Hollis sneakers and sparse beats made hip-hop platinum
Three friends from Queens—Darryl McDaniels, Jason Mizell, and Joseph Simmons—launched Run-DMC in 1983. They became the first rap crew to go gold, then platinum, then multi-platinum, and later the second hip-hop act voted into the Rock Hall.
All three grew up in Hollis, Queens. Joseph Simmons was pulled into hip-hop by his older brother Russell, a promoter who managed Kurtis Blow, and performed as DJ Run, Son of Kurtis Blow. Darryl McDaniels, keener on sport, bought turntables and wrote rhymes as Easy D. The pair hung around Two-Fifths Park hoping to rap for local DJs, the best known being Jason Mizell, and the three became friends. Russell at first refused to record Run with D, but relented in 1982, with Mizell, now Jam Master Jay, on the decks.
Russell branded them Run-D.M.C., a name they initially hated. Their debut single It’s Like That with Sucker MCs, issued by Profile in late 1983, reached No. 15 on the R&B charts. The 1984 debut album made them the first rap group to earn gold, and its single Rock Box fused rap with hard rock, becoming the first hip-hop video on MTV. King of Rock went platinum in 1985, and they played Live Aid.
With producer Rick Rubin they made Raising Hell in 1986, the first multi-platinum rap album. Rubin wanted something for rock fans, so Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry joined a full cover of Walk This Way, which reached No. 4 on the Hot 100, outcharted the original, and revived Aerosmith’s career. My Adidas brought a $1.6 million sponsorship deal.
Their Kangol hats, leather jackets, and unlaced sneakers, modelled on Mizell’s own style, pushed aside the rhinestones of the old school; Run traced the missing laces to jail rules. They entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009, and in 2018 Raising Hell joined the National Recording Registry.
Source: Run-DMC
