Run-DMC & Aerosmith

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Run-DMC & Aerosmith · Run-DMC was an American hip hop group from Hollis, Queens, in New York. Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels and Jason Mizell began working together in 1983. Simmons first became known as DJ Run, the DJ of the rapper Kurtis Blow, McDaniels, as Easy D, mostly sat writing rhymes on paper, and Mizell spun records as Jam Master Jay. The group's name combines the name Run with the initials of McDaniels. After signing with Profile Records, the group released its first pair of singles, It's Like That and Sucker MCs, at the end of 1983. In 1984 came the debut album Run-D.M.C., the first gold record for a hip hop group, and in 1985 King of Rock, the first platinum one. Rock Box already shows how they mixed hard hip hop with hard rock.

Music and breakthrough

Raising Hell, released in 1986, became the first hip hop album to go platinum more than once. It includes Walk This Way, a reworking of the song by the American hard rock band Aerosmith from Boston, whose singer Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry took part in the recording themselves. With it, Run-DMC climbed higher in the Billboard Hot 100 than Aerosmith's original ever had, reaching number four. It became one of the best-known songs in both hip hop and rock, and brought the two worlds together.

Influence

Run-DMC also abandoned the glamorous clothing of old-school hip hop and chose the street instead: black hats, jackets and Adidas without laces. They were the first hip hop group to appear in videos on MTV and on the cover of Rolling Stone. In 2009 they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Together with Aerosmith, they showed that hip hop and rock could strengthen each other.

Listening

• 
  Walk This Way · Run-DMC & Aerosmith, 1986
  Apple Music ↗

See also

• Early hip hop