Rapper DMX -- ARRESTED for Driving Without a License

DMX should know if he, of all people, drives a car without a driver's license ... he's going to end up in handcuffs -- and that's exactly what happened this morning in South Carolina.

The rapper was handcuffed and taken to Spartanburg Detention Center around 2AM ... after an officer saw him driving a 1978 Buick (sweet) and pulled him over for allegedly driving without a license.

DMX spoke to the local FOX station as he left the police station and said, "No, I didn't have a license ... put the cuffs on me. Brought me here. I paid the money. Basically, just 5 hours wasted for nothing."

And there's this DMX bonus -- his 5-month-old daughter was in the back seat during the whole incident.