By Odeisel
Because we are committed to bringing you the whole truth from the artists we interview, we bring you part five of our extensive interview with the legendary King of Rock DMC. He sets us straight on whether there is still lingering beef between him Run and Russell, while telling us how he fought back form physical mental and spiritual self-destruction. That’s why we literally title this episode Back From Hell. Read on.
Planet Ill: How crazy is it that you went to high school on 124th and Lenox and then you find out you’re from Harlem?
DMC: Right!
People used to ask me when I went to Rice, “D, all my friends in Rice High School Sundance from the mighty Zulu Nation, Jazzy 5 MCs rest in peace, he died a couple years ago, he use dot ask me why the hell would I take 3 trains and two buses to come here? Me I’m thinking because I was smart enough to get in. It was an all-boys Catholic high school at that, no girls. But they would ask me and the first thing in my was, because I was smart enough to get in here. It’s a good school and I was a good student, I don’t know.
The reason why I went to Rice was because my friend Douglass Hayes who was actually my best friend growing up, Butter Love, on “Rock Box” when you hear “Butter Love, now” Cool, t now. It was me runny ray butter love and cool t, that was our clique. So Butter Love was my best friend since like 7th grade. So he was the guy like, “Yo D, let’s go to Rice, it’s dope there!” Cool it was good for basketball I don’t know what drove me there but when I look back at it, I was drawn back to where I was fucking born at!
My whole life I thought I was born in New York, my mother told me I was born in Brooklyn, King’s Hospital or some shit. Come to find out I was born right down the block. That’s powerful.
Planet Ill: So you say I’m not going to be DMC no more, I’m not going to be the dominating emcee no more, but I still got that music in my blood. I still got that spirit…
DMC: I thought it was gonna be what the world heard on Checks Thugs and Rock & Roll. I thought it was gonna be that. But it’s not that. It’s what I’m doing now. I thought I had to be nicer, I thought I could take th easy way out. And the reluctant way out. But the key was this: that checks thugs and rock & roll album is symbolic of here’s a soldier that went to war, got injured, and this is my rehab.
That Checks Thugs and Rock N Roll was, you ever see the guys that go away to the wars and they see them on TV and they walking between the bars
Planet Ill: Teaching themselves how to walk again
DMC: Checks Thugs and Rock N Roll was me not sitting in the chair saying, “Damn, I went to war with these motherfuckers and when I fucking died, when my vocal cords died, they all left me.” I had to fucking wake up one day and say I gotta get the fuck up and get back on it. Conceptually, the music and the themes was in me, and when I spoke to my therapist, I go back and listen to that album I thought I was dying.
I was a suicidal, metaphysical, alcoholic spiritual wreck. And my spiritual side had me get up on these crutches and using these two poles. That was my spiritual side saying d you gotta get up or you’re going to die. But my physical and my natural earthly presence said, “Here’s my last word, ya’ll, I’m the fuck out of here.” I can’t rhyme no more, Run DMC has broken up, I’m drinking myself to death, I’m not comfortable with who I am, and if you listen to that record and I’m talking about when I’m alone in the living room sitting with death and all that shit, my wife, the kids the things I did and even on records where I can hardly rap listen to the words I’m saying. Yo, that was me on my fucking deathbed man.
I didn’t know that I would be sitting here to this day That last album, I would have fucking died like Kurt Cobain and fucking Amy Winehouse and people would have listened to the lyrics. I remember I played some of the records, my wife asked me, “Why would you say that?” Those were my last words, man. Those were enhanced. I’m thinking creatively, I gotta find this new direction but it wasn’t even creatively. Those were my last words. That’s all I had to say at that time.
I look back now and say damn. Nobody in my camp, as bullshit as it was they was afraid to say D we ain’t putting this shit out. But when I look back on it, I looked back and say, out of that bullshit album, two special things happened to me. When I did the just like me song, globally I get mail and email and if I’m in the airport if I’m in 7-11, when I went over to Spain, motherfuckers come up to me like, “Yo, I’m an orphan or I was adopted or I ain’t have my mother. “Yo, D you made me think about life in a different way.” People that ain’t adopted say this. And it’s deep because when you had asked me earlier, Obama said your voice isn’t the way you talk when you do open your mouth, how do you live your life day to day. When I put that Back From Hell album out and I did that video, for my documentary, kids from seven years old to fucking 80 years old say , “Keep doing what you’re doing, D.” That’s all I would get.
I never got, “Yo that’s a bullshit album, D!” I mean the critics bashed it, but the people? “Keep doing what you’re going. We see you.” As bullshit as I sounded on that album, nobody said we hear you, they said we see you out there man. Keep doing what you’re doing. That’s where I learned damn, I’m still DMC but I wasn’t put here just to rhyme and shit. But that album for me personally, I can only look back and say artistically that was me at my fucking lowest. I had to get back; I had to get between those bars and start walking again. Cause if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have the record that I got out now, attention please, and that rock solid shit.
When people hear the “Rock Solid” shit they’re like thank God, the old DMC is back. On Back From Hell, I’m thinking I can’t be aggressive. I can’t be the KING OF ROCK, THERE IS NONE HIGHER! I can’t be that now so I got sllooow iiit dooown. No I can use a harmonica but still even if it ain’t yelling like that, you still have the thing that allowed that to work. The album itself, it was like first of all, I tell my management, “Stop getting depressed guys.” It’s so funny talking to my management. Although it was a flop, it’s not a flop because nobody knows that it was out. The last great thing you saw and heard DMC did was “Walk This Way, with Run and Jay. So I’m great! And they go ahh yeah, that’s true.
But it was hard and I was on my death bed. Even before Jay got killed, we was touring; Run DMC, Kid Rock and Aerosmith. We was only supposed to do half the tour. The first half of the tour was so great they were going to give us more dates. We was over in Europe, we went to Asia, we went to Australia; we was out there getting money. Every day I would come off stage and be like damn I can’t rhyme no more. But shit they just paid us $80,000. We was seeing fucking money that we wasn’t seeing over here in the States. But I wasn’t right. And then I started drinking again. And I knew something was crazy with me because my wife, she would cry at me every fucking night.
In 1991, after Down With The King, I got diagnosed with acute pancreatitis. I was dying because I was drinking a case of 40s a day. I was fucking drinking Bacardi screwdrivers. I went to the hospital, I had the craziest pain; it hurt to breathe. And the doctor looked at me and said you have two choices young man. You can drink and die, or never drink and live. So from 91 to 2000, through all the voice shit, I didn’t take a drink. And then one day in 2000 I drunk some fucking wine and I went over board because it wasn’t Bacardi and Coke and vodka anymore. They had fucking Hennessey and all of that shit. During that time, from 2000 to 2004 I was drinking 24 hours a day. In 91 with all the Old English and shit, I would drink from 11 in the morning to about 3 in the morning; go to bed and then start at 11 again. But from 2000, especially with this more powerful liquor, I was dying. My wife’s crying, “You’re drinking yourself, you’re not supposed to be doing this, why are you doing this?” And my whole shit was, “I don’t know.” Why the fuck am I making country music? I don’t know what’s going on man.”
You gotta understand this, too. Not a saying anyone had to be there; those things that made me do Checks Thugs and Rock N Roll, I was totally alone. Outside of Eric, who’s still with me today, Kathy Simeonidus, Tracy Miller, and my wife and son, I was alone. They was there for me as Darryl but I had to deal with the DMC shit alone, the no career shit alone. The breaking up and all of that shit. And this is before the legacy of how I would perceive the group’s breaking up. And this is before Jay died.
Planet Ill: You can’t become un famous
DMC: Right. You gotta understand what happened to me. I had a voice problem; I was a fucking alcoholic. Run fucking breaks the group up Jay dies, then my father died. And everything I just talked about, you know it’s funny, the whole period I just addressed it what my new book, that I’m self-publishing along with Chuck D of Public Enemy, we said fuck all of these publishing companies that don’t want real shit, I go to meet with these book companies and they go, “Can you give us some gossip on Russell? Could you give us gossip on Lyor?” I’m like if you want gossip and bullshit go look at reality tv, MTV, or BET. BET is a fucking disgrace to me. Chuck said D, we fucking Hip-Hop; we don’t need permission to do anything. We gone do the same thing we did when we took our music without permission, bust the light pole open, plugged in the speakers and let the world know we existed.
My new book, called Just Like Me, deals with the time period after Jay died and Run DMC broke up, because nobody seen me, nobody except for my documentary, nobody knows what’s going on. The selling point of the book is the real reason why DMC was never on “Run’s House.” Because the people always ask me, like you said. There’s no beef. I spoke to Joe probably four times since Jay died. “What you doing? What’s up?” Another time he came to me, wanted to get me to tour and I was like no, I’m not fucking touring right now. Fuck you, you ain’t talk to me in seven months!
Planet Ill: Now when it’s some to get some money you want to be my friend.
DMC: THAT’S bullshit! And this ain’t to you. Motherfuckers want me to rhyme again, if you ain’t gone pay me Jay-Z, Kanye and Eminem money; I’m not even coming to the meeting. Cause before I even come to the meeting you’re gonna have to guarantee me cause I’m not just some fucking rap guy. See I got all this ego now cause ya’ll niggas ain’t give a fuck; ya’ll created a monster. This ain’t just two rappers getting back together. This is Paul McCartney and John Lennon getting back together if that was able to happen. If you can’t treat it like that?
My thing is this. This industry hasn’t been caring about me for the last seven years since Jay died. So don’t start caring about me now. I know what I need to do. But what I’m trying to say is there’s no beef with Run. He communicated through Eric Blam we sell these t-shirts I’ll hit him. He’ll say, “Hey D, how you doing, God bless you.” And I’ll be like, “Joe check is at the office.” So it’s no hate. And this is what I say in the book. I want people to understand something and maybe now I can’ address it. I see bad comments to Run on twitter and shit like that. You know it’s a shame Russell, blah blah blah.
I don’t have the big mansion; I don’t have the Bentley. But me not having that, you ain’t even trying to speak to me about what I do have. What I’m trying to say is Run didn’t do nothing to me. Something happened to me and I had to deal with it. So that was it. But you know all I can say is this: I was an alcoholic, suicidal, metaphysical, spiritual wreck! My voice left, Run broke the group up cause I couldn’t rhyme, which was justifiable. Why the fuck would we keep rhyming? We left the tour, Jay got shot and killed my father died, so life was hell with me. And it still ain’t easy every day, but I just take it one day at a time.
After all of this happened, I had to realize that everything I did with Run DMC was always fun. When people come to me now, trying to present me with a deal that’s not creative and exciting, and if you’re going to give me a deadline, I’m going to politely decline. My shit is what are you actually trying to do? When I did my documentary, I didn’t do my documentary to be on TV. After I got out of rehab, I realized me finding out I was adopted at 35 is some crazy deep shit. So as a man, a lot of men are talking about this in my book.
My book is called Just Like Me, I deal with rehab, I deal with alcoholism, I deal with loss when jay got killed, I deal with rejection, when Joe left me, and I titled each chapter an event in my life that everybody goes through. I know how it feels when the UPS man gets laid off. I know how these people feel on CNN when I watch about this guy on Wall Street thing that he just got laid off and he’s living in a homeless shelter. He got fucking fired. I’m DMC, don’t treat me like a god; I got fired, too!
When I did my documentary, I had went to therapy and then the lady who, me and her founded the Felix organization to do something for the foster kids, her name is Sheila Jaffe. She found out she was adopted at 14 years old. But when I met her, up until Jay died, Run and Jay had said this to me. They was like, “D, Byford and Bannah is your mother and father.” I was like motherfuckers I know that but they could only see, suck it up, D. I Byford and Bannah was my mother and father. But don’t you know I just found out at 35 that there’s this other lady that is the reason I’m here? So they couldn’t get with those emotions.
That was another reason I was drinking because nobody around me was adopted. So I had all these feelings I couldn’t talk to them, but when I met Sheila Jaffe, she just said, “Oh Darryl, by the way, once a month we meet in a room and we have adoption discussion classes. We call it Adoption Anonymous.” And I was like what’s that? She said a bunch of us adoptees just go in a room and talk. You got the rapper, me, the talent director, her, you got the postman, you got the lawyer. I’m talking about Asians, white people, 65 years old, 12 years old. You go online, you find out you’re adopted.
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