New DMC Interview

[bigted]

http://jivemagazine.com/article.php?pid=4326

DMC: "It isn’t about me anymore..."

Written By: Jason Kordich

Posted: 05/31/2006

From teaching the world how to walk and talk to what style of shoe to rock, Run-DMC defined, revolutionized, and modernized Hip-Hop. Beyond their endless list of firsts ( first to go gold, platinum, triple platinum, video on MTV, sign an endorsement deal, and get the cover of Rolling Stones just to name a few), Run-DMC’s fused Rock/Rap approach was so novel, innovative, and fun that it set a standard for music that has inspired artists for over two decades. With the senseless murder of Jam Master Jay in 2002, the group known as Run-DMC would cease to exist.

While the face of Hip-Hop has changed drastically since Run-DMC first entered the game, they realize that their love, approach and belief in the art form known as Hip-Hop may be just as vital as their legacy. Following Rev Run’s solo effort in 05(Distortion), Darryl “DMC” McDaniels dropped his first solo effort, Checks Thugs and Rock N Roll in March of 06. If you think this is his “Come Back” effort, think again. This creation delves on everything from alcoholism and suicide to adoption, the war in Iraq, and treating women with respect. The six year journey of CTARR welcomes fans of D into a whole new chapter of his work. Beyond the raw biographical and honest nature of the project, DMC is looking to take Hip-Hop back to when the music was unique, had a message, and was creative.

Recently, JIVE Magazine got down with the "King of Rock" to dig deep into his past, discuss the current direction of the genre, the journey of his first solo project, and the song that saved his life.

JIVE Magazine: When was the first time you identified yourself as an MC?

DMC: Probably when I wrote my first rhyme (1979) because before I started to write rhymes I used to be a DJ (Grandmaster Get High). I never really DJ’d outside of my basement but I still was a DJ. I wrote my first rhyme in 9th grade. Easy D was my first MC name that’s why I have that rhyme on “Here We Go”: “They used to call me Easy D; I used to rap on the mic so easily.” Then I changed my name from Easy D to the initials of my name, DMC.

JIVE Magazine: Tell me about the time an English teacher of yours read some of your lyrics and you told her that you were an MC. Do you remember what you wrote or what your teachers’ reaction was?

DMC: Yeah, he thought I was crazy and pulled me in the hallway. At the time I was into Hip-Hop, rapping, DJing, graffiti and all of that, but I was also a big horror movie fan, so a lot of my rhymes were violent. I usually would rhyme stuff like “I am DMC rapper on the mic,”but then some days it would be about killing, shooting, and dismembering.

As my notebook began to fill up, it got to the point where the teacher wanted to make sure I was ok. I was just buggin’ and being creative.

JIVE Magazine: The first single Run-DMC dropped was “It’s like that.” What was it like hearing that play on the radio for the first time?

DMC: It was weird. I remember when we made the record; we were told it was going to be played at 6 p.m. I knew it was me, but when I heard it, I didn’t think it was me.

JIVE Magazine: How does the experience of working on the first Run DMC album compare to working on your first solo album?

DMC: I guess working on the first album was more nervous because you have people expecting something from you. Run-Dmc always had a role, a position to play. With the solo album, it’s just for the sole purpose of art, so for me there is no destination with it. I was like a kid because everything was new. The musical direction was new, but for Run-DMC there was more pressure because I had to play the role of the devastating Mic controller, The King of Rock. With this solo record I was just going to make songs that people could relate to. I didn’t have to create a persona.

JIVE Magazine: Who are some of the currents artists in Hip-Hop and Rock that you are into?

My new Hip-Hop is classic rock. Right now Hip-Hop is good, and I like it, but there is nothing for me to love about it. I know your hustling, and her booty’s big, and you got 50 cars. This is the only time in Hip-Hop where it is doing great in sales and everyone is getting paid but really, everyone hates it. There was never a time in Hip-Hop where people said Hip-Hop is dead. It is happening now. The reason why that is happening is because the guy hustling on the corner is Hip-Hop but the guy working at McDonalds because he doesn’t want to hustle is Hip-Hop. I listen to the Beatles and Crosby, Steals and Nash talking about love, politics, society, our relationships, so my new Hip-Hop is classic rock& roll. You don’t need crews, a posse, bling, a producer, a bitch, a hoe, a gun-those are things you could possibly have, but you also need a book, an education, direction, fun, “Mary Mary”, and My Adidas; you need everything. Right now there is no voice for the Hip-Hop bboy or bgirl. Every generation likes their artists. I like his flow, I like his lyrics, but you loved DMC, De la Soul, N.W.A., Big Daddy Kane, Beastie Boys, fat Boys, and the list goes on and on, and now you just like stuff. I don’t want Hip-Hop to be like it was back in the day, I want it to be better than it was back in the day because it can be.

JIVE MAGAZINE: I remember you saying in the past the Chuck D is the greatest MC of all time. I was wondering what you thought of his most recent effort.

DMC: Yeah he is the greatest of all time. Listen to his voice, his flow, his lyrics, he has the total package. I listened to it a couple of nights ago, and I think it is incredible because he took the art form and did something with it.

JIVE Magazine: It is so good to hear you and Run on “Come 2gether”. What was it like working together again?

DMC: It was something really different. It was a Run and D record and not a Run-DMC record because there will be no Run-DMC records without Jay. In the studio, it was Rev Run and Rocker DMC working together.

JIVE Magazine: Is there any chance that there could be a Rev Run and a DMC album?

DMC: No. I don’t think so.

JIVE Magazine: Beef is huge in Hip-Hop today. Comparing the beef of 50 and the Game have back to the Graffiti Rock Battle you guys had with The Treacherous Three, what would you say are the differences between battles today and back then?

DMC: Battles today are done for promotional stunts. Battles today are not even really about the art form. They are about some stupid preconceived notions of superiority. Battles today have nothing to do with what Hip-Hop is about. It is some street bullsh*t. Back in the day it was about shutting somebody down. If battles today were real, you wouldn’t have all of these rappers sounding or rapping alike. You wouldn’t have them working with the same producers and everybody making guest appearances on each others records. Put it to you this way, if what was going on today back when we were rapping, you would be a biter. You had De La Soul, Run-DMC, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, and LL Cool J who were all from the same hood, but they were all different. I wouldn’t use your beat, your concept, or dress like you. You would never have crews rhyming on the same type of beat.

JIVE Magazine: You guys were the trailblazers for endorsements. Now it is considered a key to being a “Successful” artists. How has the genre changed and do you feel the necessity to mass market has overshadowed the music?

DMC: Oh for sure it has overshadowed everything because now people don’t care about the music as an art form. They are so concerned about being a celebrity. It is a wonderful thing to be compensated for your talent and hard work, but it kills your motivation to be creative and to have something you can consider your own. You can get involved in all of the endorsements you like, but if you make music you’ll live forever. There is a difference between a great celebrity/promotion guy like a P. Diddy and a Talib Kweli. There is no comparison because Kweli is the real deal. He writes what he lives and breathes for. What is happening with Hip-Hop right now is what is happening with every other genre: There is the celebrity and those who are artists. The artist entertainer always wins out. People say Run-Dmc was the first rap group to mean something. A lot of people who came after us, sold a lot and made a lot of money, but people don’t give a f*ck about them. There are two worlds now. You just gotta choose which one you want to be in.

JIVE Magazine: On December 4th, 2002, Run-DMC was honored with a life time achievement award at vh1’s BIG 2002 Awards. What was it like to receive that award and see Chuck D, Kid Rock, and Grandmaster Flash Perform Some of your classics?

DMC: I still can’t comprehend all of it. I am just a bboy and I will be a bboy till I die. The good part about it is I love when we walk into a room people say that’s Hip-Hop, and that’s what I want to be till the day that I die. When we get these awards and stuff, I don’t take them because we were the first to go gold and platinum. I take them because the thing that we believe in is believable still.

I didn’t make my solo album as a comeback or to impress anyone. I made the album because I can.

The same way I said I going to rap when I was 12 is the same way I am going to rap when I am 40. Did Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen stop playing music once they got older? No. In fact, if you look at the charts, the people that gross the most money last year performing were all those old rockers because what they do is timeless and real. It humbles me because I have been through it all, I’ve seen Biggie and Tupac come and go; I’ve seen Jay come and go, Gangsta rap come and go, and I am looking at this bullsh*t that’s happening right now and that’s going to come and go, and to still be here through all that, I feel thankful, but I am not here for the awards. I am here for the purpose, the cause, and the vibe. Me and Chuck D were talking the other night and we were saying how there is really no way to describe the way you feel for Hip-Hop.

JIVE Magazine: You started working on Checks, Thugs And Rock & Roll six years ago. When you first completed “Just Like Me” in 2001, you had 50 completed songs. How many of those songs made it to the final version that came out and is there a chance that those other tracks will come out in the future?

DMC: Yeah it was a journey. “Cadillac Cars”, “Just Like Me”, and “Lovey Dovey” were the songs that made it. What happened was, I asked myself, if I am going to keep rapping, where am I going to go? I was never super lyrical like a Jay-Z, and I never had a sexy image like LL or 50. I would just describe what I did. So I did all of these 50 records, but the oomph wasn’t there. It was all good, but there was no evolution.

I was doing raps in 2001, but they sounded like I was still rhyming in f*cking 1986. When I found out I was adopted, I made “Just Like Me” And it worked. So I am going to write about adoption, alcoholism, suicide, and the war in Iraq. Once I caught up with myself, the record started coming together. I realized I had to evolve as a person before I could evolve as an artist. I didn’t rap just to rap. I rapped because I had something to say. It was coming from somewhere. The three songs that made the album made it because they all grew and they were about something greater than me, but I am going to take all of the lyrics from those other songs and then rework them.

JIVE Magazine: How does it feel now that this album is finally out?

DMC: It feels really good that I did it and that it is out. I am already starting on the second one. It should be out at the begging of next year. The rap game used to be about everyone else in the game is corny and we are the kings.

A lot of these motherf*ckers today can’t rap. They all sound like, “come to the club and have fun, come to the club and get a gun, come to the club and get the girl.” So I have this thing where I rhyme to the pattern of Old McDonald. “Some Mcs cannot perform, D I D I know, if it wasn’t for the video how would you get that doe, with a wack rap here, wack rap there, here wack rap, there wack rap, every where a wack rap”.

I am taking it back to where you would see the Treacherous Three battle the Cold Crush, and when Melly Mel, Bizzy Bee used to battle. I am getting ready to come at everyone out there, but it is going to be indiscreet, so MCs will be looking in the mirror asking if I am taking about them. You got a record and a video, but your show is bull sh*t.

If you don’t have a DJ and you rap over a dat, that’s not Hip-Hop. If you ever pay like a 100 to go see one of these guys concerts that has all these CDs and they don’t have a DJ ask for your money back because that isn’t Hip-Hop. So on this album I am going to be telling the people not to buy the bullsh*t. There are a lot of cats making records right now. If we took them in the park, put the turntables on, pulled out a break beat, gave them the mic and said don’t do any of your records, what do you think would come out of their mouth? Nothing will come out.

There are people writing rhymes for these people. When the hell did that become part of Hip-Hop?

JIVE MAGAZINE: “Lovey Dovey” featuring Doug E. Fresh is a dope positive track appreciating women. With so much discussion about the misogyny of Hip-Hop, do you feel that the genre is getting a black eye?

DMC: It’s a record for women and about them.. The thing about it is it is so f*cking ghetto to always talk about the stripper and the bitches and hoes that people think that is how you have to be to be from the hood. It is ridiculous. The guys may think it is a soft record but the ladies love it [laughs]. They say it is the best thing to happen to them since sliced bread.

JIVE Magazine: Watch Tower” and “Machine Gun” are just two of the examples from this album that address world concerns. You are an artist who puts his words into action. One of the groups you are involved with is Artists Against Hunger & Poverty. Tell me a little bit about the organization and your involvement in it?

DMC: When I did the Cats in the Cradle record I had go meet Harry Chapin. As a musician and artist he believed he had a responsibility to represent the people. He had this thing called World Hunger Year. He didn’t merely give food to poor people; he taught them how to be self-sufficient. He taught them how to provide for themselves. There are a lot of stars or celebrities that only do things for publicity purposes. A lot of people only give out turkeys during thanksgiving for a photo op, but I like to give them out all year.

Run-Dmc always made socially conscious records. They were never too political or preachy but provided positive messages. You can want to be an MC to get things, but you really need to do this because you want to do something, you want to change something, and most importantly say something. I wanted to get involved in something that would affect the world like my music does.

JIVE Magazine: In 2001, you wrote a tribute to Jam Master Jay entitled “I’m Missing My Friend”. How similar is it to the incredible tribute you released featuring Kid Rock?

DMC: A tribute to my friend wasn’t to Jay the artist; it was to Jay the person. People know Jam Master Jay as the greatest DJ alive, but they don’t know about his other side: playing crossword puzzles, playing video games, teaching me how to swim. We did everything together for twenty years. When you look at Hip-Hop today, it is always about the celebrity of them. I wanted to strip away all of that, and emphasize that he was a person just like everyone else. The Kid Rock track is more earthy. This is life, you lose your love ones, so that’s the difference between those ones.

JIVE Magazine: Sarah Mclachlan’s “Angel” had an incredible impact on your life and writing. Tell me a little bit about her impact and did that make you want to work with her on “Just Like Me”?

DMC: It saved my life. Yes it was what made me want to work with her on “Just Like Me”, but it got deeper than that. What happened was in 96 we were touring over in Europe and this was when Jay was alive. It is 96 and I am lying in my room and everything is going really good. It is good to be DMC, but for some reason, I was depressed out of my ass. So I am there going, “Am I supposed to be DMC? Why am I DMC? Why did I become DMC?”

I kept being DMC regardless. I turn the radio on and they say Hip-Hop is a young people’s music. I am 35 years old. I read the newspaper or the Source, and I see some of my peers saying that they are too old and that they don’t know what they are doing in Hip-Hop, so I’ve got all of these going through my mind. I guess it’s a midlife crisis.

I looked at it as I had accomplished all of my duties in life, so I felt I needed to commit suicide, so I could move on to my next plane of existence. I kept thinking I shouldn’t live anymore, I’ve accomplished everything I was supposed to because I am just here to be DMC. So I say to myself, I am going to wait till I get off of the tour because if I kill myself during the tour Joe and Jay will be mad at me.[laughing] Those were my reasons.

I get home, and there is something very uncomfortable bubbling in me. I turn the radio on and Sarah Mclachlan’s “Angel” comes on. I had the four fs (fortune, fame, family, friends) but that record makes me go, “My God, it's good to be alive. Life is beautiful."

Throughout 1997, all I listened to was “Angel”over and over. I started to listen to more of her [sarah's] music, but every day when I would wake up, and before I would go to sleep, I would listen to "Angel".

At the end of 97, I go to this big Grammy party. I didn’t care about the red carpet, the paparazzi, and the fake celebrities and I am just hating everything. I look across the room and who do I see? “Oh my god that’s 'that Lady'”. Sarah Mclachlan was “that lady” because I didn’t know her at that time.

I decided to go over there and tell her what the record did for me. She did what everyone does when they see me: “DMC from Run-DMC? Walk this way is my favorite record.” I thought, "Wow Sarah Mclachlan likes me," and then I thought, "Well that is a good reason to stay alive..."

I thanked and told her that her record “Angel” saved my life when I was depressed. "You sound like an angel but you aren’t an angel; you are God and you saved my life." I am telling her this and she is looking at me like “Ok...”. Then she said to me, "Thank you for telling me that, Darryl, because that is what that song is supposed to do." She shakes my hand and walks away.

Three years after that experience and I am trying to work on this album. I am trying to make inspirational music by talking about the war, being an alcoholic and talking about suicide. If I talk about it, someone might listen to my record and say, "Wow I feel like that sometimes."

Two more years go by and I feel like there is something in me that I don’t know. Then three years go by and that’s when I find out I was adopted.

The day that I found out I was adopted, the void was filled instantly. It was then that I said I am going to use Harry Chapin record “Cats In The Cradle” about a father who never had time for his son, and I am going to put my adoption situation in there. Then I got a great idea to call Sarah, “that Lady” whose song saved my life and gave me hope to give hope to others. I ask her if she will do the record with me and when she says yes, I go crazy. I offered to fly her out and put her up in a hotel, but she said, “No, you can come to my house to make the record.” She lives in Vancouver Canada.

Two days after we make the record she says, "Before you go I have to tell you something. I was adopted too.” I found out we had something in common from the beginning, which is why we were brought together to do the record in the first place. It's why her record saved my life.

That is powerful. That made me say it isn’t about me anymore. It is about what I can do with the power now that I have it.

[ash trey]

Cool read! Thanks man.