Album Review Friday
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#10 Couldn’t Stand The Weather - Stevie Ray Vaughan
#9 Let It Be - The Replacements
#8 Learning To Crawl - The Pretenders
#7 The Smiths
#6 Born In The USA - Bruce Springsteen
#5 Reckoning - REM
#4 The Unforgettable Fire - U2
#3 How Will The Wolf Survive? - Los Lobos
#2 RUN-D.M.C.
In 1982 the popular music scene was thankfully infiltrated by a fresh sound unfamiliar to the typical listener of American radio. Though it only reached #62 on the pop charts, “The Message” from Grandmaster and The Furious Five marked a revolution in music. A seven minute rap song that was getting play (albeit infrequently) and attention from rock music stations was almost unimaginable. “The Message” was raw and blunt, with lyrics that detailed the specific brutality of daily life in America’s inner cities. But even with the success of “The Message”, the rap genre’s entry into the popular music scene stalled. Two years later however all would change when three artists from Queens, New York released their debut album on March 27, 1984. Run – D.M.C., composed of Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels and Jason Mizell became one of the most important groups of the late twentieth century as they brought hip hop music mainstream. Eventually they would garner countless accolades, from being on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine to the only hip hop act to play 1985’s Live Aid. Their self-titled debut album introduced most of America to the evolving music style of hip hop, and their impact on popular music can not be overstated. They were also that special group that not only impacted music but also popular culture. Sure, other hip hop artist’s music soon was being played on radio stations due to Run-D.M.C.’s success. But their Adidas sneakers with the laces untied, Lee jeans and black wardrobe adorned with the Oakland Raiders logo soon were a part of American pop style.
Simmons (Run), McDaniels (D.M.C) and DJ Mizell (Jam Master Jay) created a sound that was familiar to earlier rap, but at the same time completely original. Eschewing disco-like hooks and backbeats, they relied on Jam Master Jay to use sparse rock beats and percussion tracks to provide the foundation underneath the lyrics. Jays contribution to their music has to be emphasized, as he found the right amount of music and beats to be the engine behind the lyrics being driven by Run and D.M.C. Their style of ‘trade-off’ rapping, alternating lines and sometimes even single words soon became their signature, and this only succeeded with Jay’s masterful use of the underlying tracks. This is seen most clearly in “Sucker MC’s”, where they attack those poseur rappers trying to imitate their sound with blistering lines that are more forceful due to the sparse percussion beat created by Jay. Listen to the track, and you hear nothing but a simple drum beat which makes their message much more blistering.
But they also innovated with their use of rock guitars and rhythms that would become so prevalent throughout their career. This would be the genesis to their 1986 smash collaboration with Aerosmith on “Walk This Way” and that style runs through the 1984 debut. The albums second track, “Rock Box” makes it clear RUN-D.M.C. is here with an in-your-face sound that can not be ignored. The opening phrase stands alone without music, before electric guitars blast in and keep the momentum of the song’s clear message that they are new kings of hip hop. And this pattern extended beyond them, as the rock-rap connection would be used brilliantly by Beastie Boys who were coming up at the same time in the rich hip-hop scene of New York City.
Either with heavy rock tones or bare drum backbeats, RUN-D.M.C carried on the tradition of using their music for social commentary. Theirs was not music solely about women or getting high as so many rap critics believed. They used their microphones to speak about the raw inner city troubles they grew up around, and to also speak to the people looking for hope to make it out like they did. On “Wake Up” they sing about a perfect world seen in a dream, one where problems have disappeared to be replaced by “a feelin’ of peace all across the land”. But this is presented as a dream they have had but that may not be reached, as opposed to Martin Luther King’s famous ‘I have a dream’ speech. MLK describes an aspiration for what America can achieve, while “Wake Up” describes a dream which is more of a mirage, as the visions of employment, peace and harmony are obviously not present in their reality.
RUN-D.M.C. would go on to make albums that were more popular and financially successful than their debut, and it seems that their 1984 work is often forgotten in the shadow of those future records. But while their second album was titled King of Rock, it was on their first where they rightfully laid claim to that title.