European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 26, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                I fit to right Joseph Simmons run Jason or Jam master Jay Darryl Mcdan icis dec and an appreciative concert crowd at Offenbach West Germany by Daryl e. Green staff writer from the Start most adults disliked Rock n Roll. It was mind altering music they said it would corrupt Young people and Lead to society s ruin. The teens who were Rock n Roll s Early converts now Are grown with children of their own and this generation has rap a new form of Rock. Run dec a Crew of homeboys from Hollis Queens in new York City has attained superstar status. The group has taken the hip hop rhythms of rap music from the streets to the marketplace and has done it in a very big Way. The three 23-year-Olds, Joseph Simmons run Darryl Mcdaniels dec and Jason Mizell Jam master Jay own the first double Platinum rap album raising hell. One of the hit singles from the album walk this Way teamed the rappers with rockers Aero Smith and helped Widen the genre s Appeal. The stars and stripes caught up with the self proclaimed Kings of rap during their run s House tour in Frankfurt West Germany. Is what is rap All about run it s just ideas things you think about things you talk about things that Are going on in the world bad things Good things. It s just conversation. Dec right it s conversation. We put it to music and get into the music Industry and now you re an entertainer you know what i m saying but the same things we re saying on stage is what we would say face to face to All the thousands that s in front of us. The reason Why they relate so Good with us is cause they see that s my brother next door you know. We standing there talking about sneakers and stuff that s what i would talk about to you. It s just i do it on stage for All those people because they want to know because they put this superstar this idol status on our Heads. So we do it to music and that s what rap is music. Jmj to me rap is about anything. You see some people take rap As. A Black thing. And since it s something original that we did they want to keep it original. Like they say the White Man has took so much from the Black person and rap is something that is theirs. But to me it Ain t really All about that. Is so with that superstar tag on your Heads Are you still on the Street dec yes we Are Twenty four hours a Day seven Days a week. Hollis is Here in Germany now. That s Why the people Are interested. Right now we in the Street and you just interviewing us we out there you know what i m saying if distance permitted after i did this i d go right Home. Is break it Down for me what is the Street 12 stripes Magazine january 26, 7989 run it s when you come outside your House it s Concrete you walk on it. And you go Down the Block and you play basketball in the Parks and you do what regular kids do. Is do you think Success will Ever make you lose that sense of the Street run How there s no Way to lose it cause the Street is just there. I m not Goin nowhere. I did t move to no grass you know what i mean. Dec it s not even a material thing. When you come out your Mother s womb you re in the Street you re in your environment your Community your surroundings. It s society your neighbourhood. We just in another neighbourhood hanging out. Is what does the do do run Well for us our do is a third of the group. He does his part in the studio and he does his part live. In the studio he helps us make the music he comes up with scratches. At a show he s the band. Is where does he get the music from arc they jams you buy off the rack or what n dec before rappers got in the studio it was jams we bought off the rack to rap Over. Just beat jams. Rock n Roll and James Brown dominated. That s what you had to rap Over cause they had the Breaks and the hard beats. But now once you get in the studio and you got a drum machine and a keyboard you can go to work. Public enemy s Chuck d gets close to the crowd at a concert with run dec in Offenbach West Germany is photos by Michael Abramss a Why does t Jam master Jay get any Billing jmj run and dec when they first made the record i was t Down so the name of the group became run dec. So they signed with the record company and the name of the group was run dec so we just stuck with that. By the time the next record was made the name of the record was Jam master Jay. That was so the kids could know what time it was. And to everybody else i was just the mystery person and i did Ryt mind that cause i m mysterious. Is does rap get the respect from the Industry that it deserves run i think it gets it now. It gets the respect because they realize How much records we Selling. They might want to put it Down singers might want to talk bad about it but it gets Large crowds and crazy record sales. Is there is going to be a special category for rap music in the grammy awards next year. How do you feel about that dec i think it s great. That shows that we re getting More respect. Jmj i Ain t too crazy about it. All that does is lock us into a category and we re All competing with each other for the same grammy and that Ain t fair. I mean. Now Well have something like . Cool j s / need love competing with Public enemy s Don t believe the hype when / need love could make it in like a Ballad category or something. I would rather they just left it alone and let us compete in the categories that Are already there. I think a special grammy for rap does us More harm than Good. Is Maurice White of Earth wind and fire said that rap is the Only raw element of music left today. What do you think about that dec it s the Only raw element of music that Ever existed. Earth wind and fire they came Back out and they trying to go hip hop beat. They emulate our scratching. Whitney Houston does it Janice Jackson does it they All emulate it. Is everything else is getting into electronics sampling High tech except rap. Dec that s what i mean that s what i m saying Well rap and Well play the beats and Well go Yeye Yeye yeah with our Mouths. They la go take a machine and go Yeye Yeye  is rap seems like a fraternity. It seems like All the artists know each other. Why is that dec it s like a league. I was talking to Chuck d the other night and he was saying we could Market rap More than it is now. It could be something like baseball and football and basketball. You know How you go to the Candy store and buy baseball cards you could have rap cards. Put a piece of Bubble gum in there open to Check this out rap is More than just spinning and rhyming. If you Don t know the language there s no Way in the world you Gonna be Able to kick it with the homeboys. So jump on this Little quiz and let s see How with it you Are. 1. Bite a. Eat b. Kiss c. Imitate 2. Dope a. Stupid b. Astonishing c. Drugs 3. Fresh a. Just harvested b. Different c. Bad Aroma 4. Illin a. Acting stupid b. Getting sick c. Left handed 5. Dis a. Show a Lack of respect b. Wash dishes c. Disassociate yourself from a person or thing 6. Bum Rush a. . Version of Bronx cheer b. Stampede c. Rush hour traffic 7. Jam � a. A record b. Preserves c. A new York City subway car during Rush hour 8. Def a. Among the Best b. Hard of hearing c. A threat of physical violence 9. Kickin a. Running b. Showing off a new pair of shoes c. Having a conversation 10. Chillin a. Freezing leftovers b. Taking it easy c. Ignoring someone answers 1 a 2 a 3 a 4 a 5 a 6 a 7 a 8 a 9c, 10 b pm up and you could flip pm and Trade pm. Is violence is sometimes associated with rap music. You Guys Are about positive things your music is positive but violence seems to follow you. Why jmj violence Don t seem to follow us. There s violence everywhere hockey games All types of gigs. But the bad press about violence seems to follow rap. Actually i Don t know what s up i m not a sociologist. But rap is definitely followed by mostly ghetto people. Well not mostly ghetto people. If i sell 3 million records like Only a million of those records Are to Black people from the ghetto. But if i m giving a concert with Public enemy and it s just mostly Black groups on the Bill it s Gonna be mostly Black people coming. I m Gonna be pulling in a lot of White people but most Likely it s Gonna be still 70 percent Black. And those Black people Are Gonna be coming out of places where their parents Are Kinda not Rich. Some people s parents Are messed up they Don t have no Money. And then there Are Gonna be some people who Are not fans outside the gig and they know there s Gonna be some Money inside and they just coming to get paid. And that could be any concert. But the reason it Sticks with run dec is because we Young and we Black and that thing happened in . I mean i did like 800 shows in five years but something happened at about three or four shows. So my percentage As far As the press is concerned is up. Cause they re looking at these four shows. They re not checking out these Rock group shows where people be just dying in the shows you know stabbing themselves overdosing. Even Patti Labelle new edition shows the same stuff happens but it Don t get televised. But at my shows it gets televised i think because i m Young and i m Black and i m not a political person but this is what happens. Is what s going to happen when you Guys Are 35? will you still be out there rapping dec probably so. Chuck a the Guy from Public enemy is 27 and flavor is 30. Can you Tell any of them Rock stars that been in the business that Long that they Gonna get too old for it can you Tell Michael Jackson that he started when he was a Little kid although he changed with All the plastic surgery and All the crazy he s doing now. We can never get to that age. You know Why cause i m Gonna grow up and be a proud Man just like my father. Run s Gonna grow up and be just like his father. It s More than just entertainment and occupation it s life you know what i m saying this is what i do. Fifty years from now when i m 80 years old people still might come to interview me to ask me about what s going Down. And they Gonna see that the level and the hype of this whole thing that rap is cause it s just a part of music will never change. You know Why it will never change run got a Little daughter that when she hear a beat she shake her head. When we started five years ago we had Guys our same age and them Guys Are still with it. Their kids Are coming up and it s like you can t Stop the bum Rush you know what i m saying january 26, 1989 stripes Magazine 13