News

Steve Knopper
Newsday

The interview with Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, a third of the pioneering 1980s rap group Run-D.M.C., begins with one question: "Why are the J.A.M. Awards important?" And it ends with one answer - a rambling, half-hour, stream-of-consciousness monologue that bounces from the Cold Crush Brothers and Kool Moe Dee to the negative images of rappers in the media to the overabundance of guns and drugs in hip-hop imagery.

"A lot of people really don't care if hip-hop ends tomorrow, if hip-hop dies. But I do," says DMC, who performs Thursday night as part of the Justice, Arts and Music (J.A.M.) Awards show, an offshoot of his late partner Jam Master Jay's foundation to boost arts resources in schools. "Chuck D. [of Public Enemy] told me what was so good about hip-hop is the power of communication - there's always a mike, there's always a camera, there's always an interview. Rap is even taking over Hollywood right now. For me, that whole conversation was my purpose.

"We're forgetting about this vehicle that should be passed down from generation to generation," continues DMC, by phone from his home in Wayne, N.J. "The J.A.M. Awards aren't about to celebrate who made the most money - it's about the education possibility of hip-hop."

The main thrust of the awards show, at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan, is to honor three members of the hip-hop community who've contributed the most to social justice, the arts and music - Chuck D, Will Smith, Spike Lee, Wyclef Jean and Kanye West are among the nominees. But fans will come out for the star-studded lineup - a mix of old-school and contemporary rappers, including Snoop Dogg, De La Soul, Marley Marl, Q-Tip and Raekwon. And DMC invests the show with even deeper meaning, using it as a platform to criticize rappers obsessed with the thug life, among other things.

Read the complete interview.