Darryl “DMC” McDaniels thinks his story can be as affecting as Jean Valjean’s and wants to take it to the Broadway stage to prove it. His discovery, at 35, that he was adopted has already been the basis for a VH1 documentary called DMC: My Adoption Journey. He thinks it’ll make a great musical: the up-from-the-streets triumph of “the boy who became king” without ever realizing how much he had to overcome to get there. “I’m going to tell the story about a little adopted baby, thrown away at birth, went through what he went through, and how he became somebody.” The hip-hop pioneer respects masters of this form. “I’ve seen Les Misérables, but the one I really loved was Miss Saigon. I ain’t want to go, but my wife took me and I was really impressed.” And he wants to work only with the best. “I’m trying to figure out, should I talk to Andrew Lloyd Webber?”

Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Jada Yuan
• Table of Contents: April 3, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!