Latest / Teach Me Something Hosted By DJ Prostyle & Penny Dellas / Creativity & Purpose with Darryl “DMC” McDaniels

Transcript

Creativity & Purpose with Darryl “DMC” McDaniels · Teach Me Something Hosted By DJ Prostyle & Penny Dellas

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, what's up? This is DJ ProStyle.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: And this is Penny Delos.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: And this is Teach Me Something.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Brought to you by Berklee College.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: All right, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, sit back, relax,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: and get ready because this is about to be a
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: good one. Welcome back to Teach Me Something. I am ProStyle.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: I am Penny Delos. And this is presented by Berklee
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: College iHeart Podcast. And we're so excited because we are
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: in season four, ladies and gentlemen.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Season four, wow.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: I know, it's been a minute.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Time is actually flying.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: It really is.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: I don't know how I've put up with you for
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: four seasons.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: You know it's just because you love me so much.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: It's because of moments like this that keep it going.
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: And this moment's about to be crazy because it's so
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: legendary and iconic.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: I'm just really excited because we met this individual at
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Berkeley College. Shout out to the team over there. We
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: had a book signing there. Our students had an amazing time.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: But, Pro, tell us who's with us today.
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: I mean, this person, this individual is part of an
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: iconic group, right, that helped build– Hip-hop in general, right?
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Like my career and everybody else.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Founders.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Everybody.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: Listen.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: This is beyond legendary. It's iconic.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: DMC is here, ladies and gentlemen.
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: DMC is here.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Let's give it up.
• 1:08
  Speaker 5: Hello. Yes.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: DMC is in a place to be for real. Yes.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: For real.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: Yes, man. Welcome. Welcome, man. Thank you for having me.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: It is an honor.
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: I'm sure I can speak for me and Penny to
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: sit across from an icon and a legend like yourself, man.
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: Well, we're legends and icons collectively. Yeah.
• 1:25
  Speaker 5: I like to look at it that way.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: But no, we're really looking at you as the legend.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: We really are.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: You know, I know how, you know. So how are
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: you feeling, man?
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: How are you doing? I'm doing good. Doing really good.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Traffic was like coming in?
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: Very easy for some reason.
• 1:39
  Speaker 5: Because they knew I was coming in.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: They knew. We called in advance.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: We're like, listen, he's coming in. Open everything up.
• 1:45
  Speaker 5: Because it could take two hours to just get from
• 1:47
  Speaker 5: Jersey to the city.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: And I'm not sure when this airs, right? But of course,
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: we still got all the World Cup madness going on.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Even on my way in.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: Oh, I did something cool with the World Cup last week.
• 1:57
  Speaker 5: Mm-hmm. In Atlanta, I got to walk the ball out
• 2:01
  Speaker 5: to start the match. Oh, to the field.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: That's so cool. That was huge. That's huge. It was huge.
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: This is my first year actually into it, like into
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: the game.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: Well, you were part of it, bro.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, a part of what? Like doing the
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: watch parties at the Dream Mall? Yeah, yeah.
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: Those watch parties and shots at American Dream Mall and
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: everybody over there were incredible, what they did over there.
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: But it's my first time actually. Look, we all know that.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: We call it soccer, right? We know it's called football, right?
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: But it's such a global. No, that's the beauty of it.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: So it's so awesome to see. And I got really
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: into it. And when obviously the U.S. kind of made it,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: you know, I was so heartbroken.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: It's getting bigger and bigger now. Yeah. It's getting bigger
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: and bigger.
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: I know.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Shout out to the New York City FC that had
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Matt Fries on the USA team. So, you know, we
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: did a partnership with Berkeley with FIFA this year, too.
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: It was just different because it came to our hometown
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: and everyone got so invigorated in it.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Who played at the game?
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: My game was England versus the Republic of Congo.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: And England's still in it.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: And they almost built it. Congo was up 2-0.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, it was crazy. No, I know. I saw that game.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: No, it was crazy.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: And then they came back and won at.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: The end, right? They came back and won at the end.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: That's how it's been the majority of the games.
• 3:12
  Speaker 5: But I was nervous because it was like, just take
• 3:14
  Speaker 5: the ball out. and place it on the stand there.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: And I was like, what if I drop it? He
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: went out there.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: And just kicked it.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh.
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: The day before when I got in town, everybody that
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: I told I was there to do that would yell
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: and do this thing and it made me more nervous.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: I was like, I don't know what to do. It's
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: so big because it's such a big stage. I mean,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: it's a global stage.
• 3:38
  Speaker 5: Yeah, 100%.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: You have all these countries. It's not like I was going.
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: My son said the World Cup should be every day.
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: Because then there would be no wars. Everybody was so
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: nice to everybody.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: It's community.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: It's crazy.
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: The fact that it's about to end, or maybe it's
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: over by the time this airs.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: It'll be over, but maybe, yeah. We're talking four years.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: We have to wait for another one.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: They got to fix that. We need it every year.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: We need it every year.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: We have the women's club.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Do you see the viewership?
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: I saw a post the other day, and this is
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: obviously with still more matches to go. they surpassed over
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: 20 billion views.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's ridiculous.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: You talk about like.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: It's not even global. That's universal. Yeah. Like, it's crazy. Yeah.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: It's insane. 20 billion.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: That's crazy.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: I'm going to submit my commercial for an Emmy.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: It's like 20 Super Bowls.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: It's a lot of syndication.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, in one, right? Yeah, for sure. You're going to
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: do what?
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have a commercial playing in Berkeley College during FIFA,
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: so I'm going to submit that.
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: Views.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Incredible.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: More awards, pro.
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: So when you're not, you know, walking the ball out
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: at an international.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Global event, you know, where do we begin, man? Do
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: we begin with how it all started?
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Let's start at the origin story.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: What are your questions?
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: No, let's begin.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: We're taking it to Hollis, Queens? Is that what we're doing?
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: We're starting in Hollis?
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: I mean, we can, but I was going to ask, like,
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: what's on your playlist right now? What are your top
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: two tracks on your playlist?
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Top two tracks on my playlist right now.
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: You've been traveling all over. So like, what's your go-to?
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: Um, um, hold on by Alabama shakes. Okay.
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: And give me shelter by the stones. That's what I'm
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: rocking with right now.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Those are good ones.
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: And I don't, you know, I don't know why I
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: guess it's, it's, um, there's a lot going on in
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: the world today. Yeah. Yeah.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: So that song, I remembered it.
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: And, um, you know, when I was at the gym,
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: I put it on and it's like, Britney just.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: Hold on. Did something tell you to hide? I'm telling
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: the universe I'm holding on.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: I'm holding on.
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: And then, you know, with the Stones would give me shelter.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: All the division and the wars.
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: And stuff like that. So I guess I'm at that
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: pivotal time again.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: In my life. Yeah, yeah. That those songs are connecting
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: with me. They connect.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: That's beautiful. I mean, you know, music is transcending. And
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: we can all have our own soundtrack.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: Music succeeds where politics and religion fails.
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: Yes. And politics and religion has failed us since the
• 6:09
  Speaker 5: dawn of this universe. But it's the music that brings
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: us together to where, you know, music literally does what
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: Steven Tyler did in the Walk This Way video. Like
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: I've been to not every country. Since 86, I've been
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: to South Sudan, which was crazy. But they love Metallica
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: and Tupac there, too.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: I've been to Russia and Ukraine, two countries that were
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: beautiful people in both of those.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: We played Red Square. I played in Kiev.
• 6:45
  Speaker 5: And the prime minister of Kiev came with his family
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: to see Randy. This is when Down with the King
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: came out.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: So beautiful people there. Since 86, every country I go to,
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: they do this. DMC, don't you know when Steven Tyler
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: took that mic stand and knocked down a wall that
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: was separating on the video, it didn't happen in the video.
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: It really happened in the world.
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: And music is the only, well, not just music. Let
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: me rephrase that. The arts succeed where politics and religion fails.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: We was just talking about the World Cup.
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: Go to the museum. Go to a concert. I do
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: cookies now, so I go to all these food festivals.
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: It's Asian and Muslim and African all together.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: No beefs. No beefs. But when you say, when you.
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: Start saying, I'm this and I'm that, or you're this
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: and I'm that, look, it's all the same stuff in
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: the first place. The war is because somebody wants to
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: be righter than the other person. Yeah, yeah.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: But I discovered it's all the same stuff.
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: The God you're talking about is the same God that
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: we're talking about. but we describe it in a different way.
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: And when you look at music, like, I use this example.
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: You know, it was like hip-hop's a fad. Hip-hop's not
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: going to last. You know, even when we had Walk
• 8:08
  Speaker 5: This Way and the My Adidas with the Raisin' Hell
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: going on, there was still always the journalists.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: Like, DMC, where are you going to be in five years?
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: And I would take that personal.
• 8:19
  Speaker 5: But it works because, for instance, My ACDC shirt got
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: to be brand new out the plastic. Ad-Rock from the
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: Beastie Boys, he wants Brian Johnson's ACDC shirt from the
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: 1970 concert that still smells like the liquor they were drinking.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's the same thing.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: It's the same thing.
• 8:39
  Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying? My jeans got to be
• 8:42
  Speaker 5: new out the box. Ad-Rock, he wants his uncle's, he
• 8:48
  Speaker 5: wants his grandfather's jeans that His grandfather would war to
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: see Jim Morrison when the Doors played.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: But it's the same thing.
• 8:56
  Speaker 5: So it's the arts, journalism, conversation, because you've got to
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: understand something. There's no such thing as a generation gap.
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: Many are saying, I've heard it since I was little,
• 9:10
  Speaker 5: but now that I've grown, that was something created by
• 9:13
  Speaker 5: the powers that be to keep us from growing together.
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: It's a conversation and an information gap. Because when we
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: have conversation, we have a conversation.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: That leads to cooperation. Who are you? This is what
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: I do. That's what hip-hop is. What do you do? Oh,
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: I play music. What do you do?
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: I write poetry. Put the poetry to the music, now
• 9:37
  Speaker 5: you got the rap thing. And then even people that
• 9:40
  Speaker 5: don't know nothing about music, you don't know nothing about music,
• 9:43
  Speaker 5: um poetry people that can't even read and write you
• 9:46
  Speaker 5: could ask them when you hear that poetry to that
• 9:49
  Speaker 5: music what does it make you feel like and you
• 9:52
  Speaker 5: just i just want to dance oh you want to
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: do the hustle you want to do the tangle No,
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: I want to spin on my head.
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: All right, let's figure it out. Cut up some cardboard,
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: put it on a concrete. We got to dance for it.
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: So the arts, conversation leads to cooperation. Cooperation leads to collaboration.
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: Collaboration leads to transformation. So it's all right in front
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: of us, but we so busy saying this text is
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: right and that text is right. No, the only thing
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: that's going to be right if we all work together,
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: no matter who we are.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: And that's how hip hop started. I'm fighting you.
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: I'm from the West side. I'm from the East side.
• 10:32
  Speaker 5: We fighting and killing and we notice something. Awareness goes, yo,
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: your grandfather and your uncle and your brother's dead and
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: in jail just like mine.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: What are we going to do? How are we going
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: to figure this out? We had to conversate. What do
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: you like to do?
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: You thought I was against you because I'm from the
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: West and you're from the East. But then when we
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: sat down and started having conversation, we discovered we liked
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: the same thing.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: I like the same music. I like the same TV shows.
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: I like the same food.
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: And even if we didn't like the same music, TV shows,
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: and the same food, at the end of the day,
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: you like Jamaican.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: I like Asian, but it's still food. Yeah.
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: Your hair is long and stringy. Mine is dreadlocked and braided,
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: but it's still hair.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Run DMC. I
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: wear Adidas, but I ain't mad at you because you
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: wear Jordans. It's still sneakers. And we're still doing the
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: same thing.
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: So I've discovered over my life journey of what really
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: makes sense.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: And it starts with conversation. Who are you?
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Leading with intention, right? Conversation. to commonality, to community and
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: how we grow together. And that's what this podcast is about.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: It's about bringing individuals here, speaking about life stories and
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: leaving it all in the classroom, right? The pod is
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: the classroom. And speaking of nostalgia, because that's what you
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: were speaking toward, right? The t-shirts and feeling that warmth
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: and feeling that energy. You know, when I look at,
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: you know, I'm younger than pro. So, but when I look,
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: you know, you, you had a track that was a
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: global monumental product. You know, when you have Walk This
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: Way and it transcends. And it was huge. 2001, that
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: Super Bowl with Britney Spears and NSYNC and Mary J.
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: Blige.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: And when you look at your repertoire, did you think
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: at that time, were you aware of the legacy it
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: would build?
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: No, not at all. That was such a strong no. No,
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: not at all. Oh, no.
• 12:41
  Speaker 5: Now, first of all, Walk This Way, it wasn't even
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: about the song. It was about just the first 30
• 12:49
  Speaker 5: seconds of the way that record starts.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: It was that beat and that riff.
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: And before the singing comes, go back to the beginning
• 12:58
  Speaker 5: of the beat.
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: And it's funny.
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: At first, most of the emcees, because we were emcees
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: who had raps. So most of the people rapping over
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: the record didn't even hear the full song. Like me
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: and Run, it wasn't get the Walk This Way record
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: by Aerosmith. It was get the album with the toys
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: on the cover that the DJs always play in play
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: number four. Because we knew the Toys in the Attic
• 13:28
  Speaker 5: album cover, but the DJs used to scratch the labels
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: off the face of the record so the rival DJs
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: couldn't see.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: Send the spies to see what you were spinning.
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: So Walk This Way originally, we had no idea what
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: we was doing. We was basically in a limited but
• 13:48
  Speaker 5: beautiful universe of we're going to steal that beat. I mean,
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: we're going to sample that beat. We're going to steal
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: that beat. I mean, sample that beat.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: And we're going to rhyme over it.
• 13:58
  Speaker 5: He's going to rhyme about us. Now, Walk This Way,
• 14:02
  Speaker 5: this is historic. And it's a tongue twister. Walk This
• 14:05
  Speaker 5: Way isn't the first rock rap record The first rock
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: rap record was Rock Box, which was the first hip-hop
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: record on MTV. But the reason why Run DMC did
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: Rock Box was before Rapper's Delight, before recorded hip-hop, the
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: DJs had crates of records, and in those crates was,
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: of course, James Brown breakbeats. For the B-Boys, James Brown
• 14:31
  Speaker 5: always had a funky drummer break for the MC to
• 14:34
  Speaker 5: run his mouth and say his rap. It was all
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: so funk in there. It was also jazz. It was
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: also R & B. When disco died, remember, disco was huge.
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: When disco died and the world threw it away, hip-hop
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: was like, y'all.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: Don't want that? We'll take it.
• 14:49
  Speaker 5: So we took those disco records, that bass line right there,
• 14:53
  Speaker 5: that drum beat, and we would rap over it.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: But people don't know, running up to.
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: See an event rock rap, the true pioneers of the
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: hip-hop culture is all those boys and girls before recorded hip-hop.
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: Before Rapper's Delight.
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: So Kool Moe Dee was in the Treacherous Three before
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: he went solo and had a recording career. Before that,
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: in those crates of records was a lot of rock records.
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: Aerosmith was in there. Rush was in there. Sharone was
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: in there. Crosby, Stills, Young and Ass. So he was
• 15:27
  Speaker 5: rapping over everything. So when we did Rockbox in 1984,
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: I never wanted to be in show business or entertainment.
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: I'm just really good at talking now because I had
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: 43 years in front of people. But I was a
• 15:42
  Speaker 5: shy little kid.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: All I cared about was comic books. We'll get to that.
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: Hip hop came along.
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: When hip hop came along, prior to hip hop, it
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: was 70s rock radio here in New York City. So
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: you had the black station, you had the white station.
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: Saturday was monumental for young people growing up in New
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: York City at this time and other places too.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: But Saturday morning, it was two things.
• 16:09
  Speaker 5: 12 noon, it was the black guy, Don Cornelius, with
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: Soul Train. So you stayed and you see Stevie Wonder.
• 16:17
  Speaker 5: You see Aretha Franklin. You see Marvin Gaye and all that.
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: All the stuff that you hear in your mother and
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: fathers and aunts and uncles and cousin break. But when
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: 1 o'clock, 12 o'clock, you still wouldn't go outside until 2.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: Because at 1.
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: O'clock was the white guy, Dick Clark, with American Bandstand.
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: But Dick Clark was phenomenal because he would also have
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: black and white on a show. But when we was
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: growing up, it was the white station and the black station.
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: So you go back and forth. There was a station
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: here in New York City called 77 WABC. They did
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: something phenomenal. They just played the white and the blacks together.
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: So you would hear the Jackson 5 and Sly and
• 16:56
  Speaker 5: Family Stone, but you would also hear the Stones and
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: the Beatles and Crosby, Stills, Young and Nasty. So for
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: us growing up, this is all this music going on.
• 17:06
  Speaker 5: So this thing called disco comes along and they start
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: playing Donna Selma and the Bee Gees and Saturday Night.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: Fever and all of that stuff.
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: So we young kids in New York just coming up,
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: trying to figure life out. And we talked about this
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: earlier when we was talking about the DJ thing. The
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: young people don't know the only thing that changes generation
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: to generation is technology. So the kids will look at
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: older people and think they're old. No, they are walking, living.
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: Breathing experience.
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: And you should see the kids when I'm talking at
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: an elementary school and I say, look at.
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: Your teacher, look at your principal. You see them every
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: day and they look, why are you telling me? They
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: know everything that you doing as a young person because
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: they were young too.
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: So bullying and walls and peer pressure and all, It exists,
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: and the only thing that changes is the technology. So
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: we're looking, we're growing up, coming out the Civil Rights Movement,
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: and the same pandemonium that existed in 1930 existed now,
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: but it's on steroids now because of access, what was it?
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: The media.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: The media, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: So we're growing up, and then we're seeing this thing
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: called Studio 54 where we notice, whoa, Hollywood is coming
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: to New York City.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: To go in these disco places. What for?
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: And we're noticing on the outside, people always ask me,
• 18:35
  Speaker 5: what do you think about hip hop? What do you
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: think about hip hop right now, DMC? And I go,
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: hip hop is disco.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: And they go, what do you mean by that?
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: Because everybody's so focused on the fur coats and the
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: money and the champagne and the sex and the drink.
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: And rightfully so. But something was different.
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: For us as young people, when we watched Studio 54,
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: we was like, yo, Hollywood, all the movie stars, all
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: the CEOs, all the wealthy people, you know, all the
• 19:01
  Speaker 5: Bill Gates and everybody was coming to New York.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: And they're going in there and the DJ is playing music.
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: And for five or six hours, it's heaven on earth.
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: And we was like, we want that too. Because we
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: were on the outside of Studio 54. Nobody's talking about
• 19:17
  Speaker 5: what's going on in the streets, the heroin and the crime.
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: And we was like, we want that. They go in
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: there and for five to six hours and maybe 10 hours, there's.
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: Heaven on earth.
• 19:26
  Speaker 5: So we said, we're going to figure that out too.
• 19:29
  Speaker 5: So all we did was take disco to the streets
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: in New York. But because we ain't had no resources.
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: So while we was doing that, we needed the music
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: to play. We're going to play all the records that
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: we saw on Soul Train. We're going to play all
• 19:40
  Speaker 5: the records that we saw on American Bandstand. We're going
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: to play all those rock records, this and that. So
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: that was the blueprint given to us. It was to
• 19:49
  Speaker 5: play music. and to get away from the gangbanging, the killing,
• 19:53
  Speaker 5: the murder. And what people tend to understand is it
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: wasn't us just writing about what we were going through.
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: Remember, we were young.
• 20:01
  Speaker 5: When we was coming up, the typical rapper was 9
• 20:04
  Speaker 5: to 25 years old.
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: We were young.
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: But we were writing about what we saw our aunts, uncles, mothers,
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: and fathers go through. That's why we wrote the message.
• 20:14
  Speaker 5: You know, we kids, we DJing. Our mothers and fathers
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: is mad because we're taking their records out the house
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: and their turntables to the park to play this hibbity,
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: hibbity hop stuff that's not going to get you nowhere.
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: But they didn't understand that desire was from Stevie Wonder
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: was a huge celebrity. You know, Hollywood, but he made
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: records about society in his community. Marvin Gaye, was known
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: for Sex and Love. He was the sexy soul singer.
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: But he had to make a record called What's Going On.
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: Same thing with James Brown. John Lennon and his wife
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: slept naked in a bed to protest the war. Neil Young,
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: when there was a shooting at Kent State University, like
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: the thing that's going on with ICE now, and the
• 20:58
  Speaker 5: administration sends the army and they're killing citizens. Neil Young
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: saw that happen at Kent University. He didn't run his label.
• 21:05
  Speaker 5: He didn't run his manager. He ran to the studio
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: and made a record called Ohio. Ten Soldiers and Nixon's Comet.
• 21:11
  Speaker 5: So he was like, yo, there's a responsibility there with
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: this stuff. So once rappers alike came out to message
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: Planet Rock all these records, when Run DMC's coming in,
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: Run DMC's responsibility was not to let the culture get
• 21:26
  Speaker 5: away from us because we are commercialized now. Anything that
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: is sacred, holy, to a nation, people, or place will
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: get diluted, polluted, and destroyed once it's commercialized. That's what's happening.
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: And they will throw it away, just like they did
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: with disco. Remember, disco was cool at first, Donna Summer,
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: Two of the biggest rock groups on the face of,
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: this is documented, two of the biggest rock groups in
• 21:50
  Speaker 5: the world wanted to get in Studio 54 too, but
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: they couldn't. So what did they do? Queen made a
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: record called Another One Bites the Dust. Freddie Mercury, if
• 22:02
  Speaker 5: we make that, they're going to let us in. They
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: kept it rock, but.
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: Come on in. The Rolling Stones made woo, hoo, hoo, hoo. Girl,
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: I miss you. And they got in. So we was like, oh,
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: that's how you make Lee Wade. That's the end. That's
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: the end.
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: Long story short, when we got into the music business,
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: I never wanted to be Stevie Wonder or Marvin Gaye
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: because that's that. But when I started hearing, I wanted
• 22:29
  Speaker 5: to be Freddie Mercury when I was a little kid.
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: It was just something about that. He can do opera.
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: He can do disco. He can do funk. He does, like,
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: just phenomenal. Michael Jackson was cool, but to me, this
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: guy Freddie was amazing.
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: But also, the singer folk writing, the folk rock singers
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: like Bob Dylan, Harry Chapin, Jim Croce, Joni Mitchell, they
• 22:57
  Speaker 5: told stories.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying?
• 22:59
  Speaker 5: So I said, if I get in the music business,
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: I'm going to do that. So now this thing called hip-hop.
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: Comes over the bridge from the Bronx, teaches us how
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: to do our own disco.
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: So I go, if I ever did do this, I
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: would do it this way. So long story short, Run,
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: he was already a professional rapper at 15 years old.
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: Nobody knows this.
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: He was the son or the protege of Curtis Blow. Now,
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: all these rappers were cool. Kurt was... hip-hop's first big.
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: Star, because everybody else was on Enjoy, Sugar Hill Records,
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: everybody was independent. Curtis Blow got signed to Mercury Records
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: and had a record called These Are The Breaks. Break
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: it up, break it up. And people don't know this,
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: Curtis Blow had the first record Christmas song called Christmas Rapping.
• 23:48
  Speaker 5: Don't you give me all that job about things you
• 23:51
  Speaker 5: wrote before I was alive. Cause this ain't 1823. Ain't
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: even 1970. Now I'm the guy named Curtis Blow when
• 23:58
  Speaker 5: Christmas is one thing I know. So every year, just
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: about this time, I celebrate it with a rhyme. Do
• 24:04
  Speaker 5: you remember Curtis Blow had the Christmas song and he
• 24:07
  Speaker 5: had the breaks and this and that. Run was Curtis
• 24:09
  Speaker 5: Blow's protege. Yeah. So what Kurt would do is, only
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: during the summertime, because Mom was in school, he would
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: tour the world. Now, the funny joke is the world
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: was Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. But that was
• 24:24
  Speaker 5: the hip-hop world to us. So every summer, Joe would
• 24:27
  Speaker 5: go on the road with Kurt, and Kurt, in the
• 24:29
  Speaker 5: middle of a show, ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: bring my disco son.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: Because it's the DJ.
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: If you see somebody saying they're doing hip-hop and they
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: ain't no DJ.
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: It's not hip-hop.
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: Yeah. It's somebody performing rap for the sake of success
• 24:45
  Speaker 5: in the music business.
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: It's different. Hip-hop, you're hip-hop in the music business if
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: you got DJ'd. Yeah, yeah.
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: And you can ask Questlove. You can ask Ali Shahid.
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: You can ask KG. You can ask.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: All the DJs from everybody. Yeah, yeah.
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: Kurt would say, I'm going to bring my disco son
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: DJ run out and perform. And Joe, 15 years old,
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: cute little kid, go out there and bust around. So
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: when the records are being made, Joe's 15 years old.
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: Russell Simmons, Joe's brother, was Kurt's manager. Russell was managing Kurt.
• 25:22
  Speaker 5: Jimmy Spicer, Super Rhymes, Houdini, a bunch of other people.
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. Run at 15-year-old. Russell, let me make a record.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: Let me make a record. Let me make a record.
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: Let me make a record. No, Joey. No, Joey. No, Joey.
• 25:33
  Speaker 5: No.
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: Why not? Because you need something to fall back on.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: Here's the deal. Show me a high school diploma, and
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: I'll let you go in the studio and make a record. Okay.
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: I remember that. Yeah.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Got that diploma.
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: So, Pete, when you got that diploma.
• 25:46
  Speaker 5: DMC, Daryl McDaniels, who's in the other class, Joe didn't
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: notice that he's writing all these rhymes, pretending he's Freddie Mercury.
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: On the microphone.
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: So when me and Joe, we didn't meet till eighth grade.
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: Joe comes over to my house to play basketball, discovers
• 26:02
  Speaker 5: my brother's the DJ and I'm writing these rhymes. And
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: he just looks at me. And this is a message
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: to everybody out there.
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: What? Excuse me.
• 26:10
  Speaker 5: Whatever it is that you do, don't be ashamed of
• 26:13
  Speaker 5: it because somebody is looking for you. If you're a
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: dude and you the ballet dancer, you should be a
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: proud gangster ballet dancer because one day you can hold
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: Misty Copeland.
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: What's her name? The ballet girl? Misty.
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: Misty and you can tour the world with her. So
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: I'm writing all these rhymes. Rum comes in my house
• 26:34
  Speaker 5: and sees my rhyme book. So he's already on his journey.
• 26:37
  Speaker 5: He looks and said, D, you wrote this?
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: I was like, yeah. And he looks at me and says,
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: when my brother lets me make a record, I'm putting
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: you in my group. So this is eighth grade. Yeah, yeah.
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: I look at him like, I don't do this for, no,
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: this is, like, you know how you play, girls would
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: play with the Barbie doll, and we would play with G.I.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: Joe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is me pretending to be
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: the Curtis Blow Flash thing. And Joe was like, okay,
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: I remember that.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: I'm coming back when I graduate, and we're going to
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: pretend together.
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: So ninth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade, we
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: went to different high schools. Completed them high schools. But
• 27:11
  Speaker 5: he was a man of his word. 12th grade, I
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: graduate from Rice High School in Harlem. Class of 82.
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: Come home. June 82, I graduate. It was like probably July.
• 27:25
  Speaker 5: Like early August, I get a letter in the mail
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: because you send your resume out to colleges.
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: Mr. McDaniels, we're proud to inform you've been accepted to St.
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: John's University. Oh, my God. This is crazy.
• 27:37
  Speaker 5: So I run downstairs past my mother and father.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: I run downstairs to the basement. I write a rhyme
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: about it.
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: I'm DMC. I'm in a place to be. I'm going
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: to St. John's University. Since kindergarten, I acquired the knowledge.
• 27:49
  Speaker 5: After 12th grade, I'm going straight to college.
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: It was just for me. This is August.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: That became so legendary.
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: Yes. A couple of weeks later, the phone rings. It's Joe. Yo, D,
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: what's up? What you doing? Oh, nothing, man.
• 28:00
  Speaker 5: Just sitting there writing rhymes. Remember four years ago, I
• 28:02
  Speaker 5: told you if I make a record... I'm putting you
• 28:05
  Speaker 5: in my group. Yeah, grab your rhyme book. We're going
• 28:07
  Speaker 5: to the studio. So in 83, we went and we
• 28:09
  Speaker 5: made It's Like That, and that's the way to suck
• 28:11
  Speaker 5: MCs with that rhyme. So now we're starting to make
• 28:14
  Speaker 5: the albums. I remember what they were saying about hip hop.
• 28:18
  Speaker 5: So I'm saying, you know what? Let's make a rock song.
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: Let's rhyme over a rock beat, because these people are
• 28:26
  Speaker 5: treating us like we ain't got enough um we ain't
• 28:29
  Speaker 5: got enough um we ain't qualified no we ain't worthy
• 28:33
  Speaker 5: enough to be doing this rock and roll thing that
• 28:36
  Speaker 5: you know james brown and the beatles are doing so
• 28:39
  Speaker 5: we made rock box we did we did rock box
• 28:42
  Speaker 5: on a hip-hop album everything was singles prior to this
• 28:47
  Speaker 5: and the world says this All right, we'll give you
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: those singles, because everything was a single, the message. There's
• 28:54
  Speaker 5: no way in the world anybody wants to hear a
• 28:57
  Speaker 5: whole album full of hip-hop. We put out the self-titled
• 29:00
  Speaker 5: Run DMC album with Rockbox as the single. We went gold,
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: sold a half a million records, and they put us
• 29:06
  Speaker 5: on MTV.
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: So me, oh, shoot, this Freddie Mercury thing is working.
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: So that's 84. 1985 comes along, and.
• 29:17
  Speaker 5: They're still saying, all right, you ain't going to be
• 29:19
  Speaker 5: in three years, this and that. So I took it personally.
• 29:22
  Speaker 5: I'm 19 at this time. And I'm like, what do
• 29:24
  Speaker 5: you mean? Don't call Run DMC's, this is my little imagination, Ron, mind.
• 29:31
  Speaker 5: Don't call Run DMC's a king of rap.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: I'm a king of rap.
• 29:35
  Speaker 5: I said, I'm going to walk into the venue and
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: Elvis is going to get up off the throne and
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: tell me to sit down.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: When I walk in the room, Michael Jackson and Mick
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: Jagger is going to roll out the red carpet.
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: Now, this is all pretending. So then I sit there
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: and I make this song. I'm the king of rock.
• 29:49
  Speaker 5: There is none higher. Sucker MC should call me sire
• 29:53
  Speaker 5: to burn my kingdom.
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: You must use fire. You could take my money. You
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: could take my houses. You could take... But I'm going
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: to still be rocking with you, like it or not. Hey,
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: what up, everyone?
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: It's your man, Pro Style. Tune in to part two
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: of our DMC episode next week.