BY LEONARD GREENE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Thursday, May 26, 2016, 10:16 PM
Hip hop icon Darryl (DMC) McDaniels has as much love for New York’s top cop as he does for Sucker M.C.’s.
The “Run-DMC” legend struck back at Bill Bratton Thursday after the police commissioner said rappers were “basically thugs” following a deadly shooting the day before at a rap concert inside a Manhattan nightspot.
“He should have known better,” the Queens rapper told the Daily News.
“He should have kept it specific to what happened. All rappers ain’t gangsters. I went to St. John’s University, so I took it personally.
“LL Cool J isn’t a thug. Will Smith is a rapper. He’s not a thug. Nobody knows that Chuck D was a graphic arts major.”
In an interview, Bratton slammed the rap culture for glamorizing the gangster lifestyle and promoting violence in their songs and on stage.
“The crazy world of these so-called rap artists who are basically thugs, that basically celebrate violence they did all their lives, and unfortunately that violence oftentimes manifests itself during their performances,” Bratton said on The Len Berman and Todd Schnitt show on 710 WOR radio.
But McDaniels said hip hop music has gotten a bad rap, and said someone like Bratton should be able to tune out all the noise.
“He doesn’t know any better because he’s not being shown any better,” McDaniels said. “When you turn on Hot97 or MTV, you only see the dark stupid ignorant side of us. It’s not the generation. It’s the people who control the images in our generation.”
But the man who rapped with Joseph (Run) Simmons on such classics as “Sucker M.C.’s,” “It’s Tricky” and “My Adidas” admitted that some rappers have to take responsibility for the backlash.
“When we see the violence in our community, we’ve got to keep saying it’s wrong, it’s wrong, it’s wrong,” said McDaniels, whose new record “Flames,” with singer Myles Kennedy and bassist John Moyer, addresses gun violence.
“We don’t want our young people naming ourselves after John Gotti and them. Why do you feel pride after naming yourself after Scarface and Noriega?”
McDaniels was personally touched by the gun violence he denounced.
In 2002, his friend Jason Mizell, better known as Run-DMC DJ Jam Master Jay, was shot and killed execution-style in a Queens music studio.
The murder remains unsolved.
“We don’t want our young people naming ourselves after John Gotti and them. Why do you feel pride after naming yourself after Scarface and Noriega?”
McDaniels was personally touched by the gun violence he denounced.
In 2002, his friend Jason Mizell, better known as Run-DMC DJ Jam Master Jay, was shot and killed execution-style in a Queens music studio.
The murder remains unsolved.
Article Source: New York Daily News