Rev Run Closes a Door on Reality but Opens Another (With a Laugh Track)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/17/arts/music/rev-run-all-about-the-washingtons.html

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Since 2005, Rev Run — a.k.a. Run from Run-DMC, a.k.a Joseph Simmons — has flung open the doors to his opulent Saddle River, N.J., dwelling for shows like “Run’s House,” “Rev Run’s Renovation,” “Rev Run’s Sunday Suppers” and “Rev Runs Around the World.”

So why would he and his wife, Justine Simmons, hang up the keys to their reality empire, if only temporarily, to veer into comedy?

The adventure began in 2015, when Rev Run did his friend LL Cool J a favor by appearing on “Lip Sync Battle,” and a man with a pair of Adidas and a “Raising Hell” album came to him with a request: “Sign this, man. I’m a fan.” Then, “I’m also LL Cool J’s agent.” And finally, “What do you think of scripted?”

“I’m not one to be caught-off guard ever, but it threw me,” Rev Run said of his encounter with Richard Weitz of the William Morris Endeavor talent agency. “I was like a deer in the headlights because I had three reality shows at that time.”

Then he blinked and got to work. The result is “All About the Washingtons.” It has its debut Aug. 10 on Netflix and stars Rev Run and Ms. Simmons as fictional versions of themselves — a soon-to-retire rapper, D.J. Joe Speed, and his would-be business mogul wife — along with four young actors standing in for their six combined real-life children.

“I was invited into Hollywood in a magical, magical way,” said Rev Run, who relocated to Los Angeles for a year and a half to shoot the first season. “The house I found was seven minutes away from the studios. There was the Hollywood sign written in my backyard, almost like I could touch it. I was living in a dream.”

Now back in New Jersey, Rev Run — at 53, gregarious, forthright and an ordained Pentecostal minister with nearly 4.3 million Twitter followers — spoke by phone about his TV transition, music, religion and his legacy.

Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.

After all those years of doing reality, you and Justine seem comfortable in your new roles as actors.

The truth is, I said, “I’m going to go in there and I’m going to take scenes and make them what I want them to be.” Well, Andrew Reich, one of the showrunners, saw it a little differently. He’s like, “No, man, you got to do the joke this way.” And so there was almost a conflict. My wife was studying like crazy. I wasn’t studying at all at the beginning and when I realized that I needed to know these lines, I buckled down, learned the lines, delivered them with my flavor as Rev Run. Was it easy? No. Was it enjoyable? Yes. Do we look natural? I would say very much.

The story line hews pretty closely to your real life. How much input did you have?

The day I walked into the office and had eight or however many writers around me, I spoke for one hour, crazily. I just talk and talk and talk and talk about what’s really going on in me and my wife’s life, and for some reason on this day I was on fire. And everybody was just laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing. We threw out everything against the wall we could think of until we were out of breath.

There’s a scene where Joe’s son Wesley, played by Anthony Anderson’s son, Nathan, implies that you’re out of touch as a rapper. Are you really?

I am the most up-to-date rapper at my age you will ever meet. I listen to everything from Drake to Young Thug. I know what’s going on. Nicki Minaj has a new record with 6ix9ine, and I listened to that the day it came out. I’m waiting on DJ Khaled’s new record that hits today at 1 p.m. with Justin Bieber and Quavo. I’m all over Instagram, I’m all over Twitter, I’m all over everything. I’m young. I’m not, “Oh, the way rap used to be.” I’m not that guy.

Who’s your favorite young rapper?

My total favorite is Drake. He reminds me of Run-DMC. We came through with rock and rap mixed. He has singing and rapping mixed, and it works very well for him. He’s doing something different. He’s fascinating to me.

Your alter ego on “All About the Washingtons” is retiring. How about you?

If I could retire tomorrow I probably would, but my wife says, “You’d go crazy.” The joke on the show is I would probably be on Instagram showing everybody that I’m retired, and I can retire the best, so it’s a retired competition going on in my mind. You’d see me every day saying: “Look at my new boat. It says Justine on the side. Hi, here’s a selfie of me in the South of France.” So I’d probably be fake retired.

What brought you to religion?

I went to church because of every rock star’s “Behind the Music” story. My top was my bottom. I was this big, big, big, monster star and still empty because I found out that you can have things but you can’t let things have you. So you’re 20 years old, you’re on the cover of Rolling Stone, you have all this going on and it’s still not quite quenching the thirst because once everybody is looking at you — “Look! There he is, oh my God, hey, look at him, that’s the greatest guy ever!” — there’s more that’s needed. And I went to church to find that love that I needed, that balance, that mentorship.

Can rap and religion coexist?

Look at what’s going on. The top rappers are married. Kanye West, married. Jay-Z, married. People just wanting to have an image of, as they get older at least, “I love my children, I love God, spirituality means something.”

I’m well respected by everybody, from Shaquille O’Neal to Diddy. They respect my marriage, the way I conduct myself. I’m the “after rap.” And it’s pretty funny: We now have a retired rapper that’s going to have a television show talking about “I’m done rapping” — and rapping is so new.

It may be too soon to ask, but what do you see as your legacy?

I think overall my image as Rev Run is as important as my image as Run-DMC, if not more. People know me. When I walk the streets they don’t go, “What’s up, Run?” They go, “Hello, Reverend.” I want to be known as a good man. I want to be known as a husband and a father and a compassionate human being that loves to inspire. I inspired as a rapper in my youth, and I hope to inspire by doing the right thing as I move on.