Lessons from a hip-hop legend: Inspiration and Validation from an Unexpected Source

Inspiration and Validation from an Unexpected Source

Okay, I admit it.  I was less than thrilled when Monette first tossed the idea of attending this year’s NC Comicon conference in Raleigh.  But, when she got her sister, Rozanna, and another sister, Gina, and her family to join us, I begrudgingly went along thinking it would be fun to go with the kids and being there with others who were really into it.  Lo and behold, it was a ton of fun and the people watching, which I always enjoy, was just awesome.  But, the highlight of the day came as a complete surprise to me.

You know those extremely rare occasions when you feel awakened by, or as if you were meant to hear, something at the very moment you least expect it and the timing just seems to be too coincidental?  Well, this is how it happened for me:

We decided to go to a panel discussion before hitting the main floor, saying we’d sit in the back near the door so that we could easily escape if it wasn’t stimulating.  The discussion was titled ‘Black Heroes Matter’, and they mentioned right away that it was going to go beyond that to include any other status, for lack of a better word, that the panelists or members of the audience felt inspired to discuss.  I admit that I was only half listening and playing on my phone as they started talking with the panelists during the opening question.  As they got going, though, I found myself lifting my head and realizing that these were some very special people.  Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, Afua Richardson, Tabitha Stark and Eddie Newsome were the ones on stage.  While I’ve always had respect for comics and those with a passion for it, I’ve never had that passion myself.  So, it came out of left field, although it probably shouldn’t have, that I was enthralled when they began describing how their backgrounds inspired their actions, how their entrepreneurial success was a function of biases and missed opportunities by others, and how their differences became their strengths. 

Honestly, they were all amazing, but one panelist in particular I found myself fascinated with while hanging on every word he said.  You may have noticed “DMC” in the list of names.  Yes, that actually is DMC from the rap group RUN DMC.  As a child of the 80s, I listened to his music and watched his videos for countless hours.  But, I never gave it much thought about where he came from.  However, as he started his first answer it was immediately apparent that he was an amazingly articulate and intelligent individual with an emotional quotient that most people with those skills simply lack.  I’ll get into some of my favorite messages in a second, but I’ll start with the fact that I never knew, and would bet that you didn't either, that he was a straight-A catholic school student with a degree from St. John’s University.

Okay, so what was so special about what he said?  Some of you may know my passion for education and the pursuit of individual interests, and a few of you may have read the other blogs that I’d written earlier last week.  DMC seemed to be able to put into smooth phrases with powerful emotion much of what I believe and feel.  I also need to mention that it wasn’t political at all; politics per se never once got brought up.  But, the relevance was there just the same, which is where the validation aspect comes in.

In response to one particular question, he made a comment that it has come to a point where “America celebrates negativity”.  And, part of that is that “people think that to be cool, it must be negative.  But, people can change that.”  That is when he went into his background as being a nerd who loved reading through comic books throughout his life.  It never struck me until he brought it up that he used his experiences and values in his lyrics with the goal of bringing families together and inspiring education with an underlying, unstated message of anti-drug and gang. 

Then, he went deeper into something that I have always believed.  As he succinctly puts it, “To be successful, get people to think/feel about themselves through whatever your medium is, not celebrate you.  It’s about conditioning and perception … and presentation.”  If you speak in their language in a way that they respect, you can get them to change their way of thinking.  “This is where the arts are most important!” he loudly proclaimed as he started to get into his flow.  “It comes in and does what education alone can’t.  What you say matters!”.   Now, we were all on the edge of our seats.  “Negativity is a forceless power.  I became one of the greatest rappers of all time by promoting family and school.”  He described how so many others in his field don’t understand that, but the ones that do are the ones that eventually succeed to the greatest extent.

He then told an amazing story that he said was just one of many examples.  A young drug dealer from the Bronx, near where DMC was from, listened to his lyrics, “I'm DMC/In the place to be/I go to St. John’s University”and was inspired to try to get a degree.  Now, his reasons weren’t ideal; he thought it would give him more cred as a drug dealer if he had a degree and appeared intelligent.  He earned his GED and then went on to the local community college where his eyes were opened to the world of opportunity that now lay before him.  DMC’s lyrics inspired this man to get a degree and the community opportunities for education allowed him to get off the street, without ever saying anything about anti-drug or anti-gang – just as I mentioned in my last blog.

But, it didn’t stop there.  He offered great insight when bias, prejudices, and perception in comics was brought up.  After the panelists discussed the concept of testing markets and how they succeeded because others were afraid of potentially controversial heroes, DMC made some good analogies.  As he put it, “real recognizes real”.  It doesn’t matter what your skin color is, what your weight is, what your sexuality is.  If you’re strong in who you are, others with that same attitude will respect you, no matter the differences between you.  He used several examples, but one that stuck for me was The Beastie Boys.  He said that they (Run DMC) were incredibly nervous about putting them as part of their opening act when they first came onto the scene.  “Here are these kids that are as white as you can get rapping to a crowd without a white person to be found… ‘Brass Monkey?!’”.  But, as he put it, instead of pretending they were thugs, gangsters, or from the street, they were ‘real’.  They rapped about their experiences, what they knew and saw, and put their hearts into it.  And, the crowds invariably put their hands up and started cheering and singing along every time.  Respect.  “Find your strengths in what inspires you and celebrate those.  It’s all about emotion”. 

He finished up by coming back to his passion.  While he was very smart in school, his passion from an early age was comics.  He took up hip hop and rap because it was the thing to do in the Bronx and he was good at it.  But, he mentioned again about how the arts enhance education.  As he puts it, it ‘does what education can’t’ in the fact that those passions fuel and translate into intelligence in the classroom; more often than the other way around.  He stated that, “School teaches you about Saturn, but comics took me there!  School teaches you about World War II, but Captain America took me there!”.  The comics helped him recognize much of what he learned in school, and he was more interested about learning subjects because he had seen them in the books, while at the same time the classroom helped him understand the comics to a deeper extent.

We later briefly talked to DMC in person and bought one of his comics.  He lit up when he was told that my niece and nephew are currently in catholic school and broke into an inspiring freeform rhyme about succeeding through catholic school on the spot. 

It’s hard to put into words, but hopefully I was successful in translating at least a brief spark of the inspiration that he, as well as the other panelists, passed along to those in the crowd.  Some people have a gift and seem to speak directly to who you are, and he managed to do that. 

Be you, be passionate, be bold, and inspire others to do the same.  Do this, and you give yourself the chance to succeed to whatever level you aspire to.  Be willing to adapt and never think it’s too late.  DMC was a great hip hop artist, but his passion has always been comics.  He’s now 52 years old, and he just published his first comic a few years ago in pursuit of his lifelong dream.  I wouldn’t bet against him making it big again, he’s already off to a great start!

I must finish by saying that I owe Monette an apology for doubting her and thanking her for taking me to Comicon.  It was quite memorable to say the least.