Rapper DMX [ tickets ], who pleaded guilty last month to violating the conditions of his release on a prior charge, has begun serving a 70-day prison sentence at Rikers Island in New York.

DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, originally was sentenced to 60 days, but a judge extended the term when the rapper--who claimed he suffered an asthma attack--appeared nearly three hours late for his sentencing Thursday (11/18).

Simmons pleaded guilty last year to reckless endangerment after smashing his SUV into a gate at New York's Kennedy Airport in 2004, and was sentenced to a conditional release stipulating that he could land in jail if he violated the law again within the next year.

Since then, he's been hit with two traffic violations while his driver's license was either suspended or revoked: he was cited for driving a car at more than 100 mph, and was involved in a three-car traffic accident, one of the cars being an unmarked police car, according to an Associated Press report.