Hello DMC! What’s happening?

It’s crazy! It’s like I’m in a Twilight Zone right now. Next month I’ve got a song coming out with Joan Jett, a couple of weeks ago I did a show with Sammy Hagar, then I’ve got my album, which features Joan, Tim Armstrong from Rancid, Travis Barker, Chuck D …

That sounds noisy.

Yeah! It’s just gonna be fun. The whole problem is that fun doesn’t exist in music any more. Everybody’s so busy trying to make money, they sucked all the damn fun out of the industry.

Could you make it even more fun by promoting your album in fancy dress?

I always look at the old Nirvana lyric: “Come as you are.” When you come as you are, when you come normal, that’s when the whole world can relate to you. Even in your differences, people can see that you’re all the same.

Run-DMC have about 2 million monthly listeners on Spotify, that’s not bad is it? (1)

That’s not bad – that’s really good! We still get our royalty. You do a deal now, the labels get ownership of this and that – but these days you don’t need a record company, you don’t need a lawyer, you don’t even need a studio. You can do it all in your fucking bedroom.

Which current artists are continuing the work you did back in the day?

When you look at hip-hop right now there’s not anybody claiming the mantle of responsibility – don’t use profanity, don’t diss women … You know, Run DMC, we lived sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, but we never put those images, ideas or concepts in any of our music. Because we knew there were younger people looking at us! You never heard me rap about the drugs I smoked, the coke I sniffed, the women I had sex with. The closest to it now, I’d say, is probably Chance the Rapper. (2)

When did you last buy a pen?

When I had to fill out a customs form, landing when I travelled country to country. But the last time I picked up an art pencil was 1985. I was writing rhymes, going back home and drawing my favourite superheroes.

Fast-forward to 2017 and you’ve got an exhibition coming up of artwork from your own comic books. (3) How did that get started?

Before rock’n’roll changed my life on the radio as a little kid, and before hip-hop came over the bridge from the Bronx, I was growing up in Hollis, Queens. As rough as it was having to go to Catholic school and getting bullied, teased and pissed on, the perfect world for me, the universe where nothing was wrong and I was strong and confident, was comic books. Storytelling, education, the use of words, creativity, imagination: I allowed all those characteristics to go into my music career.

Which comic-book characters did you find particular strength in?

DC was cool but Gotham and Metropolis were fictional. The great god Stan Lee had the heroes running through New York City. Every time I opened up a Marvel comic book I saw the world I really lived in but was too young to explore. Peter Parker – the Amazing Spider-Man – even lived in Queens! I found people who were just like me. That’s what made me feel like I had a place in this universe.

What’s your favourite joke?

I read it in a magazine. Maybe Vanity Fair or Harper’s Bazaar. Are you ready?

Yes.

I don’t know if it’s going to be that funny now. There was a lady in the hospital bed and she was in critical condition and dying. Her husband’s at her bedside and she says: honey, there’s something I need to tell you – I’ve been having an affair. He says: that’s OK honey, that’s why I poisoned your ass!

It’s funny, isn’t it, the jokes that stay with you.

Yeah. I think I was 16 or 17 when I read it. It’s one of those things you never forget.

If asked to name the best former Massive Attack collaborator, what would you say?

They’re huge. Oh, I don’t know. (4) But I’d love to collaborate with them. Make sure they read this interview.

Do you have any other requests?

I’m trying to get to Pink Floyd.

What would you like to do with Pink Floyd?

I want to make a record with them. When I was depressed and I wanted to kill myself, I used to listen to Us and Them off The Dark Side of the Moon every day. I’ll never forget the day I heard it: I was at the Portland, Oregon, Marriott hotel, and the maid had forgotten to turn off the radio. I sat on the end of my bed going “What the hell is this?” (5) It was mesmerising. Matter of fact I wanna make Us and Them over. I think I’m gonna go to the studio right now and lay a beat down so when Roger sees this interview he’ll be like: “Yeah, we’d love to make Us and Them with you.”

I mean, if it’s good enough for Aerosmith it’s good enough for Pink Floyd.

I’m gonna rhyme about the children. There’s a lot of kids. Orphans. Kids who feel so alone.

Thanks for your time.

Thank you, I hope to meet you one day!

Footnotes

1) The band’s most-streamed song is Walk This Way, and the band are most popular in Mexico City.

2) DMC appeared with Chance on Saturday Night Live last December, with Chance taking the DMC role in a Run-DMC parody song.

3) The Art of DMC is taking place at north London’s Hang-Up Gallery from 11 to 25 June.

4) It’s Tricky.

5) It was the longest song on The Dark Side of the Moon, coming in at a frankly unnecessary seven minutes and 49 seconds.