How much is Darryl McDaniels Worth? Darryl McDaniels Net Worth in 2025

Darryl McDaniels Net Worth: How rich is Darryl McDaniels? & How much money is Darryl McDaniels worth? Time to find out!

Darryl McDaniels is an American musician and his current net worth is $50 million.

Born to an single mother who gave him away to the New York Foundling home, he grew up in New York.

Until the Foundling put him with the McDaniels and they adopted him, he was a ward.

Growing up he went to the Rice High School in Manhattan, as well as to the St. John’s University in Queens.

After listening to recordings of Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, he became interested in hip hop music.

In the basement of his parents’ home, he taught himself how to DJ, using turntables and a mixer he received from his older brother, Alford.

During this time he used to call himself Grandmaster Get High.

After his friend Joseph Run Simmons got his own turntables and mixer he sold his.

They started a group after the Jam-Master Jay joined. Run encouraged McDaniels to rap rather than DJ.

Slowly he started to love rapping to mixing records and adopted the stage name of Easy D.

Then he changed his nickname again from Easy D to DMcD, and again to the shorter version D.M.C.

D.M.C. stands from Devastating Mic Control or Darryl Mac, his nickname since childhood.

A few years later the group, Run-D.M.C, released their first album, which became successful in the hip hop industry.

Their success continued to grow and reached its best with their third album, titled Raising Hell.

Raising Hell ranked 6^th on the Billboard 200 and #1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, making them the most popular hip-hop group at that time.

Around that time he developed a reputation as a heavy drinker.

A few years later, the group wrote Christmas in Hollis for A Very Special Christmas.

During that period he developed a deep depression because he couldn’t take it to be away from his wife and newborn son.

He started relying on prescription drugs and alcohol to ease the pain. He almost lost his voice and doctors diagnosed him with spasmodic dysphonia, a vocal disorder.

McDaniels started to have creative differences with his bandmates because he wanted to move towards a slower, softer sound.

These disagreements caused McDaniels to sit out most of the recording of Crown Royal (2001). He appeared on only three songs.

After being on the verge of giving up, he heard Sarah McLachlan’s song Angel on the radio and made him reassess his life and career.

With a new outlook on life, McDaniels decided to write his autobiography. While researching his early years, he found out his parents adopted him.

The news inspired him to search for his birth mother, who he learned was a woman of Dominican descent.

Upon finding the news about his life, he started working with the VH1 network on a documentary chronicling his quest.

He released his autobiography, King of Rock: Respect, Responsibility, and My Life with Run-DMC, in 2001.

In 2014 he went into the comics business releasing his own publishing imprint, Darryl Makes Comics.

His first book is DMC, a 90-page anthology graphic novel set in 1985 that features McDaniels as a superhero who confronts both criminals and other superheroes.

The comic’s version of DMC wears McDaniels’ signature Adidas sneakers, fedora and rope chain, along with an elongated turtleneck that masks his face.

The book received a four out of five stars rating by Tony Guerrero of Comic Vine, who lauded the charm and authenticity of the art.

This wraps up our Darryl McDaniels Net Worth profile!