Run DMC

The kings of rock, there is none higher!

Label: Profile Records

“The thing that Run DMC represents is the thing that’s not gonna let people forget (us and KRS-One of course)…not forget about that time or that era when the whole culture of hip-hop was the music of hip-hop which is rap, the dance of hip-hop which was breaking, and the art of hip-hop which was graffiti. Those things all are like three-in-one, hand in hand. Once rap became a money dominated entity, those things fell off."

Three bad motherfuckers, stripped-down and raw Run DMC changed the rules and overran the game from the outset of public awareness. Blue blood flows strong through hip-hop’s truest monarchy, the Crown Royals. A ground-breaking hip-hop group regarded as being the single-most innovative rap group ever assembled, Run DMC is credited with leaving an enormous impact in the culture’s development. A truly profound trio represented a new school breed that quietly picked up the art form but kept it on the down-low for fear of being stomped down by the South Bronx rulers. This so-called new school proudly found their rightful entrance into hip-hop behind these fresh Adidas upstart teens blazing the trail. Next branch opened in Queens, Hollis to be exact. These kids blatantly put down Hollis on the hip-hop map and the world turned heads in shock. They built a bridge crossing from rap to rock music incorporating heavy metal riff samples into their signature sound. Celebrated for their explosive success that introduced the flair and brilliance of hip-hop to the world’s mainstream market, Run DMC were the sole ambassadors of east coast rap and the exemplary product of an advanced formula established by their immediate predecessors in the game. The super-group consisted of the legendary combined talents of founder, Jason ‘Jam Master Jay’ Mizell, Darryl ‘DMC’ McDaniels and Joseph ‘Run’ Simmons. They braced themselves to become the incarnation of hip-hop’s second generation and thusly owned New York during the 1980’s like royalty, down with the Kings!

"Until Run-DMC I thought that hip-hop was something that was only going to be done in basements and in clubs. I went to a Run-DMC concert and they actually made me believe that hip-hop could be big. Rap was never at that level. We'd never seen it like that" - Ice-T

The Beginning

Joey ‘Run’ Simmons is the younger brother of hip-hop’s legendary business-mind Russell ‘Rush’ Simmons who as a young entrepreneur managed Kurtis Blow. Joey first entered the scene by DJing for Kurtis Blow going by the name of ‘Run Love - Son of Kurtis Blow’. This experience was shared by his childhood friend Darryl McDaniels and the pair soon began performing as teenagers at an underage club in their native middle-class neighbourhood Hollis, borough of New York City. After high school graduation the duo kept in contact as they split for university education. Joey attended LaGuardia Community College and Darryl went to St. John’s University. Russell encouraged Joey and Darryl to form a rap duo and pursue a recording career together. With this Run recruited his old basketball running-mate and local Hollis DJ Jason Mizell who was at the time regarded as being the best amateur DJ in the area performing as Jazzy Jase. Run convinced Darryl to develop a more solid rapping position within the group making way for Jason to be the group’s sole DJ. By 1981 Darryl had taken to being an MC and changed his name several times before settling on D.M.C. (for Darryl McDaniels or Devastating Mic Controller.) Jason took on the name Jam Master Jay and the trio was set to change the future. Run was an exceptional lyricist and he and Darryl were the MCs with Jam Master Jay as the DJ. The trio formed the name of Run DMC and by 1983 they signed a $2,000 deal with new independent Profile Records and that same year older brother Russell Simmons signed the group to his new management company Rush Productions. First steps to creating one of the single-most influential rap acts in history were verging on the edge of high-fame.

They released their first single featuring, "It’s Like That" and "Sucker MC’s" considered to be ground-breaking as both were the first to rely solely upon electronic beats. It was hard, blunt and devastatingly skilful. "It’s Like That" was compared as a grittier version of Afrika Bambaataa’s "Planet Rock" and with powerfully literate vocals it was a lyrical descendant of Melle Mel’s, "The Message" both of which were 1982’s impression of hip-hop. The collaboration between DMC and Run worked as two minds alike displayed as their vocals shouted out and overlapped finishing each other’s lines throughout their early performances not seen since the Cold Crush Brothers. They followed up with a take off of Dimple D's existent, "Sucker DJ" with their own, "Sucker MC’s" which was constructed over a drumbeat from "Action" by Russell’s production partner Larry Smith’s band, Orange Krush and personally mixed by Kurtis Blow. The 12-inch single hit the streets distributed by indie-label Profile in the spring of ’83 it provided an unexpected boom of energy injected into the development of rap and soon became the hottest radio request on many R&B stations forcing it to be removed from late night rap mix shows to prime-time daily regular rotations. The single sold 250,000 copies becoming Profile’s biggest seller and became a Top 20 R&B hit, as would their next smash-hit single to follow. This opened hip-hop’s new generation, the Run DMC revolution representing the little-brother imitation of the old school fundamentals. A direct stripped-down influence of the first generation movement continued.