Published: Thursday - May 24, 2007
Words by Anne van de Sande
DMC (Photo: DMC)
Those old school Adidas sneakers you're rocking were introduced to hip-hop by Run DMC. No actually, Run DMC introduced hip-hop. With their unique fusion of rap and rock, they presented the genre to a nation wide audience, making hip-hop a world wide phenomenon. In the 80s, Joseph "Run" Simmons, Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, and Jason "Jam Master Jay" Mizell walked their way up to the top of the charts and cemented themselves there for over a decade. The unfortunate death of the legendary Jam Master Jay marked the end of one of the most successful groups in the genre's history.
After achieving everything that hip-hop artists can hope for, the two remaining members of the group branched out. Both released solo albums, Rev Run teamed up with MTV for his own reality show; and DMC worked on a book, movie scripts and brought to life an organization for adoptees and orphans. But in an era dominated by sucker MCs, DMC stands in the breach for hip-hop. In an open-hearted interview with Ballerstatus, he speaks about his pioneering work, his adoption and why hip-hop will never go six feet underground.
BallerStatus.com: A new live CD, Live At Montreux 2001, was released in April. What made you choose to put out this specific show?
DMC: Because it's significant that hip-hop was at the Montreux Festival. It's not just about Run DMC, but about the power and effectiveness of hip-hop, and the places, the boundaries and the doors that we were able to get into.
BallerStatus.com: You guys did so many shows, and traveled all over the world. How is hip-hop being received in other places?
DMC: It gets a great reception everywhere from New York City to Japan to Germany to Brazil. It's the most universal music out right now. The most favorite country I visited with Run DMC is Japan, for sure. Japan, because they love hip-hop, the food is good, it's clean and they get it. I've been to Japan three, four, five... probably about five or six times. It's huge over there, they really really love it. I love everything about it too -- the culture, the music, fashion, art, graffiti, the dance, everything.
BallerStatus.com: Run DMC broke barriers and opened doors for the new generation. How do you feel about the way hip-hop has evolved through the years? Are you content about its current state?
DMC: No. It needs to get more back to the creativity, to the immigration, to the motivation... to the uniqueness of each different group or personality. Right now it's good, but it's all the same. There's nothing exciting about it. I mean, there's things you like out there, but nothing you love. Because you love Run DMC, you love the Beastie Boys, you love A Tribe Called Quest, you know you love LL and Public Enemy, you love 2Pac and Biggie. A lot of stuff out there you like it -- you like the video, you like the single. But you don't love the thing about it, if you understand what I'm saying.
BallerStatus.com: Exactly, and I guess the fact that Biggie has a number one position on the charts when his album dropped this year says enough about the love and demand for the older stuff.
DMC: It gives people that don't really love what's going on today a chance to go get something they love. Cause everything that is out today is okay, but you don't love it.
BallerStatus.com: Run DMC is known for its incredible fusion of rap and rock. How do rock and rap go hand in hand?
DMC: The reason why we made records was because before we were able to make rock records in the studio, we didn't have any beats to rap over, so we rapped over a lot of rap records. But when you think about the cultures, it's the same thing. We're rebellious, aggressive, how we wanna be heard, we wanna be seen... we wanna be informative, we wanna get a point across. Hip-hop and rock 'n roll are brother and sister.
BallerStatus.com: Do you feel you get enough credit for influencing many rap and rock artists of that kind?
DMC: For sure. They give us more than enough credit.
BallerStatus.com: Being a pioneer in hip-hop, is there anything left you still want to achieve before eventually retiring?
DMC: No, I won't stop rocking until I retire. The whole thing is just keep doing what you're doing and have fun with it. That's what you need to keep on going. If you say, "Man, I need to do this or get that..." just do it and have fun. Like LL said, "If you do what you like doing, they're gonna be mad at you; if you try something new, they're gonna be mad at you. So the whole key is to just do something, and maybe you get to where you need to go."
BallerStatus.com: After Run DMC called it quits, Rev and you have been working on solo projects. He released Distortion and had his show on MTV, while you came out with Checks, Thugs And Rock 'N Roll. Now you've been working as a group for so long... How difficult was it to make the transition from working as a group for so long to recording your solo album?
DMC: It wasn't that easy because in Run DMC, we all had a position to play. We really were a team. But the thing about going solo is, you can say what you want, how you wanna say it and any way you wanna say it because it's more freedom. You have nothing to live up to, but in a group you have a position.
BallerStatus.com: Now when you released Checks, Thugs and Rock 'N Roll in 2007, how was the fanfare with the project? How was the response?
DMC: Everybody said it was the most incredible album of 2006, because it had a hip-hop artist talking about something.
BallerStatus.com: Yea I loved the track with Sarah McLachlan, which was also very special to you.
DMC: Yea, actually the whole album was about situations that happened to me. When I went solo, I really wanted people to know about me. I mean, you know everything about Run DMC, but you don't know anything about DMC, so I had to let people know about DMC. In the mix of all of that, I didn't know I was adopted until I found out three years before that record. So up until that point, it was everything the world knew about me. When I found out I was adopted, I had a whole new purpose.
BallerStatus.com: Your background as an adoptee motivated you to do a lot of charity work for foster children. Last year, you launched the Felix Organization. The organization's main goal is to provide opportunities that will enrich the lives of children growing up without parents. How do you strive to do this?
DMC: Yea, the orphans, foster kids and adoptees. The first thing that I'm gonna do is build facilities for these kids where they can go and learn what the purpose in destiny is because you got a lot of kids that are in foster caring and they get shuffled through the system. When they get 18 years old, they get thrown out on the street and they either end up dead or in jail. I wanna take these kids at an early age -- say ten, eleven, twelve -- and teach them whatever it is that they have a desire to be, they can be. Look at me. All they need is opportunity, information and direction. They don't need to just be shuffled from foster home to foster home. They need to be taught that they are special people that have a reason for being here. What is it on that side of you that's gonna make this world a better place and at the same time making it a better world for you. These are the things they need to learn, but they don't really get that being in the system. At the end of the day, they get shuffled around, people don't even care if they die. You know what I'm saying? People don't listen to them, people listen to the laws. These children need to be paid attention to and we need to make it better for them, so that when they get older they can make it better for themselves and at the same time make it better for the world.
BallerStatus.com: Exactly. So it must have been extremely difficult for you to make the documentary about your adoption and to go public with it. How did you experience the response you got afterwards and about the organization you brought to life to help others?
DMC: It was the most difficult thing ever. Forget about gold, forget about money, forget about everything. That's what it's all about. That's why I became DMC, to do that.
BallerStatus.com: Last year you said you would release a new album in '07, titled Return of the Son of Byford...
DMC: Yeah, but I'm changing it. (laughs) The new title is gonna be Hip-hop Isn't dead, Motherf---er. It won't have the motherf---er, just Hip-hop Isn't Dead. Not as a response to Nas, because people have been saying that ten thousand times before Nas. So I looked at it, and wondered why are people saying it. Because it's the people themselves that aren't making the records they should be making. Like, you can do what you do, but you aren't doing enough. So when you bought an Eric B and Rakim album, if you bought License To Ill, you bought a full album of a bunch of different, but great music. Nowadays you get a single and a video. Every album is a single, video, and that's it. You don't get an album where twelve songs are gonna change your life and your world, inform you, inspire you, motivate you and excite you; or make you laugh and cry like that. You like these records, you like the video, but you don't love the entire album. And the thing to love is hip-hop. Hip-hop is responsible, not the guy doing it.
So the first solo album was very personal. I talked about the war in Iraq, I talked about my adoption, suicide, depression... The next album is basically, look, "You shouldn't be rapping, you're fake, stay off the mic, stay off the stage." It's time to show people what's good about hip-hop. Not about me, but about hip-hop.
BallerStatus.com: Will you be working with any particular artists?
DMC: I have a couple of artists on there, but the production is all done by new, up-and-coming, young producers. They are the voice of the next generation. You can't have a guy that has been producing records for the last five years produce a new sound 'cause you're already tired of them anyway. You gotta make something new, say something different. The only way you're gonna get the new, is to bring the new.
BallerStatus.com: Will you be going on the rock 'n roll route again?
DMC: I'm not gonna do a whole rock/rap fusion, I got one. You know, the typical Run DMC album was hip-hop with the one rock record, like "Walk This Way." On the new album, I got a track called "Block Rock" because DMC is back on the block. About ninety-five percent of the album is done. And believe me, MCs are in trouble. (Starts rapping) "Because as long as I'm alive hip-hop isn't dead / So Imma kick this one from the top of my head / Ever since the day I walked this way / I knew hip-hop was here to stay / Gangsta hard rock, non-stop hip-hop / I do it big when I kick it like my name's Kid Rock / Blow up the spot like a terrorist / I'm a member of Aerosmith / And don't you forget it."
BallerStatus.com: What do you have on your plate right now besides the new album?
DMC: I'm writing some movies, but I don't want to be another rapper with a TV show or movie. I wanna change Hollywood to where I changed the music industry. So, I'm writing some movies, about two or three movies I'm working on. I'm putting my life story on Broadway. Right now, I'm currently looking for a producer and a director. I got cartoons coming out. I got an animated film coming out. I'm working on animated series for television. And then I'm writing another book too. Because the last book I put out, it was about my adoption, which is a piece of my story. So I'm gonna get people the whole complete story.
BallerStatus.com: Cool, so you're gonna be extremely busy; music, movies, writing.
DMC: Yep, and I'm gonna build a city for foster kids and orphans in every city of the world 'cause they don't have a place to go and a place where they can say that people care about them.
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