The 1986 Listening Post - Run-D.M.C. - Raising Hell

Run-D.M.C. - Raising Hell

#176/1341

May 16 1986

Run-D.M.C.

Raising Hell

Genre: Rap

4.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Peter Piper

It’s Tricky

My Adidas

Walk this Way

Raising Hell

You Be Illin’ 

This is the stuff. 

In a year we will get the first Boogie Down Productions and Public Enemy records and I can’t wait for that. And, yes, I know, we aren’t going to go down a lot of the rap tributaries but it’s really hard for me to resist some of these cuz, this if this isn’t rock, what is? 

The simple beat box, the crunchy samples, the audacity of covering Aerosmith and changing the world of rap and rock at the same time. 

Brilliance. 

It’s always knocked me out that this record was produced by someone I went to college with. Rubin was 2 years ahead of me but I swear to sky daddy I met him once. 

And I had my chance. I worked with the brother of the guy who owned Tommy Boy records. But, I was arrogantly anti-rap at the time. It wasn’t “Rock”. 

This absolutely is.

I gave up on them after the first record. I never heard this. It’s of a time and yet timeless.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/raising-hell/254344779

The 1984 Listening Post - Run-D.M.C. - Run-D.M.C.

Run-D.M.C. - Run-D.M.C.

#62

March 27 1984

Run-D.M.C.

Run-D.M.C.

3.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Rock Box

It’s Like That

Yes, we are going to cover an occasional rap album. No, we aren’t going down the rabbit hole of A Tribe Called Quest and the like. This isn’t Yo! MTV Raps, ffs. But we can’t deny the fact that rap and rock intersect and that starts, pretty much, right here. Yes, you can expect some P.E. and Beastie Boys and maybe even a few others, but let’s be honest, “Run DMC first said a DJ could be a band” as Chuck D said. And he’s right.

The riff on “Rock Box” is metaltastic. The perfect nexus of the nascent form and the old, tread worn style. 

That said, the repetition and redundancy runs thick. By “Sucker M.C.’s” the beat box echo machine has worn out its welcome and I can’t wait to flip the record over and see if there’s any magic on the other side to keep me interested. 

This must’ve sounded ground breaking in 84, but timeless it is not. It’s obvious that everyone involved is still figuring out how to make this work.

I’m not reviewing it through the lens of “What must this have sounded like back then?” This is now. Does it hold up or not? 

Not. 

As a relic in an archeological dig, it’s important, though. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/run-dmc-deluxe-version/281812827