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Run DMC founder tells American dads how to raise children

by Paul Conneally | August 10, 2008 at 01:58 pm

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Run DMC founder tells American dads how to raise children

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Walk this Way to bring up your children according to the gospel of Rev. Run he of Run's House and the legendary rap crew Run DMC. If we are to listen to Obama and Bill Cosby and hey, homemaker convict Martha Stewart on family life then why not give the Rev. Run a listen too?

He promotes family life and playing with, caring for and loving your children and makes great music too.

We can get too sniffy about where advice comes from and we probably don't need anyone's book to tell us that love and respect make for good families and better communities but better that folks are out there saying this than the opposite or saying nothing at all and setting bad examples. Even the newspaper article clouds the issue before it gets into the meat of Run's family life message by labelling RUN DMC as 'gangsta rap' something that they have never been.

So I'm with Run and I'm wearing 'My Adidas' too.

His band Run DMC, the first gangsta rap act to make the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, enjoyed two decades of success with songs like Walk this Way until disbanding in 2002 after the gangland execution of its DJ, Jam-Master Jay.

All of which makes Simmons an unlikely candidate to be America's latest parenting guru. Now though, at the age of 43, he is an ordained minister and has reinvented himself as the star of a reality television show in which his eminently functional family serves as a role model for black America.

"...Reaction to Run's House has convinced me that promoting the value of family life is what I was put on this earth to do. I might have earned my reputation as a rapper, but when it's all said and done, I hope that I'll ultimately be remembered for being a good dad."