By Odeisel
By 1986, Run DMC had already burst on the scene and become a cultural phenomenon. Following in the footsteps of Kurtis Blow, they had effectively managed to crossover into the mainstream consciousness, pulling Hip-Hop from the block and pushing it towards commercial viability. But that was just the appetizer. With 1986 came Raising Hell, the first great rap music record. If their first two projects, Run-DMC and King of Rock, formed the line of demarcation between the old and the new school for rap music, Raising Hell created a chasm that separated the boulevard and the billboard. D, Joey and Jay served as the bridge.
The album marked the group’s first work with DefJam co-founder Rick Rubin, who had just come off LL Cool J’s debut Radio. Rubin had a keen intelligence for the melding of genres for mass consumption without removing its edge. Raising Hell features the big booming rock drums and guitar work pioneered by bassist Larry Smith, similar to the previous two albums, but flaunted increased sampling elements and melody along with more sophisticated songwriting.
Rubin’s genius at deconstruction is evident in “Walk This Way,” a song that both restored Aerosmith to cultural relevance and made Run DMC bigger than any Hip-Hop group had been to that point. Rubin took the drums from the intro of the original composition and replaced the quitars with new ones that echoed the rhythm of the original, while reflecting the Hip-Hop spirit, with scratching to bring home the point. “King of Rock” announced Hip-Hop’s arrival. “Walk This Way” served as a harbinger of Hip-Hop’s supplanting of Rock as the dominant culture in the coming years.
The beauty of the album lies in its ability to blatantly crossover and be commercial without abandoning street appeal. Run DMC was very careful about maintaining that hood affinity. Hell yeah, “My Adidas” was commercial, and eventually led to an actual contract with the company, but far from pandering, it was a signal of the cultural resonance and grassroots power of Hip-Hop. As DMC said in “My Adidas, “We took the beat from the street and put it on TV.” But for every “My Adidas” there was a “Hit It Run,” with beat-boxing and scratching, and spare, unpolished production.
Raising Hell keeps listeners off balance by altering composition and construction. It opens with the sample-driven “Peter Piper” and “It’s Tricky” then segues to the stadium-built “My Adidas” and “Walk This Way.” “Is It Live” and “Perfection” eases back to the hood to “Hit It Run” which features DMC by himself. The title track goes immediately left on a hard rock bent; built on driving electric guitars. Humor is introduced with the keyboard-flavored “You Be Illin,’” which features humorous ad libs and horns. 808’s and heartbreak rule “Dumb Girl” as Run DMC break down the gold diggers that chase after drug dealers and live for that coke high and the cars. “Son of Byford” is solely powered by beatboxing and only runs for a few bars, leading to the album closer, “Proud To be Black,” a history lesson over a drum and snare rhythm.
Raising Hell took you through the entire range of what Hip-Hop was capable of in 1986. It was a vehicle for protest, possessed of the capacity to teach, while wrapped in ego and machismo. You could move product with it, rock parties with it, and possess the hearts of a nation of millions. For the first time in the history of the music, Hip-Hop’s true power would be on display.
The music was not some insular, code-driven mechanism for the impoverished. It was a powerful medium of expression capable of changing the culture of the entire world. Raising Hell put the battery in the back of Hip-Hop, and Run DMC brought that power to center stage. While some may pick this album as the point where Hip-Hop’s commercial viability was recognized by corporate America, the subsequent corporate control of rap music is not the albums fault. We could just as well have used that power ourselves. When someone asks you what rap music can do, you throw on Raising Hell and show them how to walk this way.
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