Once that happened, I could’ve been done!Įven on tracks like ‘My Adidas’, I always go ‘Run-DMC ain’t really no pioneers!’ The people say ‘What the hell D! You’re crazy!’ But the real pioneers for me is everybody before us, man. I just wanted to get a record on the radio like Flash did, like ‘The Message’ and ‘Planet Rock’. But what gave me confidence, out there on stage, was pretending that I was the Hulk on the microphone” – DMCĬould you have ever imagined how big Run-DMC would get or that you would be considered a pioneer of hip hop?ĭMC: No way man! I never really wanted to be in show business, or be in a music video. “When I started with Run-DMC, I was a nervous little nerdy kid – I didn’t want to get up in front of a crowd and rhyme. It was so different, it was so powerful! It wasn’t just a rhyme talkin’ about Superman, it was these rappers telling a story! I had all this creative energy but I had no way to let it out – and now here comes hip hop and Flash from over the bridge in Brooklyn and I was like, ‘You can tell stories over music?!’ It blew my mind! From there I just started writing rhymes. Then I heard Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5 ‘Super Rappin’ and suddenly that was it. He was talking about superheroes, he was talking about Superman! So I started thinking. I didn’t really want to be an MC at all, but when I heard (Sugarhill Gang’s) ‘Rapper’s Delight’ and Big Bang Hank’s rhyme, it had this different energy about it. Me and my brother sold my comics to buy turntables. I transformed into ‘The Mighty King of Rock, there is none higher! / Sucker MCs should call me Sire!’ĭMC: I was a comic book kid, but I wanted to be a DJ. Where all of a sudden I wasn’t Darryl McDaniels, this mild-mannered school kid anymore.
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Just like comics, hip hop gave me a world where I could create a personality. But what gave me confidence, out there on stage, was pretending that I was the Hulk on the microphone. What was it like your first time on the mic?ĭMC: When I started with Run-DMC, I was a nervous little nerdy kid – I didn’t want to get up in front of a crowd and rhyme. McDaniels talked to us about Marvel, Grandmaster Flash, and where it all began ahead of both the third issue and first UK gallery show of Darryl Makes Comics. And, like the comics they grew up reading, rappers have been adopting personas and create universes long before DMC fought crime with a gold-plated four-finger ring. Doom, and numerous collaborations between Marvel and rappers ranging from Chuck D and Public Enemy to Run the Jewels and Rae Sremmurd. Since then, we’ve had comics like the Wu-Tang Clan’s Nine Rings of Wu-Tang, MF Doom creating an aesthetic almost entirely based off Marvel villain Dr. The first self-published hip hop comic, graphic artist Eric Orr’s Rappin Max Robot, dropped in 1986. New York City was the birthplace of hip hop and breaking, but it was also home to Marvel. Not that McDaniels is the first rapper to express his love of comic books. Fusing his passion for comics and storytelling, he created his own independent publishing house, Darryl Makes Comics, in 2014.
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McDaniels’ world turned upside down, but he came back from adversity and carved out a solo career. First, the untimely death of his close friend and bandmate Jam Master Jay, then a long battle with alcoholism, and finally, the discovery that he was adopted. McDaniels’ lyrical prowess and his unique control of the mic is out of this world – but every hero has his Kryptonite, and for DMC, there would be dark times ahead. From the cover of Rolling Stone to MTV videos, Grammys, and a hit single with Aerosmith, Run-DMC forced their way into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and defined a generation.
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With his group Run-DMC, DMC (real name Darryl McDaniels) made music history, putting gold chains and Adidas sneakers on the map and propelling rap music to previously unseen heights. Three decades ago, DMC – a comic book-obsessed rapper from Hollis, Queens – took the music industry by storm.