my hero. I used to think about him all the time after that day.” Eight years later a mutual friend introduced her to Simmons at a party, and they’ve been inseparable ever since. Tashera is tall and statuesque, with a figure that belives the children she has borne her husband. Her hair, dark and thick, hangs past her shoulders, and she occasionally brushes it out of her eyes. At a photo shoot in a desolate area of the Bronx, she sits in a trailer reminiscing about her early days with DMX while he poses outside. She cheerfully shows off a picture of the youngest of their four children, Praise Mary Ella, 2, and talks about her sewing classes. But when the conversation turns more serious, Tashera lowers her voice to a whisper and steals a look in her husband’s direction before saying anything. Asked about DMX’s well-chronicled drug issues, Tashera chooses her words carefully. “It’s not like they say in the papers,” she professes. “He has more of a drinking problem than drugs.” In addition to his well-publicized traffic violations, he’s had several run-ins with the law, including a case in 2004 when he reportedly impersonated a federal agent in a failed car-theft attempt at JFK Airport. “He just has a road rage problem,” she insists. (Tashera’s apparently got a lead foot too: Earlier this year she was charged with speeding, driving an unregistered vehicle, and not using child restraints on her four kids in upstate New York.) As for their love life, she frankly admits that she believes her husband has cheated on her. “I don’t think he’s out there being faithful,” Tashera says. “I hope he is. But I wouldn’t put it past him.” In 2004 a woman named Monique Wayne claimed that DMX fathered her son after she met the rapper in a nightclub, reports say. A paternity test and court order later, he began paying $5,000 a month in child support. “Truthfully, I wouldn’t let that break our family up,” Tashera says. She crosses her fingers. “We’re tight. All I know is that whatever he does, at the end of the day it’s all about me.” Connecting over having similarly dysfunctional families, Tashera and DMX cemented their me-and-you-against-the-world bond while they were still teenagers. She says that’s one reason they’ve lasted through so much. “It’s our background that keeps me strong,” she says. “If I’d just gotten in the relationship and I heard about babies and Superhead, I wouldn’t be here.” To Read The Rest of This Story, Get This Issue At Your Local Newsstand Now! Do you want VIBE delivered to your home or office? CLICK HERE.

Article tags: Rapper's Wives, Ja Rule, Wyclef Jean, Snoop Dogg, Eminem 

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