watching. have a happy new year. loses sight of a conversation's serious subject. cathy griffin joins us.

>> you've made it in one of the toughest industries, only to switch gears into the other toughest career from stand up. >> sit cops are also male dominated. i was just a guest star on kirstie alley, and 80% of the writing staff were men. and when i got into standup, it was even more sexist. stand up is completely male driven and completely sexist. and i'm going to be open about it. because as much as any comedian has her opinion, call your local comedy club, and ask them to read the lineup for this saturday night's show, and it's going to be 80% guys. >> is that females out this? >> two things. female comediennes are not out this.

does it still a stigma tha not a good job for a female. one girlfriend said that her boyfriend says i'm not going to stand in the back and watch you. and then there's that stigma. and that's a lot deeper than the profession part of it. that's just the general politics issue of but as far as the numbers out there performing, you are still up against promotors, and i would say 95% of the promotors that i deal with, and that is everywhere from carnegie hall to a casino in elizabeth, indiana, to the sydney opera house to the dolby theater in los angeles, i almost never walked into a venue where i was playing for 5,000 or 1500 people, where i dealt with a female promoter. so it's rampant all over.

and i think to act like it doesn't exist is silly. >> cathy, you're community is saying: a few studies, men are funnier because they have a biological ability to be innately funnier. >> tell that to lucille ball. and ros rosanne barr and as far as women being funny or not funny, when it comes to professional comedy, when it comes to buying tickets foo nightclub or to carnegie hall.

women have made theaters large corporations, and where i work, nbc universal, women are absolutely as funny. we're in a situation where my experience has been where i absolutely have to work harder than the boys, jump higher, and i'm vulgar by nature, by the way, so that part does apply to me, but other than that, i hold the record for the most standup comedy specials ever televised by a single comedian, ever. and i'm about to do my 20th, i've done 19, and i can't stop myself. i have a standup comedy disorder. and number two, i have something to prove. while i love the great male comedians of course, i love that i broke the record. and nobody cares and nobody has brought it up. i do wonder, if i was a male

comedian, if i had a male part, if that would be more newsworthy. >> do men and women hear comedy differently? >> nobody makes me laugh harder than the women in my life. nobody is funnier than my 93-year-old alcohol mother, maggie. she enjoys a box of wine, and she said before this interview, can we trust them? so i think that my own mother might be part of your twitter war. i'm afraid to go home. my mother is funny, and she doesn't know why, and she's clearly uncensored as i just showed you and i grew up with aunts and female cousins, and they never would say, guys aren't funny, so you don't think you're going to see a dude movie. and if you go see a great

comedian, whether it's kev hart or old grates like rickles, if you go to see don rickles, you don't think you're going to see a bro shower a dude show. but a lot of these women that come it my shows, they have to drag their husband or boyfriends, and afterwards, they say you're funny for a chick. >> hey, cathi, you know -- >> i'm sorry, let's break down that last one. what does that person have an issue with? we can't do lowbrow comedy? i don't want to do immature comedy, i'm 52.

you moron. that's his request in there are plenty of male hacks that can take care of his kind of comedy. >> you do comedy, and how long did it take you to figure out that you need to find places to fit your style rather than trying to find places to fit. >> because i had a bunch of men telling me that i was doing it wrong t. though i was getting laughs. i would meet with these male comedy owners, and they would say ridiculous things like, don't you know, comedy has to come in threes. and if you don't get a life every 9 seconds, you aren't doingoir job. and i thought, who is counting? number one, creating my own venue. and i started doing standup in coffee shops and in book shops and anyplace that would let me go if i had a little flyer that would say i can put on a show,

and i like to do mine from personal experience. i have a story from when i met celine dion, and i started petting her hair like a lunatic. >> coming up, the man who many hold up as the original hiphop store, the dmc of run dmc. how he rose to fame, and plus, action that never made air. >> this sunday... >> scholars and writers, policy makers and cultural icons >> don't miss the best of "talk to al jazeera" revealing... >> he said he was gonna fight for the public option, he didn't do it... >> personal.... >> from the time i was about nine, i knew i was different in

ways other than just my face... >> shocking... >> being babtist...they always talk about don't judge other people.. but they judge everybody... >> the conversations people are talking about >> forget the democrat party and forget the reublican party, they're all one party... >> talk to al jazeea on al jazeera america

consider this: the news of the day plus so much more. >> we begin with the government shutdown. >> answers to the questions no one else will ask. >> it seems like they can't agree to anything in washington no matter what. >> antonio mora, award winning and hard hitting. >> we've heard you talk about the history of suicide in your family. >> there's no status quo, just the bottom line. >> but, what about buying shares in a professional athlete?

>> welcome back. we're taking a look at some of our favorite conversations. darra mcdaniels, or the dmc of run dmc, joined us in the studio to break down his groundbreaking career with hiphop. >> we're so excited to have you here, and we have been talking about this for weeks. i used to torture my grandparents as i stayed with them in the summer and listen to your music, and make them crazy, but i grew up with dmc. >> it was a good time. and somebody will tell me, i was three years old sitting there listening to my father's cassettes. and i was like, three years old? >> there seems to be a lot of nostalgia for old school hiphop. it was the real deal. and you were part of that. and part of creating your own music, and giving us some of

your view. >> it was a unique time, because everybody in the industry windows really into it. like when we did those early shows, we used to have to knock on the doors of venues, can we get onstage? we're run dmc. there was no video. we didn't have mtv. there were no album covers, so the record was playing in the streets, but nobody knew who we was, and they would shut the doors on us. but even with the record companies themselves, people thought that hiphop was a fad, that it was like it was going to go out like disco. but the radio didn't really want to play us, but it was the punk rockers, debbie harry, who made a rap song, rapture. lou reed, the ramons, it was the

rock and rollers, and the indy rockers and punk rockers that embraced us. and they saw themselves in us. but in our early days, it was, we wasn't a force to be reckoned with. we wasn't believable. people thought we would be there two or three years, and it would be over. >> you mentioned that you were on mtv. and you guys go on to be the first platinum hiphop artist and first video, and first cover of rolling stone, and was there a moment when you felt the shift. and you said, now we're on the trajectory? >> well, the reason we was able to get on mtv and get into the living rooms globally across the nation was, 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 beverly hills,

whenever you hear a song that's hiphop, it's going to be something that you can relate to because of what we talk about. a kid in the ghetto and a kid in beverly hills, we still have the same issues, peer pressure, i hate my teacher, i love my teacher, i hate that girl, i love my mother, and i want to do this. hiphop was a form of creative together. >> here's what the community says: and i'm going to go to peter armor rod, who is a music blogger and attorney.

>> do you see music, specifically hiphop and rap continuing to do those kinds of things that hiphop in 2013 is able to do the same things, push those boundaries that you were such a beautiful part of back in the 80s? >> yes, i see hiphop doing what it always did, but problem is, you don't get it on mtv and you don't get it on radio. what you get on radio and mtv now is basically what sells. iced tea told me a long time ago, the record companies are only in the business to sell records, so if the worst record of the day 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. they're going to forget about what's revolutionary and ground break being.

because to the record company, it's a business. i always say this: with or without a record company, there's hiphop. hiphop started before the record company. mc, before there was "rappers." the whole thing was to be mcs and our job was to be responsible to the audience. the thing that separates the old school from the new school, is what they do. but the difference for my generation, run dmc, krs1, ll cool j, the beastie boys, the difference between those young rappers now and those of us young rappers back then,

we felt a responsibility, and those records have the capability of doing what they did that are out there, but they're not part of the music business. >> if there's such a thing as sonic placement in the business, you guys get the award for that. from big mac, that was one of the biggest endorsement deals for hiphop artist. but how has the business magnified over the years? >> well, they didn't do it -- i mean, we didn't do it for the endorsement deal, or for the money. we were just rhyming about so many good things, oh, what can we do next? we rap about rock and roll, oh, let's make one about the sneakers that we love. and i think what happened was that that was the first time

that people saw the relationship of a 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, it was sincere, and it was not even about the deal. nowadays, people will search for the deal first, and not be responsible with the music that they put out. the reason it worked for dmc was it was good. we didn't make a record saying, i got more sneakers than you, more money, look at my car, look at my jewelry. we had big old chains and mercedes benzes and all of that. and that was about our sneakers, not about the term. but where those sneakers have been. stepped onstage, all the people gave and the poor got paid.

and right away, we had global appeal. these sneakers walked down the hallways of st. john's university. the reason we didn't do the record at first was, there was a stereotype of, yeah, those kids with the gold chains, and the adidas suits, those were the bad people of society. which was true. the first thing you did when you got money, if you did drugs and a stickup, was to get fresh. everybody who was fresh, it was a stereotype, he was a drug dealer. and we made that record, and i was, i'm with st. john's university. and i have a high school diploma. the problem is, the corporations will endorse the artist who is negative, who doesn't project

anything positive to the audience, just to sell their product. >> but if they're a good artist, and they're making money -- >> well, this isn't about censorship or freedom of speech. it's about the responsibility. our generation made records about being a drug dealer. we told our story, but at the end of that record, we said, but y'all, you younger guys, you don't have to do this. and nowadays, in america, the guy tells his story about being a drug dealer like it's great. and then americans celebrate that he's making money. we created hiphop so we didn't have to have more drug dealers and gang bangers. we greeted hiphop so the younger generation that listened to dmc

or a rapper, would think its cool to name himself after scarface the movie, or gangsters. we created this positive music, and told this story, but we also gave positive alternatives. >> what you didn't see in that interview, is d, as he likes to be called is such a nice guy. he held court in our studio for an hour after the show, answering questions of our staff and the fans who came to meet him. are you afraid of zombi apocalypse?

[[voiceover]] no doubt about it, innovation changes

check check >> south sudan's warring factions prepare for talks. government troops are on the way for a new showdown with rebels. >> welcome to al jazeera america. we are here in doha. also ahead - ships turn away from syria. a deadline is missed to start disposing of chemical weapons stockpiles. >> north korea's leader kim jong un boasts of eliminating his opponents after the execution of his