0:01 i'm jacob from rouse high school leander
0:03 texas and today i'm here at south by
0:05 southwest edu with daryl mcdaniels
0:07 founding member run dmc and pioneer of
0:09 hip-hop culture thank you for being with
0:11 us thank you for having me so tell us
0:12 about your journey with therapy and
0:14 dealing with mental health and why do
0:15 you think it's important for teens to
0:17 know the benefits of therapy my journey
0:20 with mental health was kind of under unexpected
0:21 unexpected
0:23 because um [Music]
0:24 [Music]
0:26 i was
0:29 probably in my 30s
0:31 it probably was like 1993.
0:34 we tour and we opening up for naughty
0:36 mother nature we opening up for park we
0:38 open it up for biggie so right when that
0:40 happened you would think
0:44 i'd be like yes i'm back life is good
0:47 and everything but in 1993
0:48 when um
0:50 that happened i woke up the next day
0:52 wanting to kill myself
0:54 and i didn't know what it was it was
0:57 just like this feeling in me and i sat there
0:58 there and
0:59 and
1:01 i didn't know what to do
1:04 just living with that void in me became
1:06 very uncomfortable
1:08 um it became very painful i didn't want
1:11 to deal with this emotion anymore while
1:13 that was going on inside of me people on
1:16 the outside was like suck it up shut up
1:17 your dmc
1:20 how can you be depressed
1:21 that's a question people will never
1:24 understand it just because i'm dmc i'm
1:26 no different from anybody else you know
1:28 what i'm saying so i was living like
1:29 that for
1:31 four months and years and then it just
1:33 got to the point where i said
1:35 i can't take it no more and i was at
1:36 that point
1:38 i got to get out of here i'm trying to
1:41 figure out do i hang myself do i take
1:43 the poison do i shoot myself and i'm
1:46 really there and then one thought was oh
1:48 if i do die tomorrow if i do leave here
1:51 people know the run dmc stuff
1:54 but they need to know daryl so that was
1:56 the idea for me to write my first book i
1:58 said okay just in case if i do kill
2:00 myself tomorrow i gotta write this book
2:02 so i could be like yo what's up world my
2:04 name is daryl mcdaniels you know me
2:06 one-third from the groundbreaking rap
2:10 group run dmc i was born may 31st 1964 and
2:11 and
2:13 and then i was like oh i know my
2:15 birthday but i don't know no details
2:17 about it so just to make it more
2:18 interesting for the reader i'll call my
2:21 moms out she calls back with my father
2:22 hey son hey
2:24 we have something else to tell you and
2:27 i'm like okay what is it well you was a
2:28 month old when we brought you home and
2:31 you're adopted but we love you bye
2:33 so i was um
2:35 35 years old when i found out that i was
2:38 adopted now you gotta understand i'm
2:40 dealing with all of this stuff not
2:41 knowing what to do not knowing i could
2:44 go get help not knowing it was okay to
2:46 get help not knowing that it's cool for hip-hop
2:47 hip-hop
2:48 gangsta thugged out people to go get
2:50 help you know because you're worried
2:51 about what people are going to think of
2:54 you the thing that happened was um the
2:56 quick story was while i was going
2:58 through all of that i met um another
3:01 adopted person this lady named sheila
3:03 jaffe she's a casting
3:05 i met with her and we just sat there and
3:07 we talked
3:10 and i didn't know how powerful talking
3:12 is because my whole thing was
3:14 i'm not even dealing with the depression
3:17 now i'm like oh wow another life adopted
3:18 person like me so i didn't feel alone no
3:21 more so we just basically talked and
3:23 talked and talked that was a catalyst to
3:25 make me say okay
3:28 let me go if i'mma go down this route
3:31 let me go get clean and sober so i could
3:34 have a sound body in mind so i went to rehab
3:35 rehab
3:38 to stop drinking
3:40 and it was in rehab i discovered the
3:42 most powerful thing
3:45 anybody in the face on the face of this
3:47 earth or in the whole universe could do
3:48 for themselves
3:50 i discovered this thing called therapy
3:52 and it was in therapy when i was able to
3:54 just sit there
3:55 and do more of what i first did with
3:57 sheila i was diagnosed with suppressed
4:00 emotions yes i'm an alcoholic and stuff
4:02 like that but i was able to speak about
4:04 how i felt
4:07 without being ashamed of feeling guilty
4:08 or whatever people was going to think
4:10 about me so you talked about that stigma
4:13 behind mental health so what can teens
4:15 do to kind of get over that statement
4:16 get over that fear
4:18 of going to therapy the first thing they
4:21 need to understand is
4:23 talking about it to somebody
4:26 is the first
4:30 catalyst to empowerment maybe it's the
4:32 man in the grocery store
4:34 block that you've known since she was
4:36 two years old and when you used to come
4:38 in with your mother here she used to
4:40 give you a lollipop maybe it's that you
4:42 go up to mr leo
4:45 i've never told anybody you gotta tell
4:48 someone that's the first step cause look
4:51 i was 35 years old in that same position
4:53 grown man thinking i'm the only person
4:56 in the world i opened up to the world
4:59 and found out that everybody's going to something
5:00 something
5:01 you recently wrote a children's book
5:03 called daryl's dream it's about like
5:05 believing in yourself and being yourself
5:07 how can teens like
5:11 focus on not really fitting in and
5:13 self-identity and stuff like that when i
5:15 was young and little um i got teased
5:17 bullied and picked on i was a geeky
5:19 nerdy kid that wore glasses and went to
5:22 catholic school i took the microphone
5:24 and said d is for doing it all of the
5:27 time m's for the rhymes that are all mine
5:28 mine
5:31 c is for cool cool ass can beat and one
5:33 would ask me why you wear those glasses
5:35 and i told the world so i can see
5:38 i didn't wear glasses to be cool
5:39 if i didn't have them
5:42 um i couldn't see without them so my
5:44 weakness became a power so powerful that
5:46 people that didn't even need glasses
5:48 want to wear glasses now so have
5:50 confidence in
5:53 what people think isn't cool about you
5:55 because it's the coolest thing about you
5:57 in the first place
5:59 the run dmc thing was just to set up for
6:01 what i was put here to do what i was put
6:04 here to do is sit here at dmc in my
6:06 adidas telling the world to walk this
6:08 way i'm living breathing proof that you
6:10 could beat and defeat whatever it is
6:12 you're struggling against i had
6:16 alcoholism i had suicide um i got ocd um
6:19 anxiety all of that but what i represent is
6:20 is
6:24 you can do it that's my main existence
6:26 on this earth right now in addition to
6:28 still making some of the funnest music
6:30 ever everybody's story
6:34 can help a person or save a life that's
6:36 why we do this sir
6:37 well thank you for being here today i
6:38 appreciate the opportunity to interview
6:40 you thank you keep up the great work
6:52 [Music] you
