The good news is that there is a crew. Not five, not four, not three, just two.
by Rich Watson
Rap music began in the late seventies but took off in the mainstream during the eighties, through the black neighborhoods of New York.
One of its biggest success stories was Run-DMC, who debuted in 1984–a group from a part of Queens which spawned a number of stars.
…And ya don’t stop
It took time for me to appreciate rap.
Run-DMC was the first rap group I really liked. One of the first records my father bought me was their second, King of Rock. It wasn’t that he liked rap all that much, if at all; he just knew it was popular and he thought I was into it too. Briefly, I was embarrassed about liking it, god knows why. Maybe it wasn’t cool for one to like rap and rock at the same time? I was a stupid kid.
Their fusion of rap with rock won me over. Their team-up with Aerosmith on “Walk This Way” introduced me to that band and paved the way for their comeback album Permanent Vacation in 1987.
I believe hip-hop lost something special by diverging so far apart from rock, which after all, was rooted in rhythm and blues music. Whenever I hear “mash-ups” of a rock artist with a hip-hop or even an R&B act, oftentimes I prefer that to the original. Run-DMC really knew what they were doing when they married the two sounds. I wish more hip-hoppers today did the same. For example, Cypress Hill recorded both “(Rap) Superstar” and a similar version, “(Rock) Superstar,” on the same LP. Essentially the same song, but the latter has heavy guitar riffs, a dramatic change from their usual sound. Guess which version I prefer? But c’est la vie.
Run-DMC’s third LP, Raising Hell, had even more of a rock sound. I bought that one myself.
I begged my father to buy me a Kangol hat so I could look like DMC. I kinda did.
It’s like this, and that’s the way it was
The group consisted of two MCs and one DJ:
- Joseph “Run” Simmons, MC
- Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, MC, and
- Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell, DJ.
Run’s brother Russell Simmons founded the hip-hop label Def Jam Recordings with Rick Rubin. Simmons managed the group and other acts.
The hip-hop sound and look grew out of the Boogie Down Bronx. In Queens, Simmons initially encouraged the teenaged Run to become a DJ. He performed with pioneering rapper Kurtis Blow before switching to rhyming. DMC came later, back when he was called Easy D. Run and DMC performed locally, which is how they met Jay, known back then as Jazzy Jase.
Simmons produced Run’s first solo single, “Street Kid.” It went nowhere. Run wanted to record with DMC, but Simmons was lukewarm about the latter’s style at first. Eventually he relented.
In 1983, the MCs teamed with Jay for the first time on the single “It’s Like That,” on Profile Records.
“Sucker MCs” was the flip side track.
DMC dropped the “Easy D” moniker and Jay did the same with his nom de hip-hop “Jazzy Jase,” in favor of the aliases under which they’re commonly known. Allegedly, the group didn’t like the name Run-DMC at first.
“It’s Like That” hit number 15 on the R&B chart.
Their self-titled debut LP came a year later, with hits such as “Rock Box” and “Hard Times.”
The new look of hip-hop
Run-DMC were style icons. Their basic wardrobe of Kangol hats, Lee jeans and especially Adidas sneakers stood in contrast to the flashier look of their predecessors.
In the book Yes Yes Y’all: The Experience Music Project Oral History of Hip-Hop’s First Decade, edited by Jim Fricke and Charlie Ahearn, DMC explained they followed the example of the pioneering crew called the Cold Crush Brothers: dressing up wasn’t necessary as long as they could rhyme:
…when Run-DMC first came out, that was the reason why people related to us—even the rock ‘n’ roll kids, the white kids. They could relate to us because we was just like the guys on the corner they saw, or the guys they went to school with, or the people they worked with…. The Cold Crush showed me that what my mother bought me was cool. We don’t have to go to the leather guy and get costumes made up to look like Superman or to look like the stars of the day ‘cause we are the stars. We’re normal guys, but we’re good, and this is who we be. This is who we are.
Their debut album cover—black and white, everyday wardrobe, posed against a brick wall—is reminiscent of the 1976 debut LP of the Ramones, another influential musical act from Queens.
Speaking of which…
Representing Hollis
All three members of Run-DMC grew up in Hollis, in eastern Queens, closer to Long Island than to Manhattan. It dates back to the Dutch homesteaders of the seventeenth century. In 1885, developers installed single-family houses. Black families moved there beginning in the 1950s.
Other black notables came from Hollis, such as Reverend Al Sharpton and US Representative Gregory Meeks, but first and foremost, it’s known as the birthplace of Run-DMC, Simmons, and other hip-hop-related personalities, including:
- LL Cool J,
- Ja Rule,
- Young MC,
- DJ Hurricane,
- hip-hop apparel FUBU founder Daymond John, and
- Yo! MTV Raps VJ Ed Lover.
Hollis Playground, at Hollis Avenue and 205 Street, AKA “Two-Fifth Park,” was where DJs battled. Run and DMC met Jay there.
The Liberty Rock, at Liberty Avenue and Farmers Boulevard, was initially placed there in 1928 as a World War One memorial, but in the sixties, it was painted red, green and black, the colors of the Pan-African flag, as a show of black pride.
In 1987, Run-DMC recorded a holiday single called “Christmas in Hollis.”
There was also a group called Hollis Crew who had a 1985 single produced by Run, Jay, and Rubin called “It’s the Beat.” A track on Run-DMC is named for them.
In 2015, Hollis-raised artist Jocelyn Goode created the mural heading this section. Here’s more about it.
Later success and tragedy
Run-DMC the album became the first hip-hop record to go gold. King of Rock went platinum and Raising Hell went multi-platinum. They made movies, appeared on MTV and VH1, received a Lifetime Grammy Award and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the second hip-hop act to do so after Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
In 2002, Jay was murdered at his Queens recording studio under circumstances that went unknown until 2020. The long story is here. A mural of him is displayed near Two-Fifth Park.
Run and DMC dissolved the group as a result of Jay’s death. They’ve pursued solo projects since.
Run-DMC was the reason rap, and hip-hop culture in general, exploded in popularity during the eighties and remains significant today. That’s the way it is—
—‘cause it’s like that.
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Also in 1984:
- Michael Jackson wins eight Grammys for his album Thriller. Also, while making a Pepsi commercial, his scalp is burned.
- Marvin Gaye is murdered in Los Angeles.
- Prince makes his film Purple Rain. Two songs from the soundtrack hit number one.
- Herbie Hancock’s video for “Rockit” wins five MTV Video Music Awards.
- The Jacksons’ Victory Tour concludes in LA.
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Did you buy Run-DMC’s debut album? Leave a comment and let me know!
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