"Music is a dishonest, vile, lying, fraudulent type of business and that's a good part of it," says Daryl DMC McDaniels with a laugh. The famous rapper, a member of the legendary group Run-DMC, recently published his autobiography "Ten Ways Not to Kill Yourself".
In his raw, revelatory memoir, DMC bleeds unashamedly.
"I'm an addict. Most of my young life I spent my days smoking, snorting and swallowing," writes the rapper who once sang about the crack epidemic in the song "Mary, Mary." "If your soul isn't in tune with what you're doing, you're going to fall apart, just like me," he warns.
When Eminem inducted Run-DMC into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009, making them only the second hip hop group to do so after Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, he described them as "something powerful, something dangerous, something beautiful and unique - they are rap's first movie stars, they are the Beatles".
"It's crazy. Busta Rhymes once said that Run-DMC didn't change music, they changed everything," the friendly DMC told the Guardian.
He, Joe Run Simmons and their DJ Jason Mizell aka Jam Master Jay were the first hip hop stars. From 1983 to 1988, the albums "Run-DMC", "King of Rock", "Raising Hell" and "Tougher Than Leather" spawned timeless classics such as "Hard Times", "It's Tricky", "Proud to Be Black", "Mary, Mary" and "Walk This Way". "Run-DMC were also very exciting to see and hear live," stated Jurassic 2's Chali 5na.
Despite having a string of successes with the group, after "Tougher Than Leather" DMC fell into alcoholism, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, which eventually led to an illness that nearly caused him to lose his voice. He has suffered from suicidal thoughts for years, he admits. He had creative and personal conflicts with producer Russell Simmons, Jay and especially Runa. His childhood friendship with Runa turned into a dysfunctional business relationship. DMC was harassed by Run's cousin Bernard Jordan. By 1997, he had already begun to "avoid Runa as if it were a disease." In Japan that same year, DMC "already felt used and dirty, like a milked cow".
When Ice-T asked him what it's like to be the king of the rap game, Run replied, "The f*cks are knockin' on the door. 'Rolling Stone' is behind them and I'm out of control." DMC frowns when he remembers this now famous statement. "I was never like him... Run and Jay smoked more weed than a Rastafarian god could create," he points out.
Things fell apart in 2002 when Jay was murdered at Hollis Studios, DMC revealed he was adopted, and his father passed away. Despite suffering from severe pancreatitis for years, DMC completely indulged in alcohol, admitting to drinking a case of beer a day as a minimum. He always had a refrigerator full of alcohol in his jeep, and wherever he went he had a man carry beer for him in a hand cooler.
The famous rapper soon realized that he had to go to rehabilitation. And he realized that going to counseling helps him.
"Therapy is the coolest thing you can do," he says. His salvation was his wife Zuri and son Dson.
Raised Catholic, but "enjoying the madness of the road instead of caring for his soul," DMC today believes that a higher power lives within us all.
"I don't care what you want to call your god: Yahweh, Buddha, Almighty, Allah, call her whatever you want. I think god is female because my wife and mother are so cool," he says.
DMC today believes that his group's last three albums were "truly terrible" and very different from the previous quartet that was dedicated to uplifting American society. This year, DMC released the single "Flames", a call to end violence. He says he was inspired by Fred Hampton Jr.'s message to fight racism not with racism, but with solidarity.
"Oh yes, absolutely. That's exactly what the song 'Flames' is about," the rapper points out.
DMC is outraged by the large number of cases that have occurred recently of police officers killing black people.
"Those bullets were never allowed to leave the barrels," he emphasizes. But he says he doesn't hate cops. On the contrary, he was moved by the deaths of five police officers in Dallas, and was impressed by the work of the police chief there, David Brown, who fired 70 officers who were not doing their jobs well.
"That's what everyone should be doing. We should go through all parts of America and one by one we're fighting our weeds," he believes.
He often talks about this problem with African-American communities and recalls a scene from one of the recent forums.
"A young girl stood up and said to me, 'Here's the truth, DMC: when a white cop shoots a black kid it's wrong, but when a black man kills another black man people say that's just the way it is in the ghetto.' That really hit me. And he said to myself - hell, that's where the fight should be. It goes deep, I remember when Jay was killed," says the rapper.
The murder of his partner from the group has not been solved to this day.
"No, I don't think they'll ever find out who the killer is. The people of Hollis may know, but they're scared. I can understand that, too. I know what they're thinking: Jay was just passing by and he got killed, and I have to live here every day , I have a wife and kids. I'm sure I'll see him after I die, though. We'll all see him in heaven jamming with Biggie and Kurt Cobain," DMC is confident.
Today, rap is dominated by illiterate mediocrities
Talking about modern hip hop, the rapper believes that mediocrity dominates today.
"They are so illiterate, so negative, without any respect. Here in America you can be the biggest fool, but everything is okay as long as you bring in money.
If you have a young positive brother like Chuck D or KRS-One or Rakim, America doesn't want to hear them. We have to tell the radio stations that we don't want to constantly listen to the same ten songs about drugs, sex and shootings," says the rapper almost furiously.
He believes that hop hop should talk more about self-confidence, self-esteem and the power of education.
"I'm proud to be black," he raps on one of the lines from the album "Raising Hell."
He sees Public Enemy frontman Chuck Da as the right person who would change the music scene in the entire country. He can already imagine what that would look like.
"A lot of people would be fired. It would be a complete dismantling and reassembly of the music business. Ninety-nine percent of rap today is bad demos. It's about responsibility, not censorship and freedom of speech. We're allowing corporate America to exploit us. , tells us how to do our hip hop. You get more money today if you act like a thug. In the XNUMXs, we fought against that kind of thing," he explains.
Ready to stick God's foot in the music industry's ass
DMC is enjoying making music again today. He is currently working with Chuck D on the song "Coming Like a Rhino". "I don't need any substances anymore. I enjoy music. And we're ready to stick God's foot in the butt of the music industry. Let everyone know that me and Chuck are not considered dangerous rappers for anything. I'm only 52 years old, I'm not ready to retire yet." he points out and adds:
"We didn't do 'Coming Like a Rhino' to get recognition or to sell better. It's just about powerful beats and powerful rhymes, there's nothing better than that," the rapper claims.
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