Run DMC’s Darryl McDaniels was right. Old school is a vibe.

And those vibes were gushing this week as Digital Underground and Run DMC injected live rap into Iowa more than a decade late.

Waving your hands in the air with Jam Master Jay and doing the Humpty Hump with Digital Underground were magical moments.

You felt old school just being there. And, damn, was it fun.

But the music wasn’t the same.

Digital Underground’s Shock G just doesn’t flow the way he used to.

As fun as jams like “Kiss Me (And I’ll Kiss You Back)” and “Same Song” were, the actual rapping was more chaos than classic.

Shock G, Money B, Clee and Mystic kept a mostly white crowd moving, but it was more their presence than their raps that was doing the trick.

Digital Underground, with the Humpty character people came to see, has always been a gimmick, but a successful one.

Tuesday night’s show was no exception. Humpty was the man of the hour, delivering the catchy new “Wind Me Up” and the legendary “Humpty Dance” with his signature nasally voice.

Humpty, who earlier in the evening said he wished he could stay at the Memorial Union every week, gave the cafeteria a nod with a clever, “I once got busy in a McDonalds bathroom.”

Allow him to amaze thee and he will.

Run DMC was a different story.

An opening “band” (actually a DJ with mediocre skills) “warmed up” the crowd for three hours before a horrible opening group did the same for another 30 minutes.

When Run DMC finally took the stage a few ticks after 11 p.m., the rap duo had as little energy as the crowd.

Working through a set of “Raising Hell” classics and sporadic newer and older material, Run’s voice got rougher than leather while DMC’s stage presence dwindled.

Godfathers of rap or not, Run DMC has gotten a little soft around the edges.

Jam Master Jay, although often more vocal than he should have been, was a noticeable exception.

His turntable skills were as impressive as ever, often providing colorful lead-ins to classic songs.

Similar to the Digital Underground show, you felt hip just being there.

Hearing “It’s Tricky” live was like hearing Neil Diamond do “Sweet Caroline” — it wasn’t perfect, but it didn’t matter.

Like rap’s other co-founders, Run DMC and Digital Underground will always be a spectacle worth seeing.

It’s like that and that’s the way it is.