DMX gets year in jail for fraud

EMBATTLED rapper DMX was sentenced Wednesday to one year in prison for tax fraud — but insisted he wasn’t “like a criminal in a comic book” trying to scheme against the government.

DMX, real name Earl Simmons, admitted in November to evading $1.7 million in taxes.

He was also given three years of supervised release.

The 47-year-old performer (inset), whose top songs include “Party Up (Up in Here),” stood accused of hiding money from the IRS from 2010 to 2016 — largely by maintaining a “cash lifestyle.”

“I knew that taxes needed to be paid,” Simmons said shortly before Manhattan Federal Judge Jed Rakoff handed down his sentence.

“I hired people but I didn’t follow up. I guess I really didn’t put too much concern into it.

“I never went to the level of tax evasion where I’d sit down and plot . . . like a criminal in a comic book,” said Simmons, who grew teary at points during the proceeding.

Prosecutors had pushed for Rakoff to hit Simmons with a sentence ranging from four years and nine months up to five years in prison.