The biggest hip hop band the world has ever seen. DMC’s Sally McLintock checks in
{http://soundcloud.com/dmcdjchampionships/run-dmc-interview-with-sally}
Sally: Hi Darryl! Welcome to DMC World.
DMC: “Hello Sally! So tell me, what does DMC mean?”
Sally: We are the DMC you performed at in 1988 at The Royal Albert Hall…the company behind The DMC World DJ Championships…
DMC: “Yeah the DJ thing, of course! I performed there! I remember that, I remember when I performed there when I got back to the States everybody was like ‘ I didn’t know you had an event on over there!’.” (laughs)
Sally: Well here we are! It’s a real privilege to speak to you today. So massive news in the Hip Hop community right now as the mighty A-Trak has remixed your classic ‘My Adidas’ for a new global Adidas campaign. How did this project come about and what were your initial thoughts on the idea?
DMC: “The project came from Adidas. They announced they wanted to do this campaign ‘Uniting All Originals’. We didn’t want to re-make the original record but we wanted some new rhymes. It’s kinda corny to do the one we did 25 years ago because that’s a classic! We wanted to use a popular DJ that would get respect, A Trak’s name came up and we were like ‘he’s the dude with the hat’ who had said he was inspired to wear the hat because of Jay. What happened was before we got approached to do the campaign and the track with A-Trak, A-Trak actually got honored by the Scratch DJ Academy which was founded by JMJ. Funny thing was about three weeks before Adidas called me I had already been hanging with A-Trak, so when they called me and brought his name up I was like ‘I was with him last week’. This is perfect.”
Sally: Small world!
DMC: “For real Sally!”
Sally: I guess I have to ask you this question just purely from the Adidas aspect and it’s a question any sneaker fan would love to know. How many pairs of trainers have you received from Adidas over the years?
DMC: “Wow. Erm ok. WOW. Since ’86? Thousands. I was gonna say hundreds but I gotta say thousands. A hundred 10 times is a thousand, so if I got 100 ten times from Adidas you can only imagine!”
Sally: Where do you store them all?
DMC: “Well at one time Adidas would send me like 50 pairs at a time. Insane. It eventually got to the point where I called them and said don’t send me no more sneakers guys, let me wear the ones I have then I will call you when I need some more. We used to have them in the equipment cases that bands used on tour. And they would ALL be full of Adidas!”
Sally: “The world of Hip Hop has changed like a chameleon since you brought your sound to the mainstream. Has there been any time over the last thirty years when you really didn’t like the image Hip Hop artists were portraying?
DMC: “No not really, you can’t put a label on Hip Hop. The first thing I don’t like about the artists in Hip Hop is they aren’t responsible anymore. And that’s not coming from an older guy, because everything we did to make hip hop successful and everything that we did to make legendary classic records. I’m talking about Public Enemy / LL Cool J / Kool G Rap / Eric B and Rakim / BDK / Beastie Boys and De La Soul. Everything we did to make this industry the respected street that it should be we did when we was young. You know what I’m saying? You know when I go to speak at schools or do interviews or I go on panels and keep it real and people be like “Yeah DMC but you like 49 years old now” and I’m like everything I’m saying I’ve been saying in person and on my records since I was 18 years old. My generation at 18 years old is 20 times better than this generation at 18 years old. I’m not saying we can rap better than ya’ll and we got better ideas, but the only reason why we did and do what we do is because we cared about our audience. The record labels don’t care about the audience. The record companies are only in the business to sell records. If a whack negative record is selling millions then that’s what they gonna sell. But at the same time you can sell your whack negative record but as a Hip Hop artist there is a responsibility to the audience to say productive and present constructive and productive ideas. That’s what the difference is between my generation and this generation. We are better than this generation at this generation stage and we are still better than this generation at our advanced stage. So they don’t have any win. That’s real funny.” (laughs)
Sally: Are there any Hip Hop artists doing it right now that you are giving props to? Any newcomers?
DMC: “Everybody, you can’t front on this dude, Kendrick Lamar. You know what I’m saying? He don’t just make Drake get high bang bang shoot em up records, he makes stories you know. He talks social economics. Ohhh Kendrick, Lupe Fiasco, love Lupe. What I like about Lupe is he is a young political guy that everyone is scared of now. First came out bright lights, big city, my name up in lights. But as soon as he started talking about political issues they pulled him off the radio, they don’t wanna play his video no more. He’s a young person with positive powerful things to say. Err Jay Electronica, I like him a lot too, he just won’t put a damn record out!”
Sally: Whose idea was the whole Steve Tyler Aerosmith collaboration?
DMC: “It was our idea to sample the record but it was Rick Rubin’s idea to do it with them.”
Sally: Has there ever been a cooler Hip Hop video than ‘Walk This Way’
DMC: NO!
Sally: Just No (laughs)
DMC: Just never. Just never right?
Sally: You must have had a lot of fun making it?
DMC: “Yeah it was a two day shoot and the guys were really nice to us, we had no idea that the record was gonna do what it did. People who have never seen it before think it’s the coolest thing ever!”
Sally: It is the coolest thing ever! How do your children feel about their father being recognized as the most important band in Hip Hop history?
DMC: “It’s kinda weird to them, it’s one thing to have had hit records, but they bug out that people say we are legendary. (laughs). You know Elvis, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson are legendary but you’re just my dad!”
Sally: DMC are of course the company behind the world famous World DJ Championships, the competition that has brought us the likes of Craze, Cash Money and Roc Raida – how much of an eye have you kept on the turntablist scene over the past three decades?
DMC: “Like really crazy. Especially with the Skratch Piklz. You know turntablism is alive and well!”
Sally: Who is the best turntablist DJ we have ever seen?
DMC: “My DJ Charlie Chan from St Louis, he does all the tricks and all of that. But erm, the guy that really left a mark on me was Jazzy Jeff – he kinda inspired. What he did and for Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince to do it, it kinda put it on the MAP!”
Sally: Yeah. He still comes over here doing regular gigs! Everyone still wants to see him…
DMC: “Right right. The cool thing about him was he was a DJ for a group, but he still had all the things of Jeff being a DJ. A lot of DJs in the new generation that DJs for groups, they just push buttons. You’re not a DJ unless you really have the skills! DJs tell me!”
Sally: We brought you guys over to The Royal Albert Hall in 1988 where you were on stage with Public Enemy, Roxanne Shante, James Brown, Terry Jam and Jimmy Lewis and Alexander O’Neal – can you remember that famous night?
DMC: “Yeah that was one of the most official Hip Hop nights of my life. That was official and like everything else we did was showbiz BUT that night was HIP HOP.”
Sally: DMC as a company reached 30 years this year and we are currently going through the archives and pulling out the footage from all those early events at the Albert Hall and do a documentary on DMC.
DMC: “Gooood! That is gonna be the best movie ever!”
Sally: Yeah! It is! (laughs). I watch it once a week and it’s still in its first draft!
DMC: “Ahhhh that’s amazing. That’s gonna change things too!”
Sally: Run DMC have only performed a handful times together in the last decade, partly down to recognition of the death of Jam Master Jay in 2002. You have however been taking to the stage a few times over the last twelve months, how hard was it to start performing again?
DMC: “It wasn’t. It was like riding a bike. Well it will never be what it was when Jay was there, but it was like riding a bike. You don’t forget.”
Sally: Recently you have been using Jay’s sons up on stage – DJ Jam Master Json and Dasmatic. How weird is it watching them as part of the show?
DMC: “It’s crazy! You know you get a little worried when somebody says “oh be like my dad” (laughs), but they’re really good at what they do and what’s really cool is they created their own identity too.”
Sally: It must be a nice thing for you to bring the guys up on stage, so many years later?
DMC: “That’s the best part of the show.”
Sally: An interview with yourself wouldn’t be complete without a mention of the execution of Jam Master Jay in 2002. To this day nobody has been arrested and motives are flying around. How do you remember your great friend?
DMC: “Err, the best DJ ever. Yep. The best DJ ever.”
Sally: Are there any future plans for Run DMC playing live or even recording again?
DMC: “Nah. We just gonna stick to the big festivals. What’s good about the big festivals is you get the fathers who grew up and you get their children who don’t know who the hell we are but they know the music from the video games and the movies.”
Sally: Festivals you’re right. They are the best way because you have generations of people at festivals…
DMC: “Exactly Sally, festivals are awesome. The best way to stay alive.”
Sally: Yeah, recently we had a festival in London on the weekend called Wireless that I went too…
DMC: “A Tribe Called Quest showed up! Original Crew!”
Sally: Yeah I saw A Tribe Called Quest and NAS, it was amazing! I loved it and there were generations of people there. You know there were kids there to people in there 50’s. I loved it. Brilliant way to see people you admire so much.
DMC: “Oh yeahhh…”
Sally: Thank you so much Darryl for taking the time to talk to us. I have one last question for you. What is the greatest Hip Hop record ever made?
DMC: “The greatest Hip Hop record ever made is ‘The Message’.”
Sally: Thank you so much. It’s been an honour to talk to you.
DMC: “Thank you. See you soon!”
Run DMC and A-Trak collide for a new global Adidas Originals campaign #UniteAllOriginals which includes a remix of Run DMC’s ‘My Adidas’ track…
Click Here To Buy The Run DMC Interview Package On DMC Download
Including:
Run DMC ‘My Adidas’
Run DMC ‘Peter Piper’
Run DMC ‘Walk This Way’
Run DMC DMC ‘Megamix’
Run DMC ‘ Its Tricky’
Run DMC ‘ Its Like That’ (Spoken intro LIVE) (Sample)
Run DMC ‘It’s Like That (Run DMC and Jam Master Jay) (Sample)
Run DMC Vs Jason Nevins ‘It’s Like That’ (Drop The Break Radio Edit)
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five ‘The Message’ (12” Single)
Kendrick Lamar ‘Swimming Pools’
Kendrick Lamar ‘The Recipe’
Lupe Fiasco Ft. Matthew Santos ‘Superstar’
Lupe Fiasco ‘Kick Push’
A Tribe Called Quest ‘Can I Kick It’
A Tribe Called Quest ‘Scenario’
Public Enemy ‘Rebel Without A Pause’ ( Chad Jackson Remix)
Public Enemy ‘Harder Than You Think’
Public Enemy ‘Fight The Power’
LL Cool J ‘Rock The Bells’
LL Cool J ‘Mama Said Knock You Out’
Eric B & Rakim ‘I Know You Got Soul’
Beastie Boys ‘No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn’
De La Soul ‘Me, Myself & I’
