Dialysus
Dialysus won the Freestyle Friday title on BET's 106 and Park with a unanimous decision by the judges. He wowed the crowd with his clever punchlines and became the crowd favorite. When asked about his victory, Dialysus commented, "I'm honered to be the Freestyle Friday champion and I look forward to putting Scotch Plains, NJ on the map."
Dialysus, whose real name is Derek Simmons, has been rapping for 3 years now. He has a very inspirational story behind his rap name. At the age of 10 he was diagnosed with a kidney disease. This disease became worse over the years, and in February of 2006 he had to go on dialysis. This was an everyday thing for quite some time. He was hooked up to a machine 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. Dialysis is the process by which uric acid and urea are removed from circulating blood by means of a dialyzer. Unfortunately his kidneys failed and had to be removed causing him to need a transplant. With much prayer, family, and friend support, he was lucky enough to find a perfect match for his kidney in his father Derek Simmons Sr. On July 12, 2006 he had a kidney transplant at St. Barnabas Hospital. After 6 other surgeries he was finally released from the hospital on August 26, 2006. After he was released, he wrote a song about his life and received a huge amount of positive feedback. From that moment with the help of his management company World Entertainment Agency, the name "Dialysus" was born.
Dialysus is not only a rapper but an actor as well. Derek "Dialysus" Simmons has appeared on MTV's "Roomraiders"
