The legendary duo of Rev. Run and DMC McDaniels may have been performing dates as Run-D.M.C. over the past year, but that doesn’t mean hip-hop’s most beloved group has reunited or is active as a group. DMC spoke to Access Atlanta and stated unequivocally that Run-DMC hasn’t officially reunited — despite the shows.
“We’re not back together as a group,” DMC said. He went on to explain that he and Run are doing what they’re doing to showcase the music and legacy of Jam Master Jay, who was murdered in 2002 in a case that has yet to produce any arrests. DMC made it clear that there is no Run-D.M.C. without their famed DJ.
“We just have some good offers to do some shows,” he says. “But at the same time, we get to showcase (Jam-Master) Jay’s children and bring awareness to the JMJ Foundation, which his wife created to keep music programs in school. We’re going to stick to doing big shows, but we’re not doing an album, no world tour. We can’t really be Run without Jay, but we can show up for certain shows.”
DMC has gone through the ups and downs of the music industry over the last 30 years, and the Queens, N.Y.-born rapper is disheartened to see young hip-hop stars continuing to repeat the professional and personal mistakes of the previous generation of rhymers.
“I got three things going for me: I ain’t dead, I didn’t get shot and I’m not in jail,” said the rapper. “The problem is this, we don’t learn from the lessons that have been put forth to us from the generations preceding. We are not being responsible, and the people who want to be responsible are afraid because they don’t get no [sic] support. When Tupac got shot, we mourned — and two weeks later we went back to the same nonsense and it goes on and on.”
