Long Beach kids jam with hip-hop legend DMC

When Lars Sorensen was in kindergarten and first grade in Long Beach schools, he continually tapped out a beat on his desk, according to his mother, Jeanine Sorensen. His teacher, she said, thought he had rhythm, but he didn’t help his classmates concentrate on their lessons. So Lars practiced music practically every day — outside school.

Now, at 15, he attends the Long Island High School for the Performing arts, and plays drums for a Long Beach band called Deez Guyzz.

At age 6, Paul Vivot admired his sister’s clarinet playing. He started learning the recorder, and then switched to guitar. At 10, he is a guitarist for Deez Guyzz.

As a toddler, Bridie Bermingham loved to listen to the radio on the way to visit her grandparents in the Bronx. Her grandfather is a well-known trombone player in Ireland, and she recalls loving the sound of music even before she was able to talk. She eventually started playing piano, and now, at 11, she’s the band’s base player.

Quinn Siegel, 10, used to play drums, but his teacher switched him to vocals, and he is now the band’s vocalist.

Alejandro Coronado was in swimming class in 2017, a class he did not like. His father switched him to music, and now, at 11, he is Deez Guyzz’ keyboardist.

At the Long Beach Public Library last Saturday night, the five young musicians, all Long Beach residents, made local entertainment history. The library has hosted many musical events, its director, Tara Lannen-Stanton, but this one featured “probably the biggest name in terms of mainstream artists.”

That artist was one of the country’s best-known rappers, Darryl McDaniels, of Hollis, Queens, a founder of Run-DMC.

Deez Guyzz were the creation of Ben Metzger, owner of Studio Noir in Long Beach,, which offers music lessons to people of all ages. All of them were Metzger’s students at one time or another, and he arranged for them to learn to play together.

“I taught every single one individually,” Metzger said. Lars, he said, has been with him the longest. Quinn started as a drummer, Metzger said. But he kept picking up the microphone and rapping. “He was good,” Metzger said. So he became a vocalist.

Alejandro, he said, ran into the studio one day and, according to Metzger, said, “This is where legends are made.”

Metzger said that all five may become professionals one day. “They’re already playing on a professional level,” he said, adding that the band is planning concerts of its own.

On Saturday night, they were playing with McDaniels, who is also a comic book writer and has written children’s books. Along with Joseph Simmons and Jason Mizell, he formed Run-DMC in 1983. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the group No. 48 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In 2007, Run-DMC was named the Greatest Hip Hop Group of All Time by MTV. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009.

On Saturday night, McDaniels talked for nearly an hour about his struggles growing up in Queens, his beginnings in the world of music, and his advice for young people. He had battled drug abuse, he said, and came out on top.

“All of you in this room are hope and motion,” McDaniels said. He said that when he was growing up, he listened to New York City radio stations. “What was beautiful about them is that they were not segregated,” he said.

“The fortunate thing that happened to me,” he said, “was that hip-hop came over the bridge.”

The connection between McDaniels and Deez Guyzz, according to Sorensen, who is a psychologist in the Long Beach School District, came about when the young band members posted “It’s Tricky,” a Run-DMC song, on social media. McDaniels liked what he heard.

He contacted the group, and arrangements were made for him to appear at the library, Sorensen said. “There was a lot of communication going back and forth,” he said. Before they gathered at the library, McDaniels gave the young musicians some songs to practice.

They said they would never forget their evening with McDaniels. “It was pretty great,” said Alejandro. “I didn’t think about playing with somebody who was famous. I was just so happy. I saw my dad and my and my uncle. They were happy too.”