>> hi, i'm lisa fletcher, and you're in "the stream." hiphop goes together. and his take on where hiphop is headed. [ music ] >> from diva suits to rap's rock

fusion, an award-winning group, run dmc is a force in hiphop. and 30 years later, mcdaniels is still using his music as an advocacy tool. however, many criticize it for lacking substance and negative narrative. to break down hiphop's growing pains, we're so excited to have you here. and we have been talking about this for weeks. i used to torture my grandparents, i would stay with them in the summer, and it would make them crazy, but i love you, i grew up with you. >> it was a good time. and somebody told me today, i was three years old sitting there listening it my father's cassettes and i know all of your moves. >> this guy is too young. >> i was rocking oshkosh b'gosh,

and so did the online community. as i was telling you, you say hiphop and politics, and it opens up a pandora's box. and you say run dmc is here. he says: we're joined today with four hiphop enthusiasts, and we're going to get to them in the show. but loyal stream team, you're in the show, and throughout today's discussion, engage us using the twitter hashtag. >> there seems to be a lot of

nostalgia for old school hiphop. and you were part of that. and you created the touring with all of your music. give us some of your most vivid memories. >> well, it was a creek time because everybody accept the industry was really into it. when we did those early shows, we used to knock on the doors, can we get on the stage? we're run dmc. and there was no video, we didn't have tv, and there were no album covers. and the records were playing in the streets and nobody knew who we was, and they shut the doors on us. but even the record companies themselves, people thought hiphop was a fad. they thought it was like the hula hoop and thought it was going to go out like disco. but the thing about it, the industry, the radios didn't want to play us, but it was the punk

rockers, debbie harry, who by the way, made a rap song, rapture. and lou reed, the ramons, it was the rock and rollers, and the indy rock and the punk rockers that embraced us. they saw themselves in us. but in our early days, we wasn't a force to be reckoned with. we wasn't believable. people thought we would be here probably two or three years, and it would be over. >> so you mentioned, you were on mtv and you were the first multi-platinum hiphop artist and first rolling stone, and is there a different trajectory? >> i think that the reason we was able to get onto mtv and get on globally across the nation is, i have always believed this about hiphop, and rock and roll,

which are brother and sister. whether you're in the dirt poor ghetto or in beverly hills, when you hear a hiphop song that's truly that respectable, sincere hiphop, it's going to be something that you can relate to, because of what we talk about. the kid in the ghetto and the kid in beverly hills, we all got the same mission. it's peer pressure. i hate my teacher, i love my teacher, i love my mother, i want to do this. so hiphop is a creative art communication that brought people together. >> here's the community:

and speaking of old school jams, i'm going to go to peter, a music blogger and an attorney and you have a question for d. >> my question is, coming from your background where music commentators in this day and age overwhelmingly agree that you ushered in a new age of entirely different hiphop, including pushing the genre in a different musical direction, as well as the existing culture and the

norms, do you see musicterred specific hiphop and rap, continuing to do those same things? do you think that hiphop in 2013 is still able to do the same things, and push those boundaries that you were such an integral part of in the late '80s? >> yeah, i see hiphop doing what it always did, but the problem is, you don't get it on mtv or on the radio. what you get on the radio and what you get on mtv now is basically what sells. iced tea told me a long time ago, the record companies are only in the business of selling records, so if the worst record ever made sells, and people are going to buy it, they're going to forget about what's important. they're going to forget about what's creative. and they're going to forget about what's revolutionary and groundbreaking. because to the record companies,

it's a wednesday. but i always say this. with or without the record companies, there's going to be hiphop. hiphop started before we were able to play the radio or get deals. rappers did what we d but the whole reason we were mcs, our job was to be responsible to the audience, to separate from the old school to the new school. another person's creativity, it's what they do, but the defense in my generation and run dmc, public enemy, krs1, kujy rap. sonic, and ll cool j, the beastie boys, fresh prince. the difference between those young rappers now, and the young rappers back then, we have

thrown responsibility to the side. those records that have the capability of doing what we did, they're out there, but they're not part of the music business. >> speaking of music business. after the break, we're going to get you to weigh in on the impact of hiphop, and you'll find out how darryl is using his voice as much for kids as he is for music. keep tweeting your questions.

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>> if there's such a thing as product please. in music, you guys would have taken the award for that, one of the first big endorsement deals for hiphop artist >> that said it all. >> but how has it changed? how has corporate influence tag fido the years? >> we didn't do it to get an endorsement deal. we didn't even do it for the money. we were just rhyming about so much good things, we said, what can we do next? we rapped with rock and roll, and we did a rap about the sneakers that we love. and i think what happened is that that was the first time people saw the relationship of music entity could be huge as sports. it was the first time that a non-athletic entity was able to get a sneaker endorsement.

the problem was this. we did it. it was good and sincere, and it wasn't even about the deal. nowadays, people will search for the deal first, someone not be responsible with the music they put out. the reason it worked for dmc, it was positive and it was good. we didn't work with the record deal, i got more sneakers, i got more money than you. look at my car and look at my jewelry. we had big chains and rolls royces and all of that. our song about the sneakerers wasn't about the material, but where the sneakers had been. we had global appeal, i had these sneakers walking down the hallways at st. john's university. there was a stereotype of yeah,

those kids with the gold chains, and adidas and the kids with the suits, those are the bad people of our society, which is true. the first thing you did when you got some money, if you sold drugs and did a stickup, at that time in the 80s, everybody who was fresh, he was a drug dealer, so we made that record, i'm with the st. john's' university, and i have a high school diploma. so now, when they endorse an artist who is negative, and doesn't project anything positive to the audience, just the product. >> but if they're a good artist and making money for the record companies, they're still going to sell the music, aren't they?

>> but this isn't about censorship of freedom of speech. it's about responsibility. our record about being a drug dealer, we told our story, but at the end of the record, we said, you younger guys don't have to do this. nowadays in america, the guy tells his story about being a drug dealer like its good. and america celebrates it just because he's making money. we created hiphop so we didn't have to have more drug dealers and gang bangers. we created hiphop so he wouldn't think it was cool to name himself after scarface, the movie, or the gangsters. we created the stories, but also gave positive, constructive alternatives. i was on the radio one time.

and the guy calls in, and he says yo, dmc, just finish your saying -- this is powerful -- just for your saying, be cool, go to school. i'm dmc, the place to be. i go to st. john's university. after 12th grade i went straight to college. this guy calls, when you said that, you gave me a good problem. >> i said, what do you mean >> he said, i had the adidas and the gold chain, and the money and my bag of weed and my bourbon, and stuff like that, but here goes my idol dmc, saying school is cool. he said i had everything material, but i didn't have an education, i didn't have a high school diploma. i was gang banging and selling drugs, and when you said that, i

stopped. and i got my ged. and i knew i was complete. i got my car over here, and now i got my ged. and with this ged, i was able to take college courses at the community college. he said, when i walked in the doors of the community college, i saw a whole world that i didn't know existed. i'm sitting here in a $3 million house, with five whips outside, and i'm a lawyer. that's the type of corporate excitement that we want to generate. our association with these record companies and these big corporations, what is it going to do for our communities? what is it going to do for our nags? that's what we saw in people. people say, dmc, what you're saying, i'm 49 years old, and you're saying that because you're wiser and more mature and

older, and i say that's true, young brother and sister, but everything i've been saying since i was 15 years old. check the record. ed ross, you're a member of the hiphop trio, and i know you have a question for d. go for it >> what up, d? this is crazy. -- >> he's the reason why he started it all. >> this is how we did it in the bronx, man. >> what's up? >> >> i'm the elusive one. >> we got a question, and we're

still going to ask the question. the question is this, i got some numbers. in 1973, it was 400,000 people in jail in this country. in the u.s. in 2013, 40 years later, which is pretty much the lifespan of hiphop, we have approximately 3 million people in jail. >> it's crazy. >> if you include the number of people that are on parole, on house arrest, in centers, and probation, that number is about 12 million or 10 million. >> right. >> so i just wanted to get, what is your view on the process of mass incarceration through this private prison industrial complex that hit the u.s.? what is your view on that, especially being someone who was there at the beginning of hiphop, and through that life

stan, we have seen a whole hiphop generation get hut behind bars? >> it's interesting you say it, because we were saying at the beginning of this discussion. you had all of these young people that were responsible. and knew i can make this song, and it can be about fun, or i can tell this story about a drug dealer, or i can tell this story about being in a gang, but we didn't celebrate those negative things, and one of the biggest problems we have with this, if these young people turn on the radio, and they turn on mtv, they see profanity, negativity, and violence celebrated in hiphop like its cool, not realizing that it was young people who created hiphop so we don't have to do this. cool hurt knows this, and when we started doing this hiphop thing, we started putting an end

to the whole idea of gang violence, and selling drugs to each other. if i'm selling drugs to you and my neighborhood is falling apart, that's wrong, and we knew we had a responsibility not to allow this to persist. but the problem is, these corporations,mtv and when you look at hollywood and the movies, you never see a good positive hiphop movie about a guy that doesn't sell drugs, and doesn't want to be in a gang, but he's going to be a rapper. every rapper's story was, i was in a gang and i'm selling drugs, and you have america celebrating this fact. you have radio stations that play the same eight records every 20 minutes, and every one of those records is, i'm selling drugs and shooting and killing and disrespecting women and it's good. no! the records are supposed to be

saying, this is not good, and here's what we're going to do. so when you look at that, the problem is, these little kids used to look at a rapper or a producer or dj and see something positive and say, i don't have to do this. and now they look at them and say, that's what they do to get money and famous? that's what i'm going to do. it's not that the music causes the problem, but the music at one time was a solution to the problem. and our music, our minimals, our concepts, the words that's coming off of these rap songs is not good for our public and our communities. >> speaking of that, d, you talk to a lot of young people who seek your advice, so when we come back, i want to talk about how you discovered your true self, and some of your passions long after you struck gold in the music business.

♪ >> we're back with run dmc, better moan as d. and d, you have a lot of young people and you advice, and how was your advice to them in 1988 and now? >> it's really no different. one of the things that i do say to young people is, the reason why hiphop is so successful is because we listen to our elders. we listened to our elders, and we listen to what the elders would tell us.

the negative and positive. we would take that, apply it to the world we was living in now, and we would put that total experience of their knowledge and their wisdom and experience on a record. so if i'm 18 years old, speaking at 18 with what the elders gave me, and then 17 to the age of 2, here's me on the rap song, speaking all of this knowledge and wisdom, that kid who is eight years old, hearing me at 18, by the time he's 18, he's highly evolved. we don't have that anymore. when i was 16 years old and i went into a room with 18-year-olds, i left with something valuable. when i was 18 and i sat in a room with 20, 25 years old, i left with something valuable. the problem now is, i can sit there and talk to the younger generation because i'm not talking it them at 49 years old, but talking to them as hiphop,

so they can relate. >> marcus, a music journalist, and amanda, you go first. >> hi, i want to say that i have loved you since i was ten years old but i'm impressed with how you've been able to raise social consciousness with the work that you've done at camp felix. i'm adopted and have known that i was adopted. and i wonder how you found you were adopted so late in life has helped you with these kids. >> marcus, you too. >> you talk about giving kids a lot of wisdom about the game, but the thoughts of democracyization of the internet that allows kids to be able to you know, create music and put it out there, without necessarily having access to wisdom of artists like yourself, but people of older generations >> we have two minutes left

>> the answer to the first question, i found out i was adopted at 35, and after it was done, all of the hiphop, run dmc stuff. and the fame and the fort up, i said, there has to be more to life than just dmc and king of rock. when i asked the question, i got the answer. yes, you're adopted and i was a foster kid. what happened to me, i was given hiphop for a greater purpose than a guy to go silver platinum. for me, i was given hop hop for a mission so i could continue to do what cool hurt and grand master flash did to me when i was 12 years old with a record. to go onto the question, it created a bad problem for hiphop, because first of all, everybody wants to be a rapper, and first of all, everybody wants to be a rapper and it

could be the crappiest rap and it's the worst thing ever. and there's so much bad stuff out there, that everybody thinks it's good. that's the problem with hiphop. >> all right, darryl on that note, we're out of time. but thank you so much for joining us tonight and we really appreciate hearing all of your thoughts. and thanks everyone in our google hang out for your questions this evening and thanks to our amazing online social community for all of the tweets.