Whether it’s a documentary or a biopic, the over-involvement of a subject can transform treasure into trash. Members of Queen turned themselves into blandly unimpeachable heroes by producing Bohemian Rhapsody – as did Ice Cube and Dr Dre by helping create 2015’s Straight Outta Compton. Meanwhile, projects such as Metallica: Some Kind of Monster and Anton Corbijn’s stylised Joy Division film Control didn’t give their subjects producer credits – subsequently crafting fascinating, complex portraits of the artists.
So a few moments into the Run-DMC documentary Kings From Queens, there is an unintentional jump scare when the words “executive producers Joseph ‘Rev Run’ Simmons and Darryl ‘DMC’ McDaniels” appear on screen. Thankfully, as we hear from the many talking heads who appear over the course of three hours, Run-DMC connected with people because of their commitment to honesty; even when telling their own stories, the surviving members of the group admit inadequacies, insecurities, substance abuse and how some of their greatest successes happened in spite of them. Perhaps more shocking than DMC’s candour around his alcoholism and thoughts of killing himself is that he admits to being a nerd who loves nothing more than the Canadian singer Sarah McLachlan and Spider-Man comics. Rather than psyching himself up to perform with hypermasculine posturing, the sweet-natured rapper asks: “What would Peter Parker do?”
