DMC has a very interesting way of classifying musical genres. The 55-year-old rapper is often considered one of the pioneers of hip-hop music and its surrounding culture. However, when he first found out about hip-hop, he wasn't as involved in it as he would grow to be. During an in-depth chat with the hosts of Your Mom's House podcast, DMC spoke about his interests from before he discovered hip-hop and how his life led him to become one of the core members of Run-DMC.
"My whole life prior to music was Marvel comic books," said DMC, whose real name is Darryl McDaniels. "Captain America, Hulk, Spider-Man, the Avengers, the whole nine. Read, collect, draw. Read, collect, draw. Read, collect, draw. That's all I did. By me always reading comic books made me a good reader in school. I was an honor roll student, which I'm very proud of to this day."
He remembers how two girls used to always be smarter than him, namedropping them and speaking about the friendly competition they had. After seventh grade, DMC discovered this beautiful little thing called hip-hop, which absolutely changed his life. "In seventh grade, something crazy happened to me. This thing called hip-hop comes over the bridge from the Bronx. Now, I didn't know what it was at first," he said. At that point, he wasn't even a music fan. He says that his parents used to listen to soul classics like Aretha Franklin around him, but that he didn't necessarily identify with them. Now, he classifies genres by the feelings they give him.
DMC says that folk rock and classic rock changed his entire worldview, bringing him over from comics to the microphone. "When I heard rock, there was just something about the rock drums that was heavier [than soul and disco.] So rock music was like superheroes to me. And then the folk music was like social studies or history in school because even though these dudes were big rock stars, most of their music was about politics."
As a student, DMC could finally relate to some of the topics being sung about and rock music played an integral role in that. Without comics, or rock, we wouldn't have Run-DMC as we know it. Watch the full interview below!