DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, was released on bail of Eastern Caribbean $1,000 (US$376) until Monday, when he is due in Basseterre Magistrate’s Court. The rapper left the Caribbean island on Saturday afternoon, but pledged to return for his court date.

“I’ll go to court on Monday,” he said before leaving. “I just want to thank all my fans for showing the support they did show. … It feels good to get out of jail, but it feels a thousand percent better when you get out of jail to see everybody say they love you.”

The rapper, who last year was nominated for a Grammy for best rap solo performance for “Who We Be,” was performing Friday night before an enthusiastic crowd of about 3,000 at St. Kitts’ annual music festival. Organizers said they warned DMX he would not be allowed to use obscenities on stage, which is a misdemeanor in this former British Caribbean colony of about 40,000 people.

“There was a contract signed in which it was made very clear long before the arrival of the artists that there are laws in St. Kitts that do not take kindly to the use of indecent language on stage,” Information Minister Jacinth Henry Martin said Saturday.

DMX, however, said he signed no such contract, and said he would not have performed if he had been forced to censor his language. He did not say were he was going Saturday afternoon.

A U.S. court earlier this year ordered DMX to make public service announcements for the Humane Society after he pleaded guilty to animal cruelty, disorderly conduct and possession of drug paraphernalia. The Superior Court in New Jersey also fined him US$15,000 (EC $40,000).

That case started on June 28, 1999, when police allegedly found pipes for smoking crack cocaine, a 9-mm pistol with hollow-nosed bullets and 13 pit bulls at his home in Teaneck, New Jersey, where he lived with his wife and son, who was 6 at the time.

DMX’s latest release, The Great Depression, debuted at the top of the album chart in November. He costarred with the late Aaliyah in the 2000 movie Romeo Must Die and appeared with Steven Seagal in last year’s Exit Wounds.

This year the 32-year-old co-stars with martial arts heavyweight Jet Li in Cradle 2 The Grave.