Write this way: A Q&A with Run-D.M.C.'s Darryl McDaniels on inspiring NYC students through comics

He made his name as a founding member of Run-D.M.C., one of the most popular hip-hop groups of all time, but the rapper D.M.C.’s first love was comic books. The Queens native born as Darryl McDaniels and his comic book line, Darryl Makes Comics, recently partnered with New York City’s Department of Youth and Community Development to publish a comic featuring heroes and stories created by kids in DYCD after-school programs. D.M.C. talked to City & State’s Jeff Coltin at the launch party in an interview that was frequently interrupted by kids asking for autographs and rap battles. 

City & State: I heard this partnership with DYCD didn’t exactly start with a formal letter.

Darryl McDaniels: Yes! (A DYCD employee) stopped me out on the street, gave me a card and said, “I heard you have a comic book?” She said we want to do this initiative, getting the kids to read, getting the kids to be creative so we could spark their learning sensors. They asked me to participate, and I said sure. We wanted to do something that would involve the kids, so they could see their work. “Oh my god, what I created is really there! People can see that.” And that’s what we did. 

C&S: NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton recently called rappers “basically thugs” after the deadly shooting at Irving Plaza, and you spoke out against it. Does it bother you that hip-hop has this reputation? Does it seem like the NYPD is out of touch?

D.M.C.: Yeah that’s crazy. Like I said, he should have known better than that. I believe Bill Bratton, the position that he’s in, he works among a very diverse lineup of people from all walks of life, race, religions, creeds and colors, and I’m sure he knows who Common is. I’m sure he knows who LL Cool J is. He was just saying something to drive the point that, yes it’s true, a lot of people in hip-hop use negativity to make a dollar and be successful without knowing that it affects these guys (gestures to kids) looking up at them. The same way these rappers talk about “I’m a drug dealer, I’m in a gang,” like it’s cool, makes them think “Right. It’s cool.” But when I came along, how could Bratton say that, that all rappers are thugs who don’t know how to leave the streets where the streets is at. I came into the business rhyming about – I never was in a gang, I never sold drugs, I’ve never been to jail. When I got on a microphone, I told the world what I do: “I’m DMC in the place to be / I go to St. John’s University / Since kindergarten I applied the knowledge / After 12th grade I went straight to college.”

Bratton had part of the problem addressed. But the problem is bigger than hip-hop music. The problem is with America. The problem with America is this: our entertainment entities and our entertainment corporations, our media, our production companies and Hollywood itself, has America at a point where negativity is celebrated if it’s making money. So we have to change that. Right now you’re cool if you’re disrespectful. If you’re illiterate. If you act like a fool and you just do stupid, asinine, ridiculous stuff. If you make money, “Come on in! Put ‘em on TV!” No. We should be kicking those people out.

C&S: You’re using comic books to uplift kids – did your music career have the same goal?

D.M.C.: Hip-hop was just a set-up for what I was really supposed to do. It was comic books first. People think I’m another rapper that just because I had a hit record I’m starting to sell the business. No! Comic books was first. The fact that I was reading comic books allowed me to be a great storyteller. Allowed me to create a character and a personality that was really relevant to who I am. I put all of that into the music. I caught people’s attention. Now I can go take the same things that set me up and tell these kids, “If you think I did good, what if you applied what I used?” Education and creativity and imagination, that allowed me to change the world. So now I realize that I wasn’t just put here to be “The King of Rock / There is nothing higher / Sucker MCs should call me sire / To burn my kingdom / You must use fire / And I won’t stop rocking till I retire.”

I wasn’t put here just to be a successful hip-hop artist. I was put here to lead and to be an example. And comic books was the thing that set me up to be able to do that on a level that nobody else has done. Just yesterday, a kid asked me, “D.M.C., was you always this smart and always this creative?” I said yes! People ask me what’s relevant to what I do now as to what I did when I was a kid. Right now, I do everything creatively like when I was 12 years old. What does that mean? I draw and write just because I like drawing and writing. Not to sell a record, not to be famous.

C&S: You’ve been affected by gun violence – you’re wearing a JMJ belt buckle for Jam Master Jay, your DJ who was shot and killed in 2002. Are musicians and the hip-hop community addressing it enough?

D.M.C.: It’s a politician issue. But if you make it political, you’ll never do a solution. It’s funny that you ask that. Three weeks ago I released a song called “Flames.” It’s produced by John Moyer of the rock band Disturbed. I did a duet with Myles Kennedy. It addresses the white cops shooting the children, but it also addresses the black kids shooting the black kids. It’s a straight, no-holds-barred song that addresses the problems and the root causes of these conditions. If you make it a political issue it will never be solved. If you make it a guns rights issue, it’ll never be solved.

We don’t need to make it a political issue, we don’t need to make it a religious issue. It’s a people issue. It’s all about self-esteem. There’s a line in the record about the guy who got choked by the cops for selling loosie cigarettes (Eric Garner). I made this record with white rock stars because my own black people are scared to address the issue. My own black people will make records about “I got my gun and I shot this and I’m selling drugs.” We’re supposed to celebrate you? You’re not John Gotti! You’re not Al Pacino in Scarface! So we made this record – it’s a people issue. It’s about self-esteem. How do we stop the kids from shooting each other. We’ve got to make the kids respect each other, but they’ve got to respect themselves first. 

C&S: Growing up in Hollis, did you ever expect to grow up and have a partnership with the city of New York?

D.M.C.: Not at all! I always say this, Grammy Awards and American Music Awards are cool, but the best part of me being D.M.C., the show biz guy who’s known and considered a famous person, is working with agencies that do stuff like this for people. Being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ain’t got nothing on this. This is what I remember. The Grammy Awards, and the Hall of Fame just reminds me that I did something. But this reminds me that what I did is doing something.

This article was first published on Chalkbeat New York on July 8.