Sunday’s Best: Run DMC

posted July 15, 2012, 12:08 pm by Ben Oliver | Filed Under Editorial, Festivals, General Interest, Music News, Sunday's Best | Leave a Comment

Back in the day, when this place was crawling with forums and chats about random acts of music, we used to poll ourselves to see which release by an artist not only set them atop of the industry but stapled them in as musical gods.

Just this past week, Fun Fun Fun Festival announced a major headliner to this year’s line up: a reunited Run DMC! More than any other hip-hop group, Run DMC are responsible for the sound and style of the music. As the first hardcore rap outfit, the trio set the sound and style for the next decade of rap. With their spare beats and excursions into heavy metal samples, the trio were tougher and more menacing than their predecessors Grandmaster Flash and Whodini. In the process, they opened the door for both the politicized rap of Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions, as well as the hedonistic gangsta fantasies of N.W.A. At the same time, Run-D.M.C. helped move rap from a singles-oriented genre to an album-oriented one — they were the first hip-hop artist to construct full-fledged albums, not just collections with two singles and a bunch of filler. By the end of the ’80s, Run-D.M.C. had been overtaken by the groups they had spawned, but they continued to perform to a dedicated following well into the ’90s.

In 1983, Run-D.M.C. released their first single, “It’s Like That”/”Sucker M.C.’s,” on Profile Records. The single sounded like no other rap at the time — it was spare, blunt, and skillful, with hard beats and powerful, literate, daring vocals, where Run and D.M.C.’s vocals overlapped, as they finished each other’s lines. It was the first “new school” hip-hop recording. “It’s Like That” became a Top 20 R&B hit, as did the group’s second single, “Hard Times”/”Jam Master Jay.” Two other hit R&B singles followed in early 1984 — “Rock Box” and “30 Days” — before the group’s eponymous debut appeared.

By the time of their second album, 1985′s King of Rock, Run-D.M.C. had become the most popular and influential rappers in America, already spawning a number of imitators. As the King of Rock title suggests, the group were breaking down the barriers between rock & roll and rap, rapping over heavy metal records and thick, dense drum loops. Besides releasing the King of Rock album and scoring the R&B hits “King of Rock,” “You Talk Too Much,” and “Can You Rock It Like This” in 1985, the group also appeared in the rap movie Krush Groove, which also featured Kurtis Blow, the Beastie Boys, and the Fat Boys.

Run-D.M.C.’s fusion of rock and rap broke into the mainstream with their third album, 1986′s Raising Hell. The album was preceded by the Top Ten R&B single “My Adidas,” which set the stage for the group’s biggest hit single, a cover of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.” Recorded with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, “Walk This Way” was the first hip-hop record to appeal to both rockers and rappers, as evidenced by its peak position of number four on the pop charts. In the wake of the success of “Walk This Way,” Raising Hell became the first rap album to reach number one on the R&B charts, to chart in the pop Top Ten, and to go platinum, and Run-D.M.C. were the first rap act to received airplay on MTV — they were the first rappers to cross over into the pop mainstream. Raising Hell also spawned the hit singles “You Be Illin’” and “It’s Tricky.”

Run-D.M.C. spent most of 1987 recording Tougher Than Leather, their follow-up to Raising Hell. Tougher Than Leather was accompanied by a movie of the same name. Starring Run-D.M.C., the film was an affectionate parody of ’70s blaxploitation films. Although Run-D.M.C. had been at the height of their popularity when they were recording and filming Tougher Than Leather, by the time the project was released, the rap world had changed. Most of the hip-hop audience wanted to hear hardcore political rappers like Public Enemy, not crossover artists like Run-D.M.C. Consequently, the film bombed and the album only went platinum, failing to spawn any significant hit singles.

Two years after Tougher Than Leather, Run-D.M.C. returned with Back From Hell, which became their first album not to go platinum. Following its release, both Run and D.M.C. suffered personal problems as McDaniels suffered a bout of alcoholism and Simmons was accused of rape. After McDaniels sobered up and the charges against Simmons were dismissed, both of the rappers became born-again Christians, touting their religious conversion on the 1993 album Down With the King. Featuring guest appearances and production assistance from artists as diverse as Public Enemy, EPMD, Naughty by Nature, A Tribe Called Quest, Neneh Cherry, Pete Rock, and KRS-One, Down With the King became the comeback Run-D.M.C. needed. The title track became a Top Ten R&B hit and the album went gold, peaking at number 21. Although they were no longer hip-hop innovators, the success of Down With the King proved that Run-D.M.C. were still respected pioneers.