the Michigan Daily XRTS Run DMC is Thursday, November 12, 1987 licensed Page 8 to rap it 0 up By Mike Rubin Tonight at 7:30 on the stage at Aill/Is a concert performance li- censed to thrill The most distinguished rappers in pop history/ Profile recording artists Run DMC Building an empire out of modest means/Three high-school friends from Hollis, Queens With LP releases like Raising Hell / The trio has proven that rap can sell By offering a mixture that avoids stale pablum/ Their record releases have reached triple platinum And reached an audience on a widescale basis/ Of different backgrounds, styles, and races By rapping to a beat that assaults the ears/The band have become crossover pioneers They've added guitar to rap's spoken word thrust/To reduce rock's color barrier to dust Unlike most rap groups with a single approach/There are a number of styles that that the band encroach. "We make all types of music," says Daryl McDaniels, aka DMC. "The only thing rap about our rap is the rap. Rock, hip-hop, reggae, we do it all. We don't like categorizing our music. "Radio stations break everything up into pop, rock, or soul, or into black and white. Radio is responsible for all the racial categorization. People are always asking me if I think the Beastie Boys are 'stealing rap.' Shit, those guys can rap. Nobody ever told Larry Bird he can't play basketball because he's white, and he's the best basketball player that ever existed. Eddie Murphy is funny, and so is Rodney Dangerfield. It doesn't matter what somebody is if they're good." Part of Run DMC's barrier- busting modus operandi involves the use of savage '70s dunce-rock guitar-riffing over a beat hard enough to bounce quarters off of. "Before rappers ever got a chance to make records, we used to have to find records to rap over. Rock and roll records always had a hard beat, so we would use records like Billy Squier and Aerosmith's 'Walk This Way.' Now that we have access to the studio, we don't want to use somebody else's beat. We want to make our own." The Ann Arbor performance is a one-off show, as the band is currently busy recording their fourth album, Tougher Than Leather. McDaniels claims there are no new tricks up the band's black leather sleeves regarding their concert concept. "Expect to try to keep track of us, because we're constantly in motion," says DMC. "We're straight up, we don't use gimmicks. Just two MCs, DJ Jam Master Jay, the stage, the crowd, two turntables, a mixer, some records, and a microphone. We don't need a band. We don't use one and never will. We get the sound we want in the studio and we just use the instrumental versions of our records to rap to. That's the only way to keep rap real." McDaniels is in favor of keeping rap true to the minimal spirit of its concrete conception, both in musical form and subject content. "Rap is real. 'Before we got a chance to put it in on wax, we were doing it in the parks and in the basements. Rap will never end. There's too many millions of people backing us. Rap is the most positive form of music. Most songs on the radio now are about sex. Even when someone's singing about love, they're really singing about sex. In rap, though, we can educate kids, and tell them how to have fun." Beneath their hedonistic exterior and Hasidic hats, DMC says, the band try to convey a serious message to their impressionable followers. "Our message to young people is do the right thing and be a positive thinker," says McDaniels. "There are a lot of things that you'll want in life, but you won't get them by doing wrong. We say 'don't do drugs, go to school, don't be a fool, and when you grow up, you'll be cool.' Kids look up to us, so it's important for us to present a positive image, but we don't want to preach. "When I was a little kid there weren't a lot of positive images to look up to, and what few there were wouldn't take time out to say what we say. If we feel strongly about a cause, we support it. We were the only rap group at Live Aid. We did 'Sun City.' Four years ago we did a VD rap. We just recorded a Christmas song on an album for the Special Olympics. All the other artists recorded their favorite holiday songs, but we wrote our own, called 'Christmas in Hollis.' We don't care about the money, just the cause." Would the group use their impact on their fans to support a more overtly political cause, like a candidate for public office? "It depends how strongly we feel," says McDaniel. "If the candidate was Bill Cosby, yes. Otherwise, no. We're not too political." RUN DMC will be performing at Hill auditorium tonight at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $13.50 and $15.75 and are on sale at the Union Ticket Office all TicketMaster Outlets. Be there or speak in iambic pentameter. I I a Daily Photo by SCOTT LITUCHY Run DMC will prove that they can carry rap music from the streets of New York to our 'acoustically perfect' Hill Auditorium tonight. The University of Michigan SCHOOL OF MUSIC Fri., Women's Glee Club Nov.13 Rosalie Edwards, conductor. Special guest Prof. Beverly Pooley For ticket information call 668-2458 or 764-5692 Rackham, 8:00 p.m. Fri., Symphony Band/Concert Band Nov. 13 H. Robert Reynolds/Donald Schleicher, conductors. Hill Auditorium, 8:00 p.m. FREE. Sun., French Baroque Series Nov.15 Michele Johns, organ Music by Rameau, Dandrieu, Daquin, others Blanche Anderson Moore Hall, School of Music, 4:00 p.m. FREE. For up-to-date program information on School of Music events call the 24-Hour Music Hotline, 763-4726 THINK". -U..-.- A& Piercy to read this afternoon By Avra Kouffman Marge Piercy, one of the most prolific and talented writers of our time, will read from her work today in a free presentation at Rackham Amphitheatre. Piercy's appearance is sponsored by the Friends of the University Library, and it follows upon the recent donation of her literary papers to the Library's De- partment of Rare Books and Special Collections. The papers acquired by the library include early drafts of the author's novels, poems, and plays. Piercy, a University alumna, graduated in 1957 and has gone on to enjoy a distinguished and illustrious career. As an undergraduate, she at- tained recognition as a Hopwood Award winner and James B. Angell Scholar. These honors only paved the way for more to come; Piercy has since received numerous awards and endowments, as well as critical praise from sources as diverse as the Christian Science Monitor and The New York Times. Piercy's resume is nothing short of astonishing. She has produced nine novels, ten books of poetry, and inumerable contributions to var- ious periodicals and magazines. Her work has been translated into nine foreign languages, and she has read or lectured at more than 250 aca- demic and artistic institutions in the United States, Canada, Norway, and England. Piercy's work has been acclaimed by all kinds of writers; Margaret Atwood, Erica Jong, Thomas Pyn- chon, and Adrienne Rich figure among her more prominent admirers. Piercy has also encountered a num- ber of detractors, primarily because she has never been one to shy away from controversy, either in her life or in her work. Her writing deals with issues of social injustice, and centers around aspects of the female experience. Piercy's characters expe- rience rape, abortion, and the anxiety produced by deviating from the het- erosexual "norm" in a homophobic society. Many of her books are con- sidered feminist classics; one of them, Woman on the Edge of Time, is required reading for the Univer- sity's Introduction to Women's Studies 240. Piercy, a life-long political ac- tivist, refers to the women's niove- ment as her "political home." She currently chairs the legislative task force of her local National Organiza- tion for Women (NOW) chapter and she periodically gives benefits for a variety of women's organizations. Her enthusiasm also spills over to related issues, as is evidenced by her work for civil rights and anti-war groups. A Detroit native, Piercy grew up white in a predominantly Black area of the city. Her family was poor, and she encountered racism and classism at an early age. She grew to resent the inequities she perceived as being caused by a capitalist system, and her experience and understanding of the system at work helped to shape her political analysis. Political activists populate many of Piercy's novels, notably Vida and Dance the Eagle to Sleep. Com- mendably, Piercy usually manages to avoid boring her readers with overdoses of political rhetoric. She has a gift for sustaining her audi- ence's attention; she can explore a character's political and emotional concerns in depth, without exhaust- ing the reader's interest. One comes away from a Piercy novel or poem with the feeling of having shared a great conversation with a thoughtful well-read person. Her books read like novels, not textbooks, yet they offer a wealth of insights into revolutionary tactics, ethics and motivations; as well as an exploration of political structures and the psychological make-up of human beings. MARGE PIERCY will read from her word today at 4 p.m. in Rack- ham Amphitheater. Admission is free and open to all. I I I Join the Daily Arts Staff Call 763-0379 for details TH IR 763-1107 THURSDAY NOVEMBER 12 10PM $3.00 UNIVERSIT CLUB- a- -- - - - - - -w " +. e. DOUBLE CHEESER EXTRA THICK CRUST ! DOMINO'S PIZZA DELIVERS" FREE. SA. Thursday One 12'' pepperoni pizza with extra thick crust and double cheese for only $5.00 No coupon necessary. Offer good Thursday only. No additions, deletions or substitutions. Hours: 11:00 AM - 2 AM Steve AND Brian Debroux I I I 11 1 ~ir ~iimgu u r U *~ C\UUdK JJI 11111 LCII I ICI Cl. A