- OK, say what you're gonna say,
and I'm gonna say what I'm gonna say. - Let me stand on this side,
but play to me, play to me.
- So, you're gonna play sideways, right.
You're not even gonna look. You don't even look.
- Where's this Santa supposed to be? Over there?
- He's just back there. You don't even, you're just like,
"Come on, man. That's not real. Come on, man. Santa? Macy's? Come on."
You call him off.
- [Run] Come on, man.
- And then, you say... - [DMC] Let's go eat.
- Come on, I'm ready to eat.
- Fine. Good, good, good. That's it.
Let's just try it, roughly.
- Why don't we start off by asking
how you got involved in the 'Very Special Christmas' album?
And D, since you've been volunteered to answer that —
- Well, my publicist, Bill Adler,
just came to us and said they was doing a Christmas album for the Special Olympics,
with acts like Madonna, and the Pointer Sisters,
and Bruce Springsteen.
And they came to Run-DMC, and asked Run-DMC,
"Would you like to do it?" And so, we said, "Yeah."
And mostly, most of the other artists on the album was, like,
singing "Silent Night" and stuff like that,
but we went in the studio, and we made our own version
of, you know, a Christmas record.
- [Interviewer] Why you decided to record your own song, rather than a classic?
- Because Run-DMC are known to do, you know, things like that.
We like to write our own stuff,
and we didn't wanna be doing "Silent Night."
- [Jam Master Jay] Right. We didn't wanna sing —
- [Run] We didn't wanna do no weakness.
- [Jam Master Jay] “Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle all the way." You know what I'm saying?
- [Run] We didn't wanna do that.
- Tell us a little bit about the track on the record.
It's a different sound for Run-DMC. It's a —
- Nah. - Well, Run-DMC can never have
a different sound for us. - 'Cause we don't have a sound.
- We don't have a sound. We make all types of music.
- We're so versatile. - You listen to our records,
I mean, we go so many different ways
with jazz, with rock, with —
the only thing rap about our music is the rap,
'cause there is no rap music for us,
'cause the music is, whatever. "What's the music? Let's rap over this music."
So this, we rappin', but it ain't no rap music.
- [Jam Master Jay] See what I'm saying?
- [Off camera] You wanna stand in with them, Michael?
- Can I stand in?
He's gonna be here, holding up the gift. - [Off camera] Come out.
He's gonna come out a bit. There we go. - OK. He's gonna be here, holding up the gift.
- Who do you have directing the video, and why'd you pick him?
- 'Cause he's good, Michael Holman,
and he helped with our Adidas commercial, and he's good.
- And we're starting to get a relationship with,
you know, people who do videos, you know?
So, we gonna try to stay with the same people,
'cause he think the way we think, you know, he's young.
- Right, you have to find somebody that thinks like you think.
- [Off camera] Let's just knock this off.
- [Holman] Focal distance is set, right?
- [Off camera] Yep.
- I'm talking?
- [Holman] No, just opening the gift.
OK, hold it up higher.
That's where we're gonna start from, OK?
- I knew that. You told me, I just put it down.
- OK, everybody ready? Roll camera, and action.
Cut! Great.
Do that again, but don't mouth the word f--k, OK?
- Why? - [Laughs]
- MTV’ll still play it.
How ‘bout the —
I got to, man. It's part of my image, man. - That's good, just hold it down.
- Alright, just hold it back a little bit. - We're not the friendliest group around.
- [Holman] Oh, it's not a sound take.
- [Off camera] You got it. Go ahead, get out.
- [Holman] OK, roll film.
And action.
- [Run] Tell 'em, Jay. What do you think the concept is?
- [Jam Master Jay] Well, the concept is like —
it’s the record, it's like the lyrics. It's not really —
the video is just like the lyrics.
Run's lyrics [are] talking about — he would never steal from nobody.
- From Santa. The whole point of the lyric
I wrote is telling you —
I meet Santa in the park in Hollis, and —
- But he don't know it's Santa. - I think it's Santa, but he dropped his wallet,
and when I turned my head, I didn't see him no more,
and when I looked, and it said "Santa Claus,"
and there was a million dollars in his wallet.
And he had stepped, and I said,
"No, I would never steal from Santa, 'cause that ain't right."
So, I was going home to mail it back to him that night,
but when I got home, I bug 'cause under the tree
was a letter from Santa, and the dough was for me.
So, that's like, to me, the way I live my life,
and that's how the lyric came up, because in my subconscious,
that's how I would live. I wouldn't steal from Santa.
I'm going to give it back to him,
but that's how good things come back to you.
You're going to give it to him, you get there,
and the note saying the money is for you.
And that's just what the story is mainly about.
It's just, straight up, lesson to the kids, and how I feel.
- [Off camera] Art department? - [Off camera] Yes?
- Meet Santa.
- [Holman] You're gonna come, you're gonna say goodbye, you want a gift,
and you just step up there. Lean all the way against this,
he's gonna put his arm around you.
And you're gonna say, "What do you want for Christmas?"
You tell him.
And then, you're gonna walk off. You're gonna give her, just —
- [Kid] I'm going, I'm going.
- Whole idea behind "Christmas in Hollis," the video, is to show that
even homeboys like Run-DMC have soft spots and warm hearts for Christmas.
So, we're giving the hard Run-DMC look,
against, like, the very sort of sweet and pristine,
classical [Charles] Dickens Christmas,
with a bit of Dr. Seuss, as you can see here,
with the gifts piled, askew, and the excesses that
Dr. Seuss has been known to give us, at this time.
- You're gonna come in from this way.
You guys are coming from that way,
but you're all [exiting] this way.
You're gonna take him back the way you came.
OK? Just do it one more time, this way.
- [Interviewer] Sting said that your track was
his favorite song on the record.
What do you think about that?
- I think he's very — - Correct.
- And consistent with his — what is the word I'm looking for?
- I don't know. Um — - Observations of records, at times.
It's a good record, we think,
and we liked that he said that.
It's great that he said that. - We appreciate it.
- We really, you know —
it makes us feel good.
- [Holman] And action.
Go ahead, Joey.
- [Run] Come on, let's go.
- Yo, ain't that homeboy from last night in the park, man?
- Santa? Macy's? No, no.
- Yo, let's go eat. Man, I'm starving. - A million dollars?
- [Holman] He winks.