INTERVIEW| REV.RUN (@RevRunWisdom) RUN DMC COMBINED MUSIC FASHION AND ATTITUDE TOGETHER TO CREATE A CULTURE SHOCK

The name Run DMC is one of the most fam­ous names in pop­u­lar cul­ture around the world. In the UK alone, these six let­ters can be seen all over t‑shirts around the coun­try and every single old school hip hop party blasts their illus­tri­ous catalogue.

Ahead of their rare con­cert in at the Even­tim Apollo in Lon­don on July 5^th, I Am Hip Hop had the oppor­tun­ity to talk with Rev. Run about his return to this side of the pond.

“UK is the most crazy, swag-filled place in the world! You guys are incred­ible and there is no place like Lon­don.” The Queens rap­per said.

“Over there, you always hear rap­pers rap­ping and there is just a cool edge. I’m hon­oured to be able to come there and per­form once again!”

This is one of the few times that the group have had con­cert in the UK in the last 18 years and Run had some great memor­ies to share with us dur­ing their first time tour­ing here.

Run, along with group mem­bers DMC and the late Jam Mas­ter Jay toured with the Beast­ie Boys in the 80s and the Brit­ish press made a huge deal of the new cul­ture wave that was arriv­ing on these shores.

“Tour­ing over in Lon­don with the Beast­ie Boys in the 1980s was insane. It was crazy with all the news­pa­per head­lines and cov­ers talk­ing about us, it was a huge deal!” Run shared.

“All the kids were wear­ing the Beast­ie inspired Mer­cedes and Volk­swa­gen emblems on their chains. Jam Mas­ter Jay also knew all the cool parts, wheth­er it was Pic­ca­dilly or Brix­ton and it was such a cool experience.”

Des­pite the massive media atten­tion and social reac­tion, Run always knew that Run DMC stood for some­thing big­ger and under­stood they were part of a cul­tur­al revolution.

“I knew it was a going to be a cul­ture shock, I knew it was more than just music with what we were com­ing with. It was the atti­tude, fash­ion and the hip hop com­ing togeth­er with some­thing bigger.”

Music has been going through a cul­tur­al shift again with many new artists divid­ing opin­ion and catch­ing head­lines once again. Run explained that this reac­tion is noth­ing new and gave his opin­ion on the cur­rent state of hip hop.

“The new gen­er­a­tion is always cri­tiqued by the last gen­er­a­tion, I’m not one to cri­tique what is hap­pen­ing now. At the end of the day, it is always going to be each to their own.” He said.

“I love Kendrick Lamar and Drake, I also loved that last Jay Z record, 4.44. I mean there is so much hap­pen­ing now and hip hop con­tin­ues to dom­in­ate the charts. So much great­ness is hap­pen­ing now, I mean Kendrick just won a Pulitzer, so we are reach­ing new grounds.”

With Run DMC’s leg­acy ever­last­ing, Run has turned his atten­tion to tele­vi­sion pro­gram­ming with pop­u­lar shows such as Runs House show­ing over the years. Run returns to the small screen once again with a Net­flix series releas­ing later this year on August 10.

“I have a show com­ing on Net­flix called All About The Wash­ing­tons, it’ll remind you of Run’s House a little but it’s a sit­com. It’s a fam­ily sit­com and I play a char­ac­ter called MC Joe Speed who rap­per try­ing to retire and his wife drives him crazy!”

But before hanging up the mic, Run looks for­ward to tear­ing up the stage this summer.

“The cata­logue speaks for itself, so when we get on that stage, those records are so beau­ti­fully made and when we jump on the mic, there is no energy like it and as much fun as it is for the crowd, it is as much fun for us.”

Tick­ets for Run DMC at the Even­tim Apollo on July 5 are avail­able here