It’s impossible to tell the story of mainstream hip-hop without talking about Run-DMC. The group impressively wielded the true cultural values of hip-hop in its early stages while still mixing with popular brands. They essentially made Adidas the mammoth brand it is today by embracing the shoes and tracksuits. Moreover, Jam Master Jay, Rev Run, and DMC were able to blur the lines between rap and rock with a record like “Walk This Way”.
All of these efforts from the New York trio paved the way for artists like LL Cool J and beyond to hit the ground running. Now, hip-hop and Black culture are arguably the primary fixtures within popular culture as a whole. It all starts with Raising Hell, which turned 40 years old this year. Consequently, Run-DMC is celebrating the history they made with the album.
In a Q&A interview with Billboard, Rev Run and Darryl “D.M.C.” McDaniels reflected on their third album, Raising Hell, and the impact they had on the genre and culture. Admittedly, they had no clue that they would make such a defining album—they were just trying to stay true to hip-hop’s core values. “Raising Hell was special because we wasn’t trying to make a music industry album,” D.M.C. said. “We was trying to make a hip-hop album.”
Run-DMC Reflects on 40 Years of ‘Raising Hell’ and why it Compares to The Beatles
Years later, though, D.M.C. sees how it was forward-thinking for hip-hop, comparing it to a similarly important album to pop culture from the Beatles. “Raising Hell is the prototype, the blueprint. It’s the Sgt. Peppers of hip-hop,” he added. “It made everybody after us, if you want to do an album, you got to do it on that level.”
Rev Run credited much of the album’s power to Jam Master Jay. Additionally, he wants to restore the same feeling Run-DMC had in the 80s when they perform records from Raising Hell again. “40 years, I pray it lives up to how me and D felt in 87 going on tour,” Run shared. “Jam Master Jay was everything to Raising Hell… He was like the one-man-band making Raising Hell.”
Raising Hell made for a lot of landmark moments for Run-DMC and hip-hop as a whole. They became the first hip-hop group to be nominated for a Grammy, and the album was the first rap record to go platinum.
The post Run-DMC Claims This Iconic Album is the ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ of Hip-Hop: ‘The Blueprint’ appeared first on VICE.
