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In June 2025, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, one third of the rock group RUN-DMC, sat down with the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption staff to share in his own words how he learned he was adopted and why he’s choosing to partner with the Foundation. 

My life has been one heck of a journey. You probably know me as RUN-DMC, the King of Rock, first to go gold, first to go platinum, first on MTV. But I want to tell you a little more about Darryl.  

I’m really just Darryl McDaniels. No different from anybody on Earth. I grew up in Queens. And in the midst of all that exciting stuff, I was struggling. I struggled with alcohol, depression and questions about my identity and legacy. 

I wanted people to get to know the real me, so I decided to write a book about my life. When I sat down to start writing, I realized I knew my birthday, but I didn’t know any other details about the day I was born. I called my mom to ask her about it. She told me how much I weighed, what time I was born and what hospital I was born in. She hung up, and I kept writing. An hour later, the phone rang again.  

This time it was my mother and my father. They said they had something important to tell me … I learned that I was adopted. I also learned that I was in foster care. I was placed with my parents as a baby, and my adoption was finalized when I was 5 years old.  

I was 35 when they told me that for the first time.  

It was hard to wrap my head around. I spent all this time rapping and rhyming about my city, my family, my history, and there was this huge piece of the story I didn’t even know.  

But then, a peace and calm came over me. I thought about my life that these people have given me. And I was like, “This is my mother and my father. This is my family. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be the King of Rock.”  

Once I started talking about my adoption story, people would come up to me all the time and share their own stories about how they were adopted. I saw the great things they were doing and the great things I had done with the support of my family. I started to see adoption as a superpower. Knowing my full story helped me move out of depression. My adoption is a blessing.  

I’m partnering with the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption because I believe they’re helping every individual, regardless of their situation, to be the people they were put here to be. And I love that because your situation doesn’t define who you are … you do.  

The thing I want people to understand about kids in foster care who are waiting to be adopted is that they are the next great me and you. They’re the next great doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, rappers, hip hoppers, scientists, physicists, playwrights. They are the next generation of greatness. And they’re normal, everyday people who need a family … just like all of us. We all need a family. And when a child waiting for a family is adopted, it takes them above and beyond their own expectations.  

I hope you’ll join me in getting involved to make a difference for kids in foster care who need our help now.  

Thank you, Darryl, for sharing your story.  

We welcome our caring supporters to share your story about how adoption has impacted your life and why the Foundation’s work is important to you. Together, we can achieve the vision that every child will have a permanent home and a loving family.