Darryl McDaniels Remembers the Electricity Behind Run-DMC’s Work with Aerosmith on ‘Walk This Way’ (Exclusive)

With great success came serious pressure and valuable lessons for DMC and many others in the music industry

NEED TO KNOW

• Darryl McDaniels recalls what it was like for Run-DMC to work with Aerosmith on 1984’s “Walk This Way”
• The 61-year-old hip hop icon tells PEOPLE about how the collaboration led to success, but also pressure, for the group
• McDaniels is partnering with 1 Million Strong to advocate for more sober spaces in sports, music and entertainment

Darryl McDaniels is looking back at the blessing and the curse that came with Run-DMC's early success.

The 61-year-old tells PEOPLE that life changed for the group, which also consists of  Joseph "Rev Run" Simmons and the late Jam Master Jay, when they collaborated with Aerosmith on "Walk This Way" in 1984.

"I always tell people, 'Walk This Way' made us finally feel like we knew how Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger felt. Because with 'Walk This Way,' everywhere we went, everybody knew who we were, because the record crossed over," he shared.

'We already had success with Rock Box, which was the first rap-rock record, and the King of Rock, the second rock-rap record. But at that time, we were only really known to whoever was into hip-hop, everybody in the neighborhood. 'Walk This Way' took us out of this universe. We always had faith in our culture, but 'Walk This Way' was the stamp to say, 'Everybody shut up, hip-hop is here to stay.' "

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

DMC noted that the track opened each group up to the other's audience and spread an appreciation that gave hip-hop greater credibility.

"When we first came out, it was all, 'How long will rap be around? It's going to die like disco did.' And even with 'Walk This Way' out, and the Adidas deal, the critics would still say,' Where do you see yourselves in five years?' "

"The beauty in it was our main desire to be the best MCs and DJs that the world would see. We came from a generation where punk rock, hip-hop, disco, soul, R&B, everything was really together. But until Run-DMC did it with Aerosmith, nobody was able to see a solid example of that," DMC noted.

"But we come from an era of Saturday morning at 12:00, you watched Don Cornelius, the Black guy on Soul Train, and then you still don't go outside to play yet, because at 1:00 on ABC, the white guy Dick Clark is coming on. So we were able to take those two genres, those two dimensions and combine them. And the way that Run-DMC did it, it made Black people and white people, and rock and hip-hop, and punk and everybody realize, 'Oh shoot, we were already doing this together.' "

While DMC says he and his friends weren't necessarily changed by fame, it was the access that came with it that brought danger and tough times for them.

"What affected us is once you get this success and, people around you that don't have nothing to do with it start telling you, 'You need a hit record, you need to do this, you need to do that.' And when that happens, you start to reach for things outside of yourself to assist you, whether that be alcohol or some kind of destructive behavior," he shares.

"But that only happens because way before we got into the music business, growing up in the hood — and this happens in all hoods. Black hoods, Italian hoods, it doesn't matter lot of destructive, harmful behaviors were celebrated in our communities. The guy that smokes the most weed, the guy that takes the most shots, the person that has the most sex, the person that fights everybody, were glorified and saluted and celebrated."

"When that stuff happens, we've got to learn to stop dude at the fifth shot and ask him what's wrong, or stop the guy beating everybody up and ask him who's beating him," he noted, turning to his work with 1 Million Strong to help develop more sober spaces in sports, music and entertainment for those walking that path.

"A lot of people don't know no better. So they get thrust in the hole. And that's what we're dealing with a lot of harmful, destructive behaviors that are celebrated. It's brilliant that 1 Million Strong is saying, 'No, let's go back to the front door of the problem. We're not trying to go in this room and that room, let's not go to the third floor, second floor, let's catch this at the front door.' Everybody talks about the stigma, but they don't talk about not having the habit."

The work is also fulfilling for DMC because it aligns with the roots of Run-DMC and what they've spread through their music.

"For us, the artistic thing was easy. Run-DMC, we're very unique rap group because we didn't have to use profanity and negativity to become the most gangster thing that you ever seen. It was the attitude that we had. And Ice-T once told me, 'DMC man, you make positivity gangster.'"

"We were doing what everybody was doing, but we weren't using negativity to accomplish our goals…. People don't really understand that what Run-DMC and Jam Master Jay did, what we did commercially, wasn't our greatest success. Our greatest success was to be the representatives of the culture that nobody believed in."

Read the full article here