>>DMC: Yo, what's up, world?
I'm DMC from the groundbreaking rap group Run-DMC.
You know me.
First to go gold, first to go platinum,
first on the cover of Rolling Stone,
first with Adidas deal.
But I'm really just Darryl McDaniels
from Hollis, Queens, New York.
No different from any other kid in the world.
♪ music playing ♪
[HIP-HOP'S SECOND ACT]
[DMC with Nick Huff Barili]
>>Nick Huff Barili: Today, I'm speaking with Darryl McDaniels, [Nick Huff Barili, Hip-Hop Journalist]
better known as DMC
from the supergroup Run-DMC.
With hits like "It's Tricky" and "Walk This Way,"
they've sold over 35 million records.
Now, at 55, McDaniels is working on a new album
and continues to impact the world through his foundation,
which helps children in foster care.
He's also an advocate for mental health.
Thank you for being here.
>>DMC: Thanks for having me.
>>Nick Huff Barili: I like to go back to the beginning.
How did a shy Catholic schoolkid
who got bullied on his way to school ...
what did you tap into
to be able to become the King of Rock?
>>DMC: My life went from getting teased, bullied and picked on ...
from being this nerdy Catholic schoolkid.
I needed something.
I needed something to make this life here enjoyable.
So it was all imagination.
So comic books gave me an imagination.
Comic books was the only place
that I saw cool, smart people
that wasn't getting beat down.
They was actually kicking people's asses.
How I became the King of Rock ...
it was me pretending.
Something more powerful,
something allowed to exist.
♪ "It's Tricky" ♪
>>Nick Huff Barili: How did Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s "Superrappin' "
change your life?
>>DMC: My brother comes home one afternoon,
and it's just this red label,
and it says "ENJOY RECORDS" on it.
He puts the record on.
♪ It was a party night ♪ [IT WAS A PARTY NIGHT]
♪ Everybody was jumping ♪ [EVERYBODY WAS JUMPING]
♪ The house was screaming ♪ [THE HOUSE WAS SCREAMING]
♪ And the bass was shaking ♪
♪ And it won't be long until ... ♪
And I was, like, "What the ... !"
Like, I had never heard nothing like that.
I just started writing rhymes.
That was the day.
I just, "I got to do that, whatever that is."
♪ "Here We Go" ♪
What I felt when I heard that record
was the same thing I felt
when I was reading my superhero books.
So, the same way I used to put my favorite blanket on my neck
and run through the house ...
"I'm Superman!"
When I heard that "Superrappin' " thing,
for me it was, like, "I got to pretend to be that."
>>Nick Huff Barili: Take me a little bit through your creative process.
>>DMC: My creative process became telling people
what and who I was
at that particular moment.
You got Grandmaster Caz.
You got Kool Moe Dee.
You got Busy Bee.
You got all these characters in there and stuff like that.
Who am I going to be?
So I said, "If Thor is the son of Odin
[SON OF ODIN]
from Asgard, [FROM ASGARD]
he's got a brother named Loki, [BROTHER NAMED LOKI]
and he got a hammer. [YOU GOT A ...]
That's what Thor does." [THAT'S PART OF IT.]
In this world, [IN THIS WORLD]
here I am in Hollis. [HERE I AM IN ...]
My name is Darryl. [MY NAME IS DARRYL]
My father's name is Byford. [MY FATHER'S NAME IS BYFORD]
My brother's name is Alford. [MY BROTHER'S NAME IS ALFORD]
And I got a mic. [AND I GOT A ...]
So when I got on the mic,
I will become ♪ Son of Byford ♪ [SON OF BYFORD]
♪ Brother of Al ♪ [BROTHER OF AL]
♪ Banna's my mother ♪ [BANNA'S MY MOTHER]
♪ And Run's my pal ♪ [AND RUN'S MY PAL.]
♪ It's McDaniels, not McDonald's ♪ [IT'S MCDANIELS NOT MCDONALD'S.]
♪ These rhymes are Darryl's ♪ [THESE RHYMES ARE DARRYL'S]
♪ Those burgers are Ronald's ♪ [THOSE BURGERS ARE RONALD'S.]
♪ I ran down my family tree ♪ [I RAN DOWN MY FAMILY TREE]
♪ My mother, my father, my brother and me. ♪ [MY MOTHER, MY FATHER, MY BROTHER, AND ME]
You know what I'm saying?
If I'm in the studio sitting there,
and somebody go, "Yo, D, put a verse on this record,"
and I had just ate something,
I would rhyme about what I just ate.
>>Nick Huff Barili: What was that moment
that it went from being a hobby
to "I'm doing this for a career"?
>>DMC: It didn't become reality
until people told us
that "Yo, you got MTV."
"Yo, you went gold."
"Yo, you went platinum."
It was like, even when I was on “Soul Train” and “American Bandstand” ...
I'm with Dick Clark and “American Bandstand” ...
but I'm rhyming.
My whole thing was, I'm pretending to be Moe Dee
as Run-DMC on “American Bandstand.”
My whole thing was always imagination.
And that's why I kept it so sincere and dominant.
>>Nick Huff Barili: How do you think we overcome ageism in hip-hop?
>>DMC: Ageism is only relative to this music business.
See, old-school is cool.
I'm talking about MCs
that do Rakim
and DMCs and LLs,
and, like, performers.
We don't just rap.
Rapping is the easiest thing.
Anybody can rap now.
But not everybody can rock a mic and rock a party.
The industry will let Smokey come and sing.
Nobody's telling Bruce Springsteen: "Bruce, sit down.
You're 50 years old now,
you can't rock and roll no more."
How you going to tell a rapper like that?
Until the industry sees value in it,
it'll never be overcome.
>>Nick Huff Barili: You also created a foundation.
>>DMC: Yes, the Felix Organization.
>>Nick Huff Barili: That was an important part
of your second stage of your career.
>>DMC: When I found out that I was adopted,
I found that I was in foster care.
What happened to me was ... Oh, my God.
What about those foster kids
that won't get adopted?
If you don't get adopted,
you age out the system.
At 18 or 21,
they look at you and say, "Here's a sandwich. Bye."
So I was, like, yo, no kid deserves not to be given the opportunity
to be the people that they were put here to be.
One of my things is, your situation doesn't define who you are.
So we started this thing called Camp Felix.
Foster kids could come to camp for one week.
Throughout the week that they're at camp,
we bring individuals from the professional world ...
the baker, the dancer, the cook, the DJ, the producer ...
and we expose them to that at a young age.
So that when they leave the camp
and go back to school,
they're thinking, I can achieve that
if I put my work in here.
I'm trying to do what hip-hop did for me, for them.
The reason why I became DMC, down with Run,
is not just to do, first to go gold,
first to go platinum.
There was a bigger mission behind it.
>>Nick Huff Barili: Appreciate all the wisdom and your time, sir.
>>DMC: Thank you.
>>Nick Huff Barili: Thank you so much for joining us.
>>DMC: Thank you. Thank you.
Yo, yo, what up?
This is me, DMC, in the place to be.
Right here with me.
Subscribe to the AARP YouTube Channel.
And I am Darryl McDaniels.