Darryl 'DMC' McDaniels
Run-DMC's Darryl 'DMC' McDaniels says the group would be "disrespecting" Jam-Master Jay if they ever made music again.
The 'It's Tricky' hitmaker insists he and rapping partner Joseph 'Run' Simmons will never go back to the studio together for another album because it wouldn't be right to carry on after the passing of third member, Jason 'Jam Master Jay' Mizell, who was shot dead in October 2002.
He exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "I don't think Run-DMC will ever record again. Run-DMC was Run, DMC and Jam-Master Jay. We can't replace our drummer, our keyboardist and all of that.
"People don't want to see me and Run going around trying to be those guys; that would be disrespectful to what it isn't."
The 49-year-old rapper also slammed today's hip-hop stars for glorifying violence and drugs and encouraged youngsters not to be inspired by such figures.
He added: "If you look at hip-hop now, it all looks the same, it all sounds the same.
"All the rappers that rap about being the boss and the king and doing this and that, I sit there with these little kids and I play these guys' records.
"I say, 'Yo, he's selling drugs in a five or six block radius of his neighbourhood, he's the f***ing reason why your mother is on drugs and your father is in jail.'
"But they don't have any peers or idols to look up to.
"We represented something that was positive, something that was productive, something that was progressive by saying, 'No, don't be like me. What is it in you that is creative that is unique? Hip-hop is not being like everybody else, it's being who you are.' "
Run DMC and A-Trak collide for a new global adidas Originals campaign #Unitealloriginals which includes a remix of Run DMC's 'My Adidas' track www.adidas.com/unite