209. Run-DMC, "Raising Hell"

 


Released in 1986, this album was so foundational and important it even penetrated my dumb white boy R.E.M.-Elvis Costello-The Jam listening bubble.  I knew virtually nothing about rap in 1986, but I still know multiple tracks from this album.  Like I said about the last Run-DMC album on here, for many people, this was their understanding of how rap was supposed to sound for a long time.

Listening to it again, besides being an absolute pleasure, you're also struck by how open and spacious the sound is compared to a lot of modern hip hop, which is absolutely crammed with sound sometimes.  A lot of these songs are just Run and DMC and a drum track and maybe a couple of samples.  Compared to more recent stuff - as we'll see in our next entry - it makes for an immediate and urgent sound.

This album is also the one that first introduced white America to rap through the cover of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way," one of the first rap videos to get heavy airplay on MTV, a long-forgotten cable channel that used to play what were then known as "music videos," a film clip set to a song, usually featuring the song's artist performing in some way.  Anyway, the video, which featured Run-DMC and Aerosmith, not only helped launch rap onto MTV and white pop culture, it also revitalized Aerosmith's then-flagging career, but let's don't blame Run-DMC for that.

"Raising Hell," the title track, also contains an unmistakably metal guitar riff.  Unbelievably, it's apparently not a sample, but an actual guitar track someone recorded for the album, although no one is quite sure who it was now.  Candidates include Rick Rubin, who produced the album, and Russell Simmons, but no one knows for sure.

"It's Tricky" contains an immediately recognizable sample from "My Sharona" and is an absolute jam about how hard it is to be a good rapper.  (The Knack sued Run-DMC over use of the sample; they settled out of court.)  "My Adidas," the first single off the album, uses the eponymous shoes as a vehicle for rapper braggadocio, sure, but also to talk about rap going big:

My Adidas
Walk through concert doors
And roam all over coliseum floors
I stepped on stage, at Live Aid
All the people gave and the poor got paid

And then there's "You Be Illin'," a total earworm with a crazy hook bassline and verses about people fucking up in various ways.  Story of my life, I tells ya.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? Hell yeah.

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