GeorgeNemeth.com

Run-D.M.C. mainstreamed hip-hop and created rap-rock — without glorifying drugs and violence. McDaniels, a hard-working, deep-thinking father of hip-hop, cringes at the modern hip-hop era of “slangin’ cane” and “sippin’ outta’ pimp cups” — all justified as merely art imitating the harsh reality of ghetto life.

“You’re a goddamned liar,” McDaniels says to hip-hop acts who use this defense. “Even in a dirt-poor ghetto, there’s some good. Everyone in the ghetto’s not a pusher, everybody’s not a pimp, and everybody don’t like to go to strip clubs.”