How Run-DMC took a college leave of absence and never returned
When you think of Run-DMC, you might not envision the typical college graduate – and, as it turns out, college wasn’t a huge part of the hip hop trio’s journey.
Speaking in an interview back in 1997, Darry McDaniels – the ‘DMC’ of Run-DMC – told Terry Gross about what college was, and wasn’t, for the group.
McDaniels explained that all three members of Run-DMC grew up in Queens in New York City. They lived five blocks from each other and attended the same elementary and high school, and eventually went to the same college.
Before that, their entrance into music had started in the 1980s, when McDaniels taught Run (Joseph Simmons) how to DJ in his basement. They later recruited Jam Master Jay, who McDaniels described as “the best [DJ] in the neighbourhood” thanks to his parties in the park, where he’d plug equipment into lampposts and play until the police shut it down.
The time when they cemented Run-DMC the group was also the time the three hip hop heads started their first semester of college. It was there that they recorded their debut single: the double-sided ‘It’s Like That’ and ‘Sucker MCs’.
Despite being heavily committed to their music, Run was studying mortuary science, and Jay and McDaniels were in business management. They were on ‘traditional’ paths to graduate and enter the world of office work.
One fateful day, however, McDaniels came home after a 15-hour session in the recording studio. He remembers that he got back to his house and had to explain his absence to his parents – who knew nothing about his budding hip hop career. Unsurprisingly, his parents weren’t happy about the revelation.
“That’s ridiculous”, McDaniels said his parents told him. “You better stay in school, and we’re not paying all this money for you to go to [college] for nothing”.
So, like any talented artist, McDaniels met with the rest of Run-DMC and they made a collective decision. “We took a leave of absence and been absent ever since”, he said. The three young guys told their college that they wouldn’t continue their studies that year, and began applying all their attention to only creating music.
The decision paid off big time. Run-DMC became the first rap album to go gold in 1984 (just two years after the boys had started college). They also went platinum in 1985, and became the first rap group with videos on MTV. They were even the first rap group to be featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.
McDaniels said that the success came so quickly that it was “dazing”. Ironically though, when he played the first Run-DMC record for his disapproving parents, they weren’t fans. “They didn’t really like it till they heard it on the radio”, he said.
Run-DMC’s brief time at college is proof of the artists’ dedication to their work. With barriers from parents and the risk of taking an unconventional path, the guys were still able to become one of the most influential hip hop musicians ever.
They may have never returned to the college lecture halls, but their legacy in the music hall of fame will last forever.