DMC - DMC GRATEFUL FOR ADOPTION REVELATION

Hip-hop star DARRYL 'DMC' McDANIELS is thankful he was given up for adoption because it indirectly contributed to his successful music career.

The former RUN-DMC rapper was shocked to discover the truth about his childhood while attempting to write his autobiography KING OF ROCK: RESPECT, RESPONSIBILITY AND MY LIFE WITH RUN-DMC.

He tells MTV.com, "I wanted to start the book, 'Yo, what's up? I'm DMC, you know me, Darryl McDaniels of the groundbreaking rap group Run-DMC. I was born May 31st, 1964,' but that's all I knew, so I called my mom up."

Her subsequent bombshell changed his life - but the optimistic star maintains he couldn't have wished for a better series of events.

He says, "At first, I was gonna get really sad about it. But then I said, 'If my (birth) mother never gave me up, my mother would have never came and got me, I would have never moved to Hollis (Queens, New York), I would have never met JOE ('RUN' SIMMONS), we would have never formed Run-DMC and none of this rap s**t would have jumped off.

"I'm gonna write a record that's gonna help kids in the foster homes, or that are lookin' to adopt a kid."

Daniels is turning his search for his birth parents into a VH1 reality TV show, entitled DMC: MY ADOPTION, which debuts in America on 25 February (06) .