This week, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to talk with Darryl McDaniels for The Hardcore Humanism Podcast.
McDaniels – otherwise known as “DMC” – is perhaps best known as a member of the legendary Hip Hop group Run-DMC. Run-DMC is considered one of the greatest Hip Hop groups of all time. Rolling Stone rated Run-DMC as among the 100 greatest artists of all time across the rock & roll musical genre, and their albums Run-D.M.C. (1984) and Raising Hell (1986) as among the greatest albums of all time. They have been the recipients of the Grammy’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2016) as well as inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2009).
In the Hardcore Humanism Podcast, we strive to talk with open-minded, independent thinkers who challenge conventional norms to find their purpose and work hard to achieve it. Our hope is that readers and listeners will be inspired by these stories to try and consider how they may be able to find a stronger sense of purpose and work hard to achieve it. Each individual with whom we speak has a slightly different approach to discovering and enacting their purpose. In this conversation, McDaniels explains one of the most crucial processes by which he has been able to achieve professional success and emotional well-being – imagination.
Imagination has been linked with several positive physical and mental health outcomes. On its own, imagination is often used as a mechanism for healing anxiety and trauma. Specifically, empirically-supported exposure therapies require individuals to imagine feared situations in order to habituate to and ultimately reduce anxiety. Further, when imagination sparks creativity, it can result in a series of health benefits. For example, studies of music therapy show that engaging in creative activity such as music can result not only in emotional benefits such as reduced anxiety, but also physical health benefits such as reduced cortisol levels.
During our conversation, McDaniels explains how imagination had positive effects on his life in four main ways. First and foremost, as a young child growing up in Hollis Queens, his imagination was sparked through his love of comic books. Those comic books opened his mind to a whole world that he would have otherwise never encountered. This was critical for McDaniels by helping him form and validate his self-concept as he saw aspects of himself in superheroes such as Spiderman.
Second, his imagination manifested as creativity initially as he began to draw and contemplate making comic books himself. This ultimately led to his forming his own comic book company, Darryl Makes Comics. Further, his imagination spurred creativity as a Hip Hop artist, in which his persona of DMC and lyrics were heavily influenced by his love for and experience with comic books such that he became a Hip Hop superhero – a larger than life figure. And Mcdaniels goes into detail about the process by which he worked on his creative goals both in his comic book development and Hip Hop career.
Finally, McDaniels explained how during the current Covid-19 crisis, his creativity has actually been an active treatment for existential dread brought about by the pandemic. Taken together, McDaniels lays out a powerful rationale for the importance of imagination in developing one’s sense of well-being.
We hope you enjoy the conversation!
