Darryl McDaniels of Run DMC today’s hip-hop culture ‘disrespectful and immature’
Music News
WENN
Run-D.M.C. star Darryl McDaniels has launched a scathing attack on modern hip-hop music, accusing today’s rappers of popularizing gun and drug culture.
The hip-hop pioneer says too many current chart stars focus on negative themes in their music, without making any tracks with a positive message, and justify it by comparing their work to Hollywood movies.
He tells Britain’s Metro newspaper, “A rapper will use this excuse — ‘Man they don’t go after Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis when they make their violent movies’ and I go ‘If you’re going to use that excuse get off the mic, don’t produce. I’ll personally kick your a– out of hip-hop ’cause if you’re using that excuse, go be an actor.'”
McDaniels told the paper that his group made some negative records during their heyday, but they also put out positive releases too.
“If you make a record about a gun, on that very same record or album there’s gotta be a record about not using a gun. If you’re making a record on the b–ch or the h–s (sic), there’s got to be a record about your aunt who worked all of the days of her life to send all her children to college,” he said. “It seems like stupid America celebrates a person that says ‘Yeah I’m a drug dealer, I’m bringing the drugs into the hood.’ The reason why hip-hop exists is because it started out with good intentions; once all the good intentions left, the music became polluted, it became disrespectful, it became immature.”
McDaniels also criticizes the quality of many modern records, adding, “98 percent of hip-hop music that’s out now I say is just bad demos. … If you want to see real hip-hop you gotta go to concerts and festivals because hip-hop on (the) radio sucks.”
FOOOLISH Entertainment 
I don’t listen to a whole lot of hip hop, but I’d say that a lot of the negative imagery is the big reason why. When I listen to music, I’d usually rather listen to something that I’m not going to see on the nightly news. There are some exceptions where the song makes a very strong point that I can appreciate. However, violent music just for the sake of violence isn’t something I’d like to spend my time listening to.
February 9, 2014 at 6:42 pm
Hmm. I don’t know enough about hip-hop to make a well-informed comment, but agree that, to my knowledge, there are too many rappers who preach disrespectful messages. Our society is a gun loving one, as is all too obvious by the number of gun deaths. We don’t need musicians, who reach a huge audience, further supporting solving issues with firearms.
February 9, 2014 at 7:47 pm
So many kids have been poisoned by negative hip hop lyrical contents. Many hip hop artists have spoke about women like they are expendable objects polluting our airwaves with garbage. Now we see christian hip hop artists attempting to defuse a time bomb that was set to destroy our World.
Do you think that Hip Hop music will ever disappear?
February 12, 2014 at 10:18 pm