Matt Britton Interviews Rev Run At Social Media Week NYC (RUN DMC) (Expert Keynote Speaker)

Brands are people, people are brands. We sort of headed there. And perhaps nobody in entertainment, in marketing has seen the evolution of this movement to people sort of being their own brands as much as our guest today, Rev was there since the beginning. We're going to be talking about My Adidas, which is a song by Run DMC that came out, which literally was the first entryway of a celebrity and music into brand marketing. And we're going to talk about that story. And I think that he's got a lot to share for you guys in terms of where we are, how we got there, and where we're going tomorrow. So I just am so excited to welcome Rock and Roll hall of Fame member, hip hop icon and legend. Get the phones out. Bring it out for my boy, Ray Ruddle.

Really sleazy all they just say is please me or spend some time and rock a rhyme I said it's not that easy it's tricky to rock around to rock around that's right. On time. It's tricky. How is it, B? It's tricky.

Yeah, that's right. My dream is to share the stage with him.

So much stuff in my pocket.

Yeah, you can get all the. Any sponsored items you're gonna pull out.

Or just phone and my keys and my money.

And so Rev just got off a red eye. Yeah, he was.

Came straight here.

Straight here. He's not the type to bail out. The show must go on. So really appreciate you being here.

Thanks, man.

Before we get started, I want to show. I put together a quick video that I found online, actually, of the history of Run DMC and how it led up to My Adidas. So I just want to run this really quickly to give us all some context.

In 1983, straight out of Harlis, Queens, came Run DMC and Jam Master J, three bad brothers who, along with their ridiculously savvy manager, Russell Simmons, refused to conform to pop standards and decided they were gonna dress on stage the way.

They would dress on the streets.

The whole city was wearing Adidas. We went to Geor. Everybody was rocking Adidas. We went to Boston, South Carolina, North Carolina, Chicago. Everybody was starting rocking Adidas suits and Adidas because of us. Come on, put him up in the air. It's one thing for a rapper to say Adidas, but it's another thing to see 10,000 kids waving sneakers in the air, you know what I mean? And I think that at that point, these big corporations truly understood that we have power.

So that was really the start of this movement, obviously, of artists really Controlling their own audiences, not needing to go through traditional networks. How did that come about? How did my Adidas come about? Well, tell me the story.

Well, the story of it becoming a brand. Besides, they were going out of business when they met us, but we wasn't wearing them.

Adidas was going out of business.

They were going out of business, but we weren't wearing Adidas to get an Adidas endorsement. We loved the sneaker. You know, it ended up being like my Heinz ketchup. You know, it's like for them, they were happy. We were screaming very loud their name. And, you know, the managers ended up connecting with Adidas to tell them what's going on that you should come see. And I remember being at the Garden and telling everybody to put their Adidas up in the air. And one of the top executives there came and said, I want to do a deal. And then we ended up doing the Adidas deal and creating our own line. Some sneakers called Cadillacs and different stuff like that. And, you know, it wasn't in our mind that we were trying to do it. And that's what I'd make sure that some of these people that just go out and just do things, it'll get. They'll smell it out and say that's not authentic. But for us it was, you know, comes from my heart.

So. And I also found this video line which I thought was amazing.

Yo, what's up, Adidas? I'm Jam Master J, DJ Run, and my name is dmc. And this is my man Harricane from around the way. You know what I say? Holla's queens, that is, word up. And we always rock our Adidas on our feet with no shoestrings in them. I did not win them. I bought them off the aisle with the Levi denim. I like to sport em. That's why I brought em. A sucker tried to steal em so I caught him and I fought him. Then I walked down the street and bopped to the beat with Lee on my leg and Adidas on my feet. And yo, now I'm just standing here shooting the gift. Me and Dieta and my Adidas standing on 2 5th. My Adidas. Adidas can never even buy this much promotion we give them. I reckon it's number what, 10 with a bullet on the black charts. 10 with a bullet on the black Charts. 27 on the pop charts. What does it say? My Adidas? My Adidas on the charts for six weeks. You know what a bullet means? That it's going to the top. So Give us a million dollars. They gave us a million dollars.

Yeah, they did.

That was the exact number.

Right on.

And a million then was like a, you know, a lot of money now. Yeah, still a lot of money. Don't get it twisted.

And when I saw that, one thing that really just stuck in my mind is that today it would be so easy for a brand to find an artist. Right, right. But back then, you almost had to find the brand. There was no YouTube.

I think they knew we were on their radar, but it was up to the managers to connect, to make sure that we got a deal going. But they had to know because they're skyrocketing in Detroit and skyrocketing there. And they probably just felt like maybe they was just going to ride it until we gave them a call. But you said now. The brands, like, now connecting, calling the artists instead of artists calling them. Right, right.

So. And, you know, you guys obviously propelled Adidas. You said they were about to go bankrupt and they're doing just fine now.

They were going out of business for sure.

Yeah. And so was there a point, though, that you felt like later in your career maybe Adidas propelled you? Like, how has that partnership worked over time? And what does that partnership look like?

I don't know if Adidas propelled us. Run DMC is its own thing. But, you know, we are definitely a partnership. Run DMC and Adidas. To this day, I still wear the stuff you get paid to wear.

Are you getting paid to wear that right now?

No, but I get PA all the time through certain sneakers that sell when they use my logo. The Run DMC logo is probably one of the biggest logos in the world. You all know that logo with the red bars. And I think that all happened because in my mind, Lil Wayne, when he was on fire, he started wearing the shirt I think he wore on a cover of Rolling Stone magazine or on the end page. And next thing you know, that caught fire. But people already knew about that logo. But, I mean, it's all God's plan. But it was amazing what happened after. In my. In my mind, I don't know if Daryl Rip the Jam as the J would agree with that. But I remember that turn when he was like, he was on the very, very top Lil Wayne, and he started wearing that shirt, and it just like, okay, well, you're. You're hot right now. You're the king. But you're saying these dudes are the king, so it was great.

So you guys obviously very early on partnered with Adidas. I mean, was There internal conversations like, do we even want to have a brand partnership? Should we just keep it at bay? I mean.

No, no, no, no. We wanted to get that done. No, we want. You know, we would get paid, but we did. Like I said, we didn't do it on purpose, but, you know, when it was time to get paid, our managers wasn't going to let that go up. And then we wanted to create our own line of sneakers. I mean, we probably should have just kept these going, but I think we made a couple of these with the Run DMC logo on it. And then we ran some sneakers called Cadillacs, and we had shirts and different things. It was an exciting time for me.

Yeah, for sure. And you guys kind of started this whole movement of artists, especially in the hip hop world, working with brands. I mean, this was one of the spots. But talk to me about this clothing.

Line that's part of the line right there. That shirt right there. D came up with the design for that. And these pants right here, those are these in leather. So that's really cool. So to have a pair of these in leather was the flyest thing you could have. So we came up with that concept, like, yo, because we was wearing leather suits and we was also wearing Adidas. So he was like, why don't we just turn the Adidas into leather suits?

I mean, what did you guys know about fashion design? I mean, what gave you the right.

Nothing to know. We know what we like to wear. It wasn't. I don't like the word fashion design. We're like, yo, we like those. Make that.

Yeah.

It wasn't that. Even though the word fashion and design isn't like a big long word, but it was like, yo, this is what we want to wear, and this is how it looks. And draw it on a piece of paper and go to the factory and say, make that.

And what's interesting is that quickly turned a relationship from an endorsement to a true collaboration, which is what we see in modern day. We'll get into a little bit later with Diddy and Sarah.

Oh, yeah.

Or Dre and Beats. I mean, this was sort of the early time where you're actually building product with Adidas based on your taste and bringing out to your audience.

Yeah, but, you know, they made these sneakers and we fell in love with these. And so I gotta give Adidas a lot of props for that. It's not like we designed these. We wore them, we loved them. We're from the streets and people that didn't wear them and didn't know, fell in love with them also. And to this day, I'm walking past kids in the airport and, you know, they just walk right past me with a Run DMC shirt on and the sneakers, and they don't say shit.

It's like, no respect, man.

No, but they don't know it's me. A lot of them do. I'm not trying to diss myself. I get a lot of love. Cause when Run's house came, a lot of kids know me, but I'll run past a bunch of kids and running past me in Adidas. And I know, like, you wouldn't be wearing those, dude, if we didn't put these on our feet. So. Yeah.

And were there other brands that you've worked with over your career that have, I guess, been prominent that really made an impact? Or is it basically just Adidas?

Basically just been Adidas. That. That I like to wear. I still wear it. Like I said, I like to keep it authentic. I don't like to reach and just do things just to do them. You won't catch me on my Instagram putting up some stuff that I don't love. I refuse to do that. There's no.

So you don't take any money to post?

No, there's no life. If I do, it'll be because I love it, but I'm not gonna. Shaquille o' Neal was saying the same thing. I only use what I love. And if you want to like, they was traveling.

He promotes a lot, though, man. Shaq's everywhere. Yeah, but. So he must love a lot of shit he does.

No, no, no. He said that the doorbell thing where he just got like a millions and millions of dollars. He said he.

That's acquired by Amazon.

Yeah, but he said that's because somebody was trying to charge him. Unless he's lying. Charge him a lot of money to put in a system. And he said he fell in love with it and bo. And then I saw that commerce. Did you see the special on him?

I didn't. Yeah.

He was talking about how he connects with different things. They'll tell him, oh, you should do this, Shaq. I think it was Krispy Kreme Donuts. You know, let me just go be behind there and serve Krispy Kreme Donuts to people. And I thought that was cool.

So what other brands do you love? What would you take money to promote? Because you really use it and love it.

I just like what I do, you know? See, the funny thing about the Rev Rev Run is Reverend Run Is a bad idea in the midst of gangster rap. When I first came out and said, yup, I'm a reverend, I go to church. That's not a good idea. That's a terrible idea for rap. What the hell you mean you're gonna be a reverend? Yeah, I'm a reverend. I go to church. I needed to get, you know, my life's. You know, my life. I'm going crazy. I'm gonna go to church every day. And then they wrapped the collar around my neck and my brain said, this is the coolest shit ever. Reverend Run. Everybody looking at me like I'm crazy when I go on the red carpet, D standing there and Adidas and I got the collar on. But, you know, in my mind, it was authentic. It was real to me. And next thing you know, when MTV put it on tv, like, I like this guy, the reverend. He's the reverend, and he got his family and his little kids and he's the reverend. But that's what I knew it would connect because it was my troops and I knew it was cool to me. And, you know, I was growing up, getting older, and that's what my life was. So I never do anything that's not authentic. And that's why you could take Reverend Run, put him on MTV with his jersey show, and say, yes, I'm going on mtv and I'm going to wear my reverend collar. And they're going to love it because they respect what's real.

So. And, I mean, we're in a whole new world these days. I mean, I don't know how exposed you are to it, but there's this whole thing called influencer marketing, which is really big, where basically people have followings, will just take money to hold something up. Yeah, no, that's. I mean, that's. That's everywhere.

That's fine. I don't. I'm not mad at them. Just.

I don't. But do you think that. Do you think that hurts them, that they're just taking. I mean, over time, what does that do to their audience?

Obviously, in the long run, it's going to hurt them. But, you know, if the product's good and you kind of like it and probably. And it works, it's not going to kill the artist, but usually people can smell when you're just taking money, and if they still love you, they'll love you anyway. Yeah, they might be happy. Oh, really? Such and such gave them $80 billion or whatever the number is. $80 million. You're not mad at them? You might not be mad. You might be happy that you got that. That artist got the money out of that company. As long as you know that artist likes it enough. But if it's just taking and taking and taking, it starts to stink after a while. But I don't do it at all. But I'm not one to look down on things that's going on. That's not fun for me. I love new things, new rappers. I'm not that disgruntled rapper that's mad at new records and Young Thug and whatever's new, I listen to it and I understand because they were mad at me when I came out. What is this? You know, there's a bunch of R B records. What was. What was Run dmc? And people were mad. Certain people were mad@run dmc for doing something new. So who am I to be mad at somebody for doing something new? You know, I hate mumble rap. I listen to it. I mean, I don't know what they saying, but sounds cool. I'm a mumble with they ass. Let's mumble. Mumble in the jungle. I'm just joking you.

You guys started, you know, I think, a whole movement. There's a video we were showing upstairs earlier, which I think was another kind of landmark moment. Well, I'm gonna show you the Snoop, because, Snoop.

What we gonna do right here is we gonna get real smooth, you know what I'm saying?

As we go, a little something like this.

Hit it. Bloody dotty.

Trying to drop some lyrics.

Just enjoying myself, bro. As hard as I'm gon.

You know what your picture.

We don't cause trouble and we don't.

So Snoop goes on SNL and wears a Tommy Hilfiger shirt.

Cool.

Unannounced, not paid for.

Unannounced is funny. He liked it. He wore it.

He liked it. He wore it. Exactly. But it was. He didn't do anything.

You know, no motive behind. But this is the dope thing to wear.

That was a style. And at the. At that time, Tommy Hilfiger was a predominantly white suburban brand. He wears it and has crossover appeal. And all of a sudden, he probably.

Wore it after other people was wearing it.

We were all, yeah, well, was it.

But everybody didn't go to.

On it was in the song. What's the 401 on SNL?

Everybody, probably a lot of people was wearing it. But everybody don't get a chance to be on snl.

That's exactly right. It's mainstream and it crosses over their sales increase nearly $100 million. Next year, Tommy has a huge run. It's sort of like a predominantly now, urban, culturally relevant brand. Can brands still do that today? Can they partner with a hip hop artist and actually cross over and have.

No, it's up to the hip hop artist to choose it. They can call you, but usually it's more authentic when the artist chooses you.

Right. And we were talking about Virgil Abloh, and now he's the creative director for Louis Vuitton.

Yeah, they felt they needed him. I didn't think they would do that, but I'm very happy for Virgil and I think it's going to be dope. But they needed them.

You think he's gonna drive crossover appeal for.

They're crossed over on their own. Maybe they listen. If they got him, they must have needed some help. But I love Louis, so.

Yeah.

And I love Virgil, so I can't see it. Being very proud of Virgil.

Yeah. Is it Louis Vuitton or Versace? It's Louis Vuitton Louis, isn't it? Yeah. Dude, I don't get down. I don't get down with those luxury brands, man.

I understand. Yeah, that's Louis.

I don't got that type of Adidas money yet. So then call him, dude.

I went from a rapper to a reverend with no problems. Now I'm a dad. Still easy about that. See, I was fly with the gold chain and fly with the hey, I tell daddy, Mommy's not upset. You're dismissed.

So, Runtal, so what was super interesting about this is, you know, reality TV was sort of like what I'll call a genetic indicator that social media was around the corner. Because before reality tv, we were watching all scripted shows. And now all of a sudden you had the real world. And then it became Big Brother and American Idol and all these Survivor, all these reality shows which start to show, I think all of us, that people are inherently interesting and being voyeuristic looking at people is cooler than watching scripted shows. You were there at the beginning. I mean, was that a hard decision for you and your family to let cameras in your house? Like, what was that all about?

It was my decision, so it wasn't a hard decision. And I did it out of the love again. It wasn't like, I'm worried that I'm gonna ruin my family by, you know, going on television. I wanted to show rap, the after rap, all grown up. This is the after rap. This is a rapper who's got older, has a wife and kids, and I was a reverend, so I'm Still a reverend, but you want to show what is going on inside of the household of rappers, you know, so this was me showing the world what I was doing and I was happy to do it. And I showed lots of lessons and gave lots of wisdom and you know, a married guy showing, whether it's LL or Kanye or Jay Z, okay, this is what you do. You know, we're going to clean it up as you get older and we're going to get married. We're not going to just chase girls all day long. And I think that that's what my job is to inspire. I inspired as a kid as Run and, and I was able to thank God, inspire again when I got older as Reverend Run. And it's, you know, created entrepreneurs, it created people wanting to be married and wanting to have a stable life. And I believe that some of what I did probably influenced a couple of rappers to say, yeah, for sure. That's the look that I'd rather have than just running amok. And notice the biggest rappers are married. Jay Z, Kanye, ll, a bunch of rappers are married. So it's in the back of the kids minds. There's like, okay, that's pretty cool. I mean, everybody can't live up to it, you know, being married and being just being dedicated to one wife. But it's definitely the goal. And Barack Obama showing that look, it's. It's a fly look that everybody can't live up to, but it's something. It's as they put hashtag goals.

Yeah, sure is, man. Right on. I mean, it's the way you talk about it. To you, it's probably second nature, but to me it feels super strategic and prescriptive that you're looking at kind of reinventing yourself. I mean, what goes into that is that something is just natural. Or do you take a step back and talk to your management and say it's time to turn the corner?

I'm my own. I have management. But as far as creativity, I'm my own management. If I'm doing something and you call it what you said, strategic. Strategic to save lives, strategic to give love to. Strategic to go on MTV with a collar wrapped around your neck and say, you're Reverend Run. Yeah, strategic in that way. Because when you're, quote unquote, preaching the gospel or preaching the gospel of good, preaching the gospel of God, saying, here's what we. Here's where rap should go, here's where human beings should go, yeah, I can call it strategic, but. But it was my, you know, creativity My love of be. This is. This is a proud as. As proud a moment as becoming Reverend Run as it was becoming Run. And I knew that because Will Smith told me, yo, we got Run. We do Runs House Wednesdays. And I'm like, okay, I'm making it somewhere that they not only loved me as their favorite rapper, but they love Family Man. They love the Family Man. So when I can do that, if it's called strategic, then it's strategic for a good cause, but not strategic in a fake way.

Sure.

That's why I love saying, if you think about it, you're gonna go on MTV as a Reverend Bad idea. But great idea.

Yeah.

And I say bad idea. I'm making a joke. It's the greatest idea. So. But, you know, I don't think everything, because I was on it at the same time. You turn the channel and you got Flavor of Love. I'm just the other pit stop. I'm the same thing on Instagram. You go through it all day, and you're looking at all the ratchetness, and you stop and you write Amen on Rev Run's page, and you keep moving.

Yeah.

A moment of, you know, there's no booty shaking.

Is that prescriptive? I mean, just. And just.

I just wake up in the morning and know my lane, and I stay in it, and I don't have to get.

But you're like, I'm going to post this. I'm going to write down. I'm going to write.

I write a whole post about my wife and how much I love her and how much it feels good to be married all these years. I'm going to put up a whole post.

Right on.

I didn't expect that. A whole post about words of wisdom, which I was doing on the show, you know, from the tub with the phone. So, yeah, you know, this is the tub. Yeah. I used to really do that. That's why. That's how authentic it was. I would get up in the morning and I would write to, like, 100 friends, you know, maybe less 30 friends, and then went on Oprah and talked about it, and it became this big network. And then next thing you know, I had to run's house, and I was like, what are you gonna do on your reality show? So I'm gonna start the morning like I usually do. I'm gonna get in the tub. Oh, really? Yeah, just put some bubbles, dude. We're gonna. Let's save that to the end of the show. Okay. But I usually do it in the morning. Okay. But I was down to show myself that vulnerable. Not only. How crazy is that? You're gonna put a collar on your neck in the midst of gangster rap and get in a pink tub. What the hell was the matter with me? And write words of wisdom. But it shows you how things in this world can work if you're passionate. That just hit me. There's a reverend in a tub. Anyway, I guess if you love something, people will believe in it as much as you. As long as you're true to you. And I'm true to me. And I'm grateful that I have that secure. I'm not insecure. And there was bubbles in the tub too.

It's clear. And I.

How much is that? It's almost like the anti rap. So you're a reverend, and you're gonna sit in a tub and you're gonna write words of wisdom. Wow. Yeah.

It's you. So let's get back to businesses and brands. You know, that's a brand. Yeah, your brand. So I talk about brands or people? People. Brands. So you. You're acting. You're treating yourself like a brand. And then brands also kind of have to be people. They have to know who they want to hang out with, who they're along with.

And you look interesting.

Yeah. So if you look at like this, Diddy obviously did his collaboration with.

Genius.

Why is he a genius?

Because he gives people what they want to have. He gives you.

How do you think he knows?

Gives you a piece of. Because he's cool as hell and he gives you a piece of him. You want to wake up and you want to put on Sean John cologne, and you want to drink Ciroc and you want to dance like him, and you want to point things. You want to be as cool as that. So if you want to be as cool as that, you're going to drink Ciroc and put on Sean John cologne, you have another choice.

So what's interesting about this is, you know, you're talking about you designing for Adidas, and you guys got paid, but you didn't get an equity stake in the company like that. He did with Ciroc.

I mean, but I own the Run DMC logo.

Right? Which. Which helped you in that. But you think this is the future. If you're. If you're Drake today, Is this what you're looking for? Are you looking.

Drake has something called Virginia, and he sang about it. This Virginia done me up already. I'm blamed for real, so. And if you look, he has a commercial too. About some liquor. I don't know what it is called Virginia. Anybody know?

Well, if you don't know what it's.

Called, Baby Virginia Black or something.

Okay. There you go.

See, I know my stuff.

Yeah, There you go. I was about to say that if.

He, you know, he's everybody, it's not.

So rock, you know, it's not Ciroc.

Yet, but I was just pointing out that he's doing it.

Yeah.

You said, if you're Drake, do you want to be Diddy? Yes.

Is that all you're doing, though? Like, are you only taking me or them? If. If you're. If you were Drake, are you.

If you're entrepreneur, you want.

Not just getting paid, but actually you want to sell.

You. You want to sell what you do. I'm only going to buy Drake because I want to hear Drake. And if I think Drake is drinking Virginia, maybe I want to drink Ace of Spade in Virginia, and I might want to drink Ace of Spade. Not me as the Reverend. Yeah, I'm talking that if you're going to drink something and you want to be. If you think Drake is cool, you might drink what Drake is drinking. Okay. Yeah, I don't want to say drink is drinking. Then that's like, I didn't really get no sleep if I said that.

You're doing good, man. So. And then, obviously, you have the ultimate example of, you know, Dr. Dreams, Jimmy Ivy creating beast sounds. Right. You know, he actually fell asleep with.

Headphones on his head. So tell me.

Tell me about that. Can we turn the sound down just a little bit? Run the video or not? So anyway, what you were saying was.

I just said that Dr. Dre is so intense into hearing his sound that as a kid, he fell asleep with the headphones on his head. His mother said so I said, you know, it's appropriate that he can get a billion dollars if you're gonna listen to music until you fall asleep with headphones on your head. I like to watch. God, you're passionate about something. It's going to happen for you. You know, life wants to weed out those who aren't serious. And you're very serious about what you do. And I love what you do. Matt. For real. Thank you. And you're very passionate. You're always energetic, so you're always going to succeed because you love what you do. And that's anybody in here that loves what they do. Obstacles don't stop you because you love it.

Yeah.

What obstacle? Oh, it's not working for me. What? What are you doing? It for. Aren't you doing it because you love it and that's how you succeed in life.

Yeah. I mean, to me, this was amazing, just because, to your point, he really focused on his craft.

Like, in this, he loves the sound. So, yes, his headphones sound good because they have to sound good because they're a part of Dr. Dream. So we all bought Dre's headphones because we want to hear sound like he does. And we all bought this. A rock. Because we want to dance like Diddy.

Yeah.

Laugh and be happy.

Yeah. And you look at another company like Bose, who had great sounding luxury headphones, and they. They didn't have.

Who's Bose, though?

Who's Bose? Exactly. Who's Bose? So because they didn't connect with somebody, Dr. Dre, somebody who people followed, he connected his personal brand.

Those are called Dre. Dr. Dre had. What are they called?

Beats by Dre.

Okay, so they're their own thing.

Yeah. Well, now they're owned by Apple, but, yeah, who knows what they'll do with it.

We're happy Dre got paid.

Yep. For sure. So let's talk about you and modern day Rev Ron. You know, you obviously have a huge presence on Twitter. Talk to me a little bit more about social media. What platforms are you using? What's working for you? What do you get out of social media?

I like Twitter, but I use Instagram a lot more now.

When did you make that shift and why?

I don't remember. I think I just. I'm really new school. I just. The second something new comes, you know, I was the first one. I was the most retweeted person in the history of Twitter for the first four years. You can Google that. That's a fact. This is when Bieber and a round. I was the most retweeted person in the history of Twitter for many years. I just. For some reason, I have a very youthful spirit. I'm not a hater on new rappers. I'm not a hater on new things. I love Twitter. I still tweet, you know, but I do Instagram now. And what was the question?

What other. What platforms work for you?

I like Instagram right now and Instastore.

Do you do Insta. You post a lot of Insta stories, too.

I use Facebook, but, you know, my brain just has to be where the coolest things are in my mind.

Yeah.

My son Diggy, like, no, dad, Twitter's still popping. I'm like, I cool. Whatever are you.

And you. Are you engaging?

I don't know, I'm so crazy, I don't even remember to send my Instagram to my Twitter. It's just bad.

You're doing all right. When your fans kind of come back to you and do you try to engage with them one on one and respond?

Yeah, I don't follow anybody on.

But you get notified someone says something?

No, I don't get notified.

Just putting it out there and moving on.

Look what it says. Please don't be offended if I don't reply.

There you go.

I'll follow you. But I love you.

That's all.

Not only that, I'm giving out information and giving out lots of wisdom and love. So that's what I do.

Right on. And you're working on a big project now with Netflix.

Yes.

What can you tell us about that? And this is.

This is kind of not much, but I could tell you that I have a show coming. It's a scripted show on Netflix.

Scripted?

Scripted. First time you're me and my wife. It's a show. It's a truthful show. I told my wife I'm gonna retire and took her out hanging, and I turned my back, and she's pitching things. I'm like, I just told you I want to retire with some rich guys on a boat. I think they own Burger King. I turn my back, I'm jumping in the water. I come back, your wife has a good idea. I said, honey, I just told you I'm retiring. And then I'm at a Barack Obama, Michelle Obama event, and Damon John is there. We're just doing some, you know, some charity, and Damon John from Shark Tank is there. I turned my head. She's pitching him. So I said, let me go pitch Netflix that my wife is crazy and that she's not allowing me to retire. So they said, that's a great idea. We don't have any retired rapper. Rap is so new. How's he retired? They're like, we love that show. So they bought that show from me. My truth is. And it's a story about me coming home, retiring, and then my wife driving me crazy with all type of new inventions. So you could imagine the craziness so.

Loosely based on your life.

I thought you said Lucy. And she is like, Ricky and Lucy. Lucy, what are you doing? Lucy? That's how I feel. What are you doing? I come over here. That's how I feel about my wife. She's very funny, very beautiful. I love her. And it's the truth. And she's found out just now a very great Actress and I'm happy that they. Netflix was able to see that. And we made some really. The showrunner that made Friends is actually running my show. So you know, that's one of the biggest sitcoms. I have an Amblin, which is. Steven Spielberg is producing it and.

And when's that come out?

Abc. Look at all the power. I got abc, Amblin and Netflix all in one to make my show. And it's, it's. I just finished the 10 episodes and I think it'll hit Netflix on August 10th.

Gotcha.

So I'm very excited.

Everybody look out for that.

It's pretty funny. It's good. And it's my truth again. Retired rapper.

And how is acting? I mean, how is being an actor?

I mean I, I don't play myself. I play a guy named Joe Speed. So it's MC Joe Speed. And it's loosely based on my life, but probably not that loose. You know, I'm really trying to retire, but life won't let me and wife won't let me. So between wife and life.

Yeah, it's a lot. And you're still very funny.

Yeah, we got a show in London. Run dmc. Well, I do a lot of shows as you know with DJ Ruckus. Yeah, I have residencies all around the world and Vegas and Atlantic City with DJ Ruckus. But Run DMC does three, four shows a year.

So you're not retired.

I can't nobody. They won't let me. Yeah, but I am in my mind. I'm really retired most when I'm hanging with DJ Ruckus dj because he's scratching. I'm just playing. You know, you just. It's like I don't drink, but it's like the drunk guy. Let me get the mic. You know, Ruckus is a lot younger than me and I just go up he DJs and I get on a mic and I play with him. Ruckus and I have fun. So that's just like I get to be a 50 year old guy DJing in Vegas and people enjoying it. A bunch of kids in Vegas and it's just a cool guy.

Great show. How long do you think you're going to be on stage and performing for?

I mean, again, I'm retired, but.

But you're not.

I am retired, but.

Right.

But I'm not. It's so funny. I'm retired, but I'm making a show about being retired. It's really stupid. That is so stupid.

Cool. Well, we got a couple minutes Left. I'd love to take some questions from the audience. If anybody has a question right here in the front row.

Reboots coming back. Nah. But this show, the question was would.

You consider, you know, will I do.

A Runs House reunion? No. But this show will feed that thing you want because just me and my wife, we got some different kids. But it's very funny and it's very new. Matter of fact, Anthony Anderson's son, Nathan Anderson plays my son. So you'll enjoy seeing me back in action, being loving to some kids and to my wife. And it's funny and it's good and it's Runs House ish. You heard of Blackish? This is Runs House ish. Kind of Runs House.

Yeah, right up here. The question is, do you give your kids social media advice?

Do I give them advice?

Yeah.

That's a good question. Yes. And a 53 year old man, does he give his kids. That's a great. That makes me feel very proud that you might can ask me, can I teach them about social media? You know, they stay in their own lane. Like Diggy, if you go to his thing, he's on grownish this year. He posts when he thinks he should post and he's very conservative would be the word. And he's very smart with the way he posts. So I don't have to tell him too much. It's kind of like pretty smart kid. Well, Angela, that's a whole nother beast. She.

I don't want to just call on people in the front. Is there a mic back there? Can I call on someone? Anyone?

Oh, just yell holla.

Yeah, right there. She's got to stand up and stand right there.

Go real loud.

What inspires you to be your most authentic self on social media? What inspires you to be your most authentic self on social media?

What inspires me is, I mean I just, I love being. I love knowing that I'm not going to chase what somebody else is doing to get a result Again. My favorite thing is not a good idea, Reverend Run. But I'm in love with it. I'm gonna prove myself right, that this is going to work on mtv. So I'm inspired to stay in my damn lane and to do it and know that people are going to respond to that. Not following trends. Be the trend.

One more question over in the end here. Are there any brands that run DNC got approached by back in the day that you guys turned down? And are there any.

Back in the day like you said, they wasn't really approaching like we There was nothing to turn down Run dmc. We had the Adidas, and now it's a whole new world. And that's the point of him bringing me up here. And he said that, you know, back then, you would approach them. So we kind of again, just wore Adidas, made a record called My Adidas for no good reason besides for my Adidas. I love these things. Oh, snap. I got a song ode to Adidas called My Adidas. And I always make. My joke is, damn, they got lucky. I mean, I got lucky, too, but my Heinz ketchup, who does that? That's what we did for Adidas. We screamed it as loud as we could, top of our lungs, because we loved it. Had no expectations. Managers was like, they kind of want you. We're gonna call and get that million dollars. Like, I could use a million dollars. I took the million dollars.

I think the most common theme that comes out that I took away from this is just figure out what you love, your passion, go hard at it, focus. Don't chase others things. Don't chase the money. And good things are gonna come to you. And that's something that's said a lot, but, I mean, you're living proof of that.

Yeah. And if you see something that you do love or a trend that you do love, that you want to be involved in, like reality television, I didn't create it. Ozzy Osbourne was there before me, but it was a great thing for me to do also. I didn't create it, but I. And I say the same thing with rap music. I didn't create rap music. I always say I didn't create this ish, but I damn sure perfected it.

Right on. Well, we're gonna end it with that. Guys, give it up for Rev. Coming up at Red Eye. Make sure to check out his Netflix show in August.

Peace.

Drop the mic.