JAY: It's all evolution, you know? What you hear Mixmaster Mike doing is incredible, but I want to stress that it's what DJ's have been doing since the beginning of time. Since the first DJ put on headphones and spun it up — we've been pushing it ever since. It's just now starting to come out on record and become public, ya know? We've always been doing what you hear right here on this stage... makin' our own tapes at home. It's only now that hip hop is big that we start to see this type of thing on the record shelves. Now, you don't just see the Puffy type of ideas, but you see all of the little crazy ideas that are really hot and have never been heard before. And it's all very cool to watch go down. Yet, the whole time we're still making progress. Never stopping. These DJs keep getting more and more ridiculous — and it's good!

And I'll say this - Eminem was as big step for us. Back in the day, 100,000 was successful for an MC or DJ type of artist. 100,000 was successful because the genre was a small market. Now the market is as big as ever, and so are the expectations. There's more money behind it all. So, you know, it's not just songs, it's films. It's grown into a lifestyle. Hip hop.

So, yeah, to answer your question: I love the state of hip hop, because I'm a product of it and it's a product of me.

Now, I strive on longevity. I've got a gig tomorrow! You know what I'm sayin'?

STARPOLISH: Well put. Let's talk about the state of Run DMC and dispel the label nonsense rumors right now. What's the latest?

JAY: Yes, we got dropped from Arista about 7 months ago. But Def Jam just made us an offer, well, yesterday! So, we're signing to Def Jam. So it's like "welcome home." It's true it's the first time we've ever been signed to Def Jam, but as you may know we helped to create the label. We were hot, and it helped Russell [Simmons] to start Def Jam. Now, 20 years later, it comes back together. The whole family.