Additional information
Run-DMC: Joseph "Run" Simmons, Daryll "DMC" McDaniels (rap vocals); "Jam Master" Jay Mizell (keyboards, percussion, scratches). Additional personnel: Steven Tyler (vocals); Joe Perry, Rick Rubin (guitar); Daniel Shulman (bass); Sam Sever (drum programming). Engineers include: Steve Ett, Andy Wallace, Jay Burnett. Rap music may have been making some headway in terms of mainstream acceptance by 1986, but it was the release and breakthrough of Run DMC's cover of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" that cemented the deal. Rap was out of the urban ghetto and into the white, hard rock suburbs. And Run DMC was the perfect band to initialize the natural crossover, being among the first of hip-hop's nationally respected acts, and definitely the first to hint at the marriage of hardcore rap and power chords with 1983s "Rock Box" and 1985s "King of Rock." RAISING HELL, the band's third full-length release, includes far more classics than just that one pop hit. "Peter Piper," "It's Tricky," "My Adidas" and "You Be Illin'" define the old-school hip-hop aesthetic about as well as any four songs on any rap full-length recorded in the '80s. Listen to any song on this LP and you'll recognize two to three lines that have become standards in the language of rap. A historic album? You don't know the half of it.
Reviews
Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.126) - Ranked #120 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "[T]he pioneering trio took hip-hop into the upper reaches of the pop charts, introducing mainstream to a new urban thunder: rap rock." Rolling Stone (9/5/02, p.76) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...This kicks butt..." Q (12/99, p.162) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...the apex of pre-Public Enemy, beatbox-based hip hop, a monument of massive, crisp beats plus the genre-bending 'Walk This Way'..." Q (11/03, p.138) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Home of their defining musical moments..." Uncut (11/03, p.130) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...[An album] that forced the music biz to take rap seriously..." Vibe (12/99, p.162) - Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century
