If you are at all in tune with pop culture, specifically the striations of contemporary music, then you most likely know the story of how three young gents from Hollis, Queens, New York changed the way many folks view rap, both as a music and a culture. I'm of course referring to the legendary trio Run DMC , wherein Darryl " DMC " McDaniels, Joseph "Run" Simmons, and Jason "Jam Master Jay" Mizell, all clad in black leather, pork pie hats, and fat laced, shell toed Adidas made pop music history by helping bring rap music out of the New York underground and into the mass consciousness the world over. The stats are well known, to boot. Run DMC was the first rap group to go platinum. They were the first rap group to sell out a successful arena tour. They were the first rap group to bridge the gap between the decidedly white medium of rock n' roll and the decidedly more urban medium of rap. And they undoubtedly revived the career of a flailing Aerosmith back in 1986 when they reworked their seminal classic "Walk This Way" as a blistering rap/rock crossover. Yet amidst all the success lies the inevitable heart of darkness. The group's reunion/comeback album, 2001's Crown Royal hid the fact that the trio was falling apart (DMC was all but missing from the recording despite having his mug plastered on the front cover with his two partners). Then in 2002 Jam Master Jay was shot and killed while working on music at a New York recording studio. The end of an era had come to pass. In the wake of Jay's death, both Run and DMC have embarked on solo endeavors as well entering the world of reality television. While the legend of Run DMC and the tragedy of Jam Master Jay's sudden passing continue to linger within the pop culture consciousness, there's a strange pair of skeletons lurking in DMC's closet.

While working on his forthcoming solo album, Checks, Thugs And Rock N' Roll, DMC learned that he had been adopted as a child. Perhaps not a huge revelation, but still nonetheless an eye-opening discovering, especially for a man well into his thirties. The buck doesn't stop there, however. We're all familiar with the de rigueur rock n' roll clichés of drug abuse, sexual escapades and groupie hi-jinx, band in-fighting…tucked in amongst these is the dark specter of suicide. And hard to believe as it may be, Darryl McDaniels, 1/3 of what many consider to be the greatest rap group ever to grip a set of microphones, command a pair of turntables, and grace the stage, once considered killing himself. Surprisingly enough, it was the intervention of a Canadian chanteuse that saved his life. This is his story…as told to Spence D. Of further note is the fact that DMC's knowledge of his adoption and the classic Harry Chapin song, "Cat In The Cradle" play an important role in the events that unfolded over the course of the past decade."I've been on this earth for 35 years and 10 years ago I'm sittin' there and I'm like 'Yo, am I here just to be DMC?' First to go Gold, first to go Platinum, did all of this. Grew up in Hollis, Queens, I went to the best Catholic schools all my life, Catholic elementary, Catholic high school, I went to St. Johns University. Okay, it was Christmas for me everyday growing up as a kid. I was spoiled. Best life a kid could have. Now I become DMC with Joey, who was just Joey, but now we're Run DMC and we go on to spearhead the whole hip-hop movement and we go on to fortune and fame. So I'm sittin' over in Europe 10 years ago and sayin' 'Somethin' ain't right here. Somethin' is missin'.' But I couldn't put my finger on it. So I said to myself--not that I wasn't happy with the way things were goin' and I wasn't grateful for all of my accomplishments, but I said 'Okay, I'm gonna commit suicide.' Why? Probably because I was unhappy with 'if this is all I'm gonna get out of this life, I can't stay here. I'm ready to move on to my next plane of existence. There's gotta be more to this. People were like 'D, you're crazy! You're f-----' DMC. You've got a wife, kids, life is beautiful.' I said, 'All of that is lovely, but there's something else that is missing.'"This was in '97 and I said 'When I get home from Europe…' I was in Europe and Run DMC, without havin' a hit record or video, we're over in Europe getting' a hundred grand a night. Life can't be better than that s---. I don't give a f--- if somebody knows nuthin' about my music, we're the f-----' Rolling Stones, we're the f-----' Beatles of hip-hop. A lotta rappers, after they sell their 21 million two years from now you ain't gonna care about these muthaf-----. It don't get no better than that. Me, Run, and Jay, we were able to tour until we were 85. People would still comes see us doin' "It's Like That" [as old men]. But I said 'When I get home, I'm gonna commit suicide.' So I get home and I get in the car that picks me up [at the airport], I turned the radio on. Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" was on the radio. That record saved my life. Wife. Kids. Fortune. Fame. I didn't give a f--- about none of that. I turned the radio on--and I'm tryin' to express to you how it's so funny. I turned it on and I heard Sarah McLachlan's record and something that day said 'Life is good. It's good to be alive.' "So I go and I buy that record and everything Sarah McLachlan ever made. I listen Sarah McLachlan for one whole year. At the end of the year the Grammy's come around and my manager says 'D, let's go to the Grammy party. We're gonna go to Clive Davis' party.' I didn't want to go. I didn't care about s---. All I cared about was Sarah McLachlan records. So we go to the Grammy party, I get there and who do I see sittin' across the room--'cuz she was on Arista Records under Clive Davis--it's Sarah McLachlan. She was 'that lady.' I go 'Oh my god, it's that lady!' So I'm gettin' all nervous, but then I go 'No, I gotta go over there and tell Sarah McLachlan what her record did for me.'