← Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Hit Parade: The Def Jams Edition
01:26:59
Today, rap is ubiquitous on pop radio. But the genre’s first crossover hit required a little help from some out-of-favor rock stars. This month, how Run-DMC met Aerosmith, and provided career boosts to them, LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys.
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- [00:00]
Chris Melanphy
You're listening ad free on Amazon Music. Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanphy, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One? Series on today's show at the Grammys this year, many of the most compelling performances came from the world of hip hop, from Kendrick Lamar. To new rap star Cardi B, supporting the night's biggest Grammy winner, Bruno Mars. Even if hip hop didn't walk away with any of the nights biggest trophies, which mostly went to pop singers like Mars and Ed Sheeran, not rappers like Lamar, rap in the 2000 and tens is the undisputed top genre in all of recorded music. Just last year 2017, the Hip Hop and R and B genre accounted for one quarter of all music consumed in America. That's remarkable for an art form that didn't exist as a recorded medium 40 years ago, started as street music and was long seen as a fad. When rap historians are asked about the greatest moments in hip hop history, they will often point not just to classic artists, but classic eras. Like sports fans who recall the 69 Mets or the 78 Steelers or the 96 Bulls, rap fans tend to organize hip hop history not just around pivotal players, but pivotal years. For example, rap's widely agreed upon golden era usually starts around 1988, marked by such hall of Famers as Public Enemy and NWA Straight out of Compton, Crazy.
- [02:04]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Named Ice Cube from the Gang Club, Squeeze the Trigger and Bodies Are Hard Dog.
- [02:14]
Chris Melanphy
And the classic era continues through 1994, another pivotal year dominated by the likes of Nas, Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.
- [02:23]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
It was all a dream. I used to read Word Up Magazine, Salt and Pepper and Heavy D up in the limousine Hanging pictures on my wall every Saturday Rap Attack Mr. Magic.
- [02:33]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Molly Mall but one pivotal year for.
- [02:36]
Chris Melanphy
Rap that sometimes goes unmentioned is 1986. If, like me, you are a fan of the pop charts, you you might call it ground zero for rap's dominance of popular music as we know it today. And the key hit from that year, which is anything but underrated, is this one.
- [02:55]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
School girl, sleazy with a classic kind of sassy little skirt hanging way up a knee. It was three young ladies in a school gym locker and they found that we're looking at D I was a high school loser never made it with ladies Jilla boy told me something.
- [03:20]
Chris Melanphy
That's the rap rock summit heard round the World Queens, New York rap trio Run DMC with their landmark 1986 reinvention of the 70s hit Walk this Way, with additional guitar and vocals from the band that wrote and first scored a hit with that song, Boston rockers Aerosmith. A lot of legend has built up around this now classic hit, much of it based in truth, but some of it romanticized. What is indisputable is it was rap's first top 10 hit on the pop charts. And it was the centerpiece of a year when rap went platinum for the first time. Run DMC opened the floodgates and they were not alone. Joining them that year were two acts who scored their first major Billboard chart hits in 86. A solo rapper, also from Queens who went by the name LL Cool J.
- [04:18]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
The leader of the show, keeping you on the go and I know I can't live without my radio.
- [04:25]
Chris Melanphy
And a trio of white Jewish kids from New York City who started playing punk rock before switching to rap, all under the same bratty name. The Beastie Boys.
- [04:42]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Now sleep to Brooklyn.
- [04:47]
Chris Melanphy
These two acts, LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys, recorded for Def Jam, one of the first labels specializing in rap. The label was co founded by Russell Simmons, a manager and budding black entrepreneur whose brother was in Run DMC and masterminded by a white New York University student slash self styled hip hop producer named Rick Rubin. These men helped shape all of these early hip hop stars whose fates in numerous ways were conjoined whether they liked it or not. But after the mid-80s, their futures diverged widely in ways no one could have predicted in 1986 when Walk this Way changed the commercial trajectory of hip hop as pop music. And that's where your hit parade marches today. The week ending September 27th, 1986 when Walk this Way by Run DMC broke into to the top five on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching its peak of number four. Casey Kasem counted it down.
- [05:50]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
American top 40. We're getting closer and closer to the number one song in the USA, number four. Back in 1977, Aerosmith rocked this song to number 10. Now Run DMC rap it to number four.
- [06:05]
Chris Melanphy
It's Walk this Way. How incongruous was this song in 1986? If you are a 21st century hip hop fan, Walk this Way might sound a bit basic, but for the record, the three songs sitting above Run DMC and Aerosmith on the Hot 100 that week in 9-86 were an avalanche of schlock at number three, Lionel Richie's dancing on the Ceiling. At number two. The ballad Friends and Lovers by the one hit wonder pairing of Carl Anderson and Gloria Loring, And at number one, Huey Lewis and the Newses Stuck with.
- [06:55]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
You yes, it's true yes, it's true I am happy to be stuck with.
- [07:02]
Chris Melanphy
You so yeah, run DMC's update of Aerosmith was pretty badass for its day. While Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry are hard to miss on the Walk this Way remake, Aerosmith were not actually given artist credit on this 1986 single, not even as featured artists on the COVID of the 45 RPM vinyl sold in stores that year and on Billboard's charts. The song was simply credited to Run DMC. However, Tyler and Perry are properly credited in the fine print on the Hot 100 and on the label as songwriters. Indeed the only songwriters the reimagining of Walk this Way as a rap song qualified as a new arrangement, but not a rewrite worthy of new publishing. The remake's producers, Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin, received the only production credits. Indeed, everyone associated with Walk this Way made out well, including Run dmc, who became future hall of Famers the moment Jam Master Jay, their dj, scratched over the song's beat in its first five seconds. But the irony of rap's breakthrough hit is it did even more for everyone associated with it than it did for the group officially credited with it. For years before Walk this Way, Joseph, run Simmons, Darrell DMC, McDaniels and Jason Jam Master J Mizel had been boldly presenting themselves as the future not just of rap but of rock and roll, openly demanding a seat at rock's culture, commanding table and incorporating rock elements into their music from the start, they ultimately succeeded in crossing over, but they got more than they bargained for and less. For all their bravado, Run DMC were the giving tree of hip hop, providing a future for the genre and a career boost for other acts, including rock acts. While their own days in the sun were relatively short, they helped give rap the distinctive identity it had been seeking for just shy of a decade. Because when the music first appeared on wax in the 70s, it sounded more.
- [09:23]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Like this Here we go you just clap your hands and you stomp your feet cause you're listening to the sound of the show Chad Beat I'm the K I n G the G I M King Tim Benn and I am.
- [09:36]
Chris Melanphy
Him just me fatback that's New Jersey funk group the Fatback Band with their 1979 single King Tim III parentheses personality Jock the truth is, definitively declaring the first rap single is a little like identifying the first rock and roll song. There are many candidates, and just as it's hard to find the moment at the turn of the 50s where rhythm and blues shaded into rock, hip hop grew out of Several forms of 1970s black music, including funk and disco. Fatback, for their part, were hardly a rap act. They'd been scoring funk hits since 1973, including their eponymous instrumental F Fatbacken, which was beloved by early hip hop DJs for its catchy, loopable drum breaks. Rap at that time was a live performance medium at New York City street parties, and for about half a decade no one thought to commit an emcee to vinyl. Fatback's King Tim III is an almost accidental progenitor of rap. While it features all the basic hallmarks of rap, including an invitation to clap one's hands and King Tim spelling his name and making self aggrandizing BO it was by a funk band rapping almost as a novelty. Anyway, if King Tim III is the first rap single, it barely qualifies because a few weeks after it dropped, a single by an actual rap crew, albeit a prefabricated one, arrived and made a much bigger splash.
- [11:19]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Now what you hear is not a test. I'm rapping to the beat and me.
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Guest Speakers or Interviewees (e.g., LL Cool J, Eminem, or other hip hop figures)
The groove and my friends are gonna.
- [11:26]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Try to move your feet, you see.
- [11:29]
Chris Melanphy
That, of course, is the seminal Rapper's Delight by the Sugarhill Gang, a rap collective of three men from Englewood, New Jersey. Michael Wondermike Wright, Henry Big Bank, Hank Jackson and Guy master G o'.
- [11:45]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Brien.
- [11:46]
Chris Melanphy
Assembled X Factor style by soul singer and budding mogul Sylvia Robinson and signed to her Sugar Hill Records label, the Sugarhill gang released Rapper's Delight in the fall of 1979. It may not be the very first rap single, but it is unquestionably the first major rap hit, reaching number four on the R&B chart and number 36 on the Hot 100 rap's first top 40 hit. It is famous for helping to popularize the term hip hop right in its opening line, and it's also famous or infamous for lifting its rhymes from a contemporary rapper, Grandmaster Kaz, and its hook from a contemporary hit, Chic's 1979 number one smash Good Times. While the rapper's Delight bass line was replayed in the studio rather than sampled directly from Sheik's hit, it was so clearly indebted to Sheik's Bernard Edwards that he and Nile Rogers, the writers of Good Times, were co credited with writing the rap hit within months of its release. Of course, there was a lot of that going around in 1979 and 1980, even among rockets, who were also adapting tricks they picked up from disco. The 1981 hit another one Bites the Dust, written by Queen bassist John Deacon, nicked the exact same bass line from Good Times. I bring up these early rap hits and Chic and Queen as a reminder that hip hop emerged from the same stew as rock, disco, funk and R and B. What King Tim III and Rapper's Delight show is that from its inception, rap was both borrowing from and building on ideas from all of contemporary music. Indeed, hip hop spent much of its first decade honing its own omnivorous identity, hungrily devouring a range of influences. For example, The Sugar Hill Gang's 1981 single Apache was a cover of a cover of a rock song that dated back to 1960. A country and surf flavored instrumental by UK rock act Cliff Richard and the Shadows. Was turned first in 1973 into a funk version by the Incredible Bongo Band, Before finally winding up as the Sugar Hill Gang's now much beloved party record.
- [14:42]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Tonzo. Jump on it, jump on it, jump on it.
- [14:50]
Chris Melanphy
Or consider Afrika Bambaata, who took A sample from 1977's Trans Europe Express by German electronic kraut walkers Kraftwerk. And utterly transformed it into the pioneering 1982 electro rap smash Planet Rock. Or how about Grandmaster Flash and his associated acts Melly Mel and the Furious Five? Their leadoff singles like Freedom and the Birthday Party were relatively straightforward party records, fusing hip hop with R and B and disco. But by 1982, Flash and Mel were producing transformational singles that reimagined their forebears and transformed their contemporaries.
- [15:51]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Don't push me cause I'm close to the edge I'm trying not to lose my head it's like a jungle sometimes.
- [16:03]
Chris Melanphy
The Message remains one of the most influential recordings of the rock era. Artists as diverse as Duran Duran, Stiff Little Fingers, Depeche Mode and Puff Daddy have covered, dropped allusions to, or interpolated the message over the decades. It was influencing rock acts almost immediately. Phil Collins and his producer Hugh Padjam confessed that they were such fans of the song that they borrowed Melly Mel's chant for the 1983 Genesis hit Mama. The song even casts a shadow on Broadway to this day. For the last three years, a dead obvious allusion to the message has been dropped every night in Lin Manuel Miranda's smash hip hop musical Hamilton.
- [16:58]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
You don't have the votes, you don't have the votes. Ha ha ha ha Ha. You're gonna need congressional approval and you don't have the votes. Such a blunder.
- [17:09]
Guest Speakers or Interviewees (e.g., LL Cool J, Eminem, or other hip hop figures)
Sometimes it makes me wonder why I.
- [17:11]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Even bring the thunder.
- [17:12]
Guest Speakers or Interviewees (e.g., LL Cool J, Eminem, or other hip hop figures)
Why he even brings the thunder.
- [17:14]
Chris Melanphy
But for all its influence, the Message was a fairly modest hit. It did reach number four on Billboard's R and B chart. Nothing to sneeze at at a time when R and B radio programmers were nearly as resistant to rap as rock and pop stations were. But that position seemed to be a ceiling for rap hits in those early years at black radio. Sugar Hill Gang's Rapper's Delight Africa, Bombada's Planet Rock and Kurtis Blow's the Brakes all topped out at number four.
- [17:45]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Brakes on a bus Brakes on the car Brakes to make you a superstar Brakes win and break to lose these here breaks to rock your shoes and these are the breaks Break it up, break it up, break it up.
- [18:02]
Chris Melanphy
The stats were even worse on the pop charts. The Message underperformed virtually all of its early hip hop peers, peaking at number 62 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1982. It's strange with 2020 hindsight to think of a single this well known falling so far short of the top 40. And the same went a year later for Grandmaster and Melly Nell's single White Line. This immortal single, co credited to Grandmaster Flash even though he did not actually take part, did not make the RB top 40, peaking on Hot Black Singles at number 47. And it missed the Hot 100 entirely. Remarkable, especially since the song was a smash on New York pop and dance stations. And Melly, Mel and Sylvia Robinson had conceived the song as a new wave crossover hit. They built White Lines out of a clever, catchy interpolation of of the dance punk track Cavern by underground rock band Liquid Liquid. So by 1983 and 84, this was the chart situation for rap. Its influence was everywhere, on both white and black radio. But the actual rap singles would hit a glass ceiling in Billboard. This despite the fact that rap had begun infiltrating other hits by both pop and RB stars in England. As noted in our third episode of Hit Parade about George Michael, rap was infecting the hits of such acts as Wham.
- [19:57]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Hey, everybody, take a look at me I've got street credibility I may not have a job but have a good time with the boys that I meet down on the Line is the very best.
- [20:11]
Chris Melanphy
And former Sex pistols affiliate Malcolm McLaren with his nursery rhyme turned breakdance anthem Buffalo Gals.
- [20:18]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Four Buffalo Gals go around the outside round the outside round the Outside Four Buffalo gals go around the outside In.
- [20:25]
Chris Melanphy
America on the R and B charts, rap cadence and production could be heard on such black radio chart toppers as Frankie Smith's Tongue Tripping Double Dutch Bus. Zap's assortment of vocoderized electro jams, including more bounce to the ounce. And funk band Cameo's fluttery hybrid hit She's Strange, which sported long rap breaks.
- [21:06]
Guest Speakers or Interviewees (e.g., LL Cool J, Eminem, or other hip hop figures)
I like the way she walks I like the way she talks and she turns me on with a special concern Now I'm a different guy and I don't compare to many but next to her I'm plain ordinary not many Conceived.
- [21:16]
Chris Melanphy
Rap'S first wave had established the music's potential and the emphasis had begun to shift from the DJ to the emcee. Joseph, Darrell and Jason were as hungry to get over as any of their hip hop contemporaries, but they would go about it with a very different sonic footprint.
- [21:37]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
I got a big long daddy knock like a seville and written right on the side and readjust the kill so if you see me cruising girls just don't leave a step aside There ain't a a first come first serve bases cooling out girl take you to the death places one of a kind and for your people delighting for your sucker MC this just ain't right because you're biting all your life you're cheating on.
- [21:58]
Chris Melanphy
Your wife sucker MCs run DMC's debut 1983 single paired with the Flip side, It's like that broke virtually every pattern in rap to that date and kicked off the second wave minimalist where most prior hip hop had been lavish, glowering where it had been festive and suffused with a more sharply defined sense of MC personality. Run DMC's music was a line in the sand. Even Grandmaster and Mel's the Message for all its lyrical gravitas, presented a lusher sonic backdrop than Run DMC did on their initial single or on their hard edged self titled 1984 debut album Hard.
- [22:43]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Times spreading just like the flu. Watch out homeboy don't let it catch you.
- [22:55]
Chris Melanphy
The album, co produced by Run's brother Russell Simmons and celebrated hip hop producer Larry Smith, placed rock elements front and center like no rap recording had before. Rockbox, the album's third single, featured squealing metal style guitar by axeman Eddie Martinez, who went on to play with everyone from David Lee Roth to Robert Palmer.
- [23:23]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Boy, it's up to every perpetrator Fraud you're out the cold wacky keep the ground cold born you're the kind of guy that girl ignored I'm Dr. Catty you fixing a fooling My name is.
- [23:33]
Chris Melanphy
Joe the It must also be said that Run DMC marketed themselves with a then utterly original style and presentation. Eschewing the close fitting denim and breakdance gear of rap's first wave, Joseph, Darrell and Jason came on stage in a uniform as succinct as their music. Black jackets, black fedoras, gold chains and unlaced white sneakers. Even Darrell's giant no nonsense square framed glasses made a statement. Run DMC like their music were no joke. This presentation and the rock heavy Sound of Run DMC's 1984 debut were inspirations to an energetic young man on the make in New York City, NYU student Rick Rubin. In 1983, at the age of 20, Rubin, who had been hanging around clubs soaking up the emerging hip hop scene, teamed with John Bias, whose nom due acts was DJ Jazzy J on It's Yours, a breakbeat and scratch heavy single Rubin produced out of his NYU dorm room. Rapped by Clarence Ronnie Keaton, AKA T. Larocque, the single's lyrics were even more meta and self aware than your average.
- [24:45]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Hip hop joint taking a record that's already made with the help of the mixboard used in the crossfade. Rhythm can be kept to a self choice pace depending on moment or depth of bass. I don't really know but somebody said some musical rhythm can mess with your head I don't know if it's true I leave it up to you.
- [25:07]
Chris Melanphy
This single proved Ruben's entree into the center stage of rap. It's Yours was the favorite rap record of 27 year old Russell Simmons, an artist manager who in addition to his brother's group, steered the careers of such rap acts as Kurtis Blow, Houdini and the Fearless Four. When Simmons was told at a party that the producer of It's Yours was there, he was gobsmacked. When a bearded, scraggly white kid was pointed out to him, Simmons asked again to meet the producer of the T LaRoc record, not believing it was Rubin. Rubin, for his part, was Inspired by Run DMC's debut singles and album. Their sound was exactly the sort of rock flavored hybrid he was pursuing on his own that he knew could take rap to the next level. Rubin had already started a label from his dorm room to issue the 12 inch single of it's Yours. He called it Def Jam Recordings. Simmons, impressed with Rubin, decided to partner with him on Def Jam. This not only formally launched Def Jam as A full blown label. It also gave Rubin an arm's length connection to RundMC, even though the rap trio was already signed to Profile, another early rap label. Profile did very well with Run DMC's debut album. Though it never cracked the top 50 on Billboard's album chart, Run DMC was certified gold just before Christmas 1984 for sales of a half million copies just nine months after its release. It was a remarkable milestone for a rap album. To that date, only Kurtis Blow's self titled 1980 debut had gone gold and it had been more than four years since that certification. Capitalizing on their debut's acclaim, Jam Master J, Run and DMC moved quickly to record their sophomore album, which Profile issued in early 1985. The first single would find Run DMC dissing the biggest acts in rock and pop. In the video, they crashed an imaginary museum of rock artifacts years before the Rock and Roll hall of Fame existed. And the song and the album were unsubtly titled King of Rock. Hey, this is a rock and roll museum. You guys don't belong in here.
- [27:23]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
I'm the king of rock There is None higher sucker MCs should call me sire to burn my kingdom, you must choose fire I won't stop rock until I retire now we raise.
- [27:37]
Chris Melanphy
The album went gold even faster than its predecessor. The Recording Industry association of America certified King of Rock in June of 85, less than four months after it landed. So high was Run DMC's profile by the summer of 85 that on July 13 they made history by being the only rap act invited to perform at Live Aid. They took seriously their role as rap ambassadors. Live from the RFK Stadium stage in Philadelphia, DMC observed, quote, we have no band, just Jam Master Jay. And for his part, Run boasted, we.
- [28:14]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Got a whole lot of rap groups backstage tonight. But do you want y' all to know one thing? Me, I'm the king of. I won't stop until I retire.
- [28:38]
Chris Melanphy
It was a moment Run DMC would cherish the rest of their careers. One year later, on the song My Adidas, the first single of what would become their breakthrough album, Raising Hell, they commemorated the event and and were not shy about taking a victory lap. For all this attention and acclaim. As of the end of 1985 and the start of 86, run DMC had yet to score a true pop crossover hit. None of their singles had so much as cracked the Hot 100. That would eventually change, thanks largely to Rick Rubin. But first, he and Russell Simmons had a new label to get off The Ground and their first two major signings both turned out to be pivotal. James Todd Smith, 16 years old as of 1984, raised in Hollis, Queens, minutes from Run DMC's neighborhood, imagined himself an irresistible lothario. And he was basically right. Charming, handsome and witty, he gave himself the nickname Ladies Love Cool James or LL Cool J. When Rick Rubin met him, teenage LL had been rapping since age 9. Within months after LL turned 17, he and Rubin recorded his seminal debut album, Radio. Upon its release In November of 85, the album was critically acclaimed for its sparse and resolutely uncluttered production style. The COVID of the LP was a simple photo of a massive boombox. On the back was one prominent production credit, the same one Def Jam placed on the label of LL's debut single, I Need a Beat. The very apt coinage reduced by Rick Rubin.
- [30:35]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
My radio Believe me, I like it loud I'm the man with the box that can rock the crowd walking down.
- [30:48]
Chris Melanphy
The Radio album began generating hits in the opening weeks of 1986. Its titular leadoff single, I Can't Live Without My radio, reached number 15 on Billboard's Hot Black Singles chart in February. Weeks later, Rock the Bells dropped, peaking at number 17 in April. The same month, radio became Def Jam's first first gold album. With LL Cool J, Def Jam had a charismatic and cocksure solo star, an easy sell for magazine profiles and teen bedroom pinups. And their other major signing, well, they certainly were attention getting, especially once they decided to get serious about rap. The Beastie Boys formed as a hardcore punk trio in 1981. The group was led by a not quite 16 year old Michael diamond, along with friends John Berry on guitar and on drums, the only non boy Beastie, Kate Schellenbach. They soon added a 17 year old bassist named Adam Youth. And by 82 the Beastie Boys were playing support gigs for such punk luminaries as Bad Brains and the Dead Kennedys at clubs around New York such as Max's, Kansas City and CBGB's. At a live gig in late 1982, the group met 17 year old Adam Horovitz, son of celebrated playwright Israel Horovitz. When Berry left the group, Horovitz took over on guitar. But they weren't playing punk much longer. On a lark, in early 1983, the Beastie Boys called local New York ice cream chain Carvel to order a custom birthday cake. They recorded the Prank Call and they turned it into a record.
- [32:51]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
May I help you? Yes, what's your name? Hello?
- [32:54]
Chris Melanphy
Hello?
- [32:55]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Man, you got cookie puss's number. Here's my supervisor, he'll help you. Yo man, where's the supervisor at? I got the number anyway, baby.
- [33:08]
Chris Melanphy
Cookie Puss A moronic mix of Jerky Boys style hijinks a decade ahead of the Jerky Boys dumbed down rap lingo and hip hop beats and samples became an underground hit. The Cookie Puss EP did well enough that the Beastie Boys decided to ditch hardcore punk and commit full on to rap. Drummer Kate Schellenbach left the group in 1984. Incidentally, she later made out quite well joining the hip hop flavored indie rock band Luscious Jackson in the 90s and scoring such hits as Naked Eye.
- [33:45]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
With My Naked Eyes.
- [33:53]
Chris Melanphy
As for the Beastie Boys, now reduced to a brash trio of Michael Diamond, Adam Youth and Adam Horovitz, they adopted rap nicknames Mike D, MCA and Adrock. Fortuitously, one of the DJs they hired for their live gigs was Rick Rubin, the multi hyphenate NYU student who offered to sign them to his budding Def Jam record label. In 1984, Rubin produced the Beasties first 12 inch single for DEF Jam Rock Hard, a single that shamelessly stole the core riff of multi platinum metal band acdc's hit Back in Black and let the Beasties rap over it. The ACDC sample was not legally authorized and the single was not on record store shelves for long, but Rock Hard set the template for Rubin's sound with the Beasties. It was raw like LL Cool J, but more maximalist and dense. And like Run dmc, the Beasties would foreground rock guitar. But the rock elements owing to the Beasties, punk heritage and frankly, race would be even more obvious. Like Sam Phillips at Sun records in the 50s, Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons had found themselves a trio of hip hop Elvis Presleys by 1985. The Beasties didn't have an album out yet, but they scored a lucky break when the biggest pop star in America, Madonna, invited the trio to open dates on her Virgin tour. The army of Madonna wannabes packing arenas to hear Like a Virgin and Lucky Star did not take kindly to the loud antics of the Beastie Boys. But the tour got the trio promotion and MTV exposure, particularly for their rap rock single She's on it, which appeared on the 1985 soundtrack to the Def Jam affiliated hip hop movie Crush group. The Beastie Boys and Rick Rubin began work on their formal debut album by the start of 1986. Six months ahead of the album, they dropped a leadoff single that scored airplay on Black Radio in the spring of 86 and actually made Billboard's Hot Black Singles chart, peaking at number 55. The sample heavy track Hold It Now, Hit it featured sound bites from songs by Trouble Funk, Cool and the Gang, Bob James, Curtis Blow and Doug E. Fresh. This was the thing about the Beastie Boys. However puerile their lyrics and craven their antics, their records were on trend with current rap styles, and they and Rick Rubin pushed sampling technology in bold new directions. Bold and again brazen. Their single She's Crafty led off with an unmistakable riff bitten from Led Zeppelin's crunching Houses of the Holy track the Ocean. By the summer of 1986, the leading acts of rap's second wave not just Run DMC and the acts on Def Jam, but rising rap stars like Houdini and the Fat Boys were all primed to break big. The scene just needed that one breakthrough that would take hip hop from gold to platinum. That's when Rick Rubin had his brainstorm, and it flowed through a rock band that hadn't scored a big hit in nearly a decade. And we're in the middle of a comeback that was flopping.
- [38:05]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Singer.
- [38:19]
Chris Melanphy
If Aerosmith had stopped recording at the end of the 1970s, they'd already be strong candidates for the Rock and Roll hall of Fame. Though they launched in the shadow of forebears like the Roland Stones and Led Zeppelin, the band's persistence, skill and songwriting made them influential and a potent 70s draw both on stage and on the radio. It took dream on two tries to become a hit. The original 1973 release peaked well short of the top 40, but after several acclaimed albums began to sell, the band started scoring serious radio hit hits. The classic Sweet Emotion was Aerosmith's first top 40 hit in the summer of 75. It helped spur their album Toys in the Attic to a million in sales and encouraged Columbia to reissue Dream on as a single in early 76 when it finally reached the top 10. What also made Sweet Emotion unique was the syncopated black derived rhythms of Steven Tyler singing on the verses, punctuated by the band's catchy blues derived start stop rhythms. Sweet Emotion, however, was almost sedate compared to the groove on another cut from Toys in the Attic. Walk this Way like Dream on took two tries to become a hit. It was first issued as a single in the summer of 75 as a follow up to Sweet Emotion. 1 When writing the songs, boogie rock groove guitarist Joe Perry said he was inspired by New Orleans funk legends the Meters. Steven Tyler added nonsensical words to Perry's catchy riff, eventually turning them into tongue twisting lyrics about a high school boy losing his virginity. Tyler said he wrote them practically as percussion. On the final recording, he essentially raps them. The song's immortal kick drum rhythm was originally laid down by Tyler himself as well as then later played and embellished with hi hat by Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer. Walk this Way peaked at number 10 on the Hot 100 in February 1977. Unfortunately, it would be the last top 10 single by Aerosmith for quite some time. By the late 70s, the band became infamous for their drug intake. The music industry dubbed Tyler and Perry the Toxic Twins. Aerosmith spent the first half of the 1980s in the music business wilderness. In 1979, Joe Perry left the band and stayed away for five years. Between 79 and 85 they issued only three studio albums and none of their tracks, with or without Perry, connected it radio. Even after Perry rejoined their 1985 star so called comeback album done with Mirrors on a new label, Geffen Records was an underperformer and by general agreement the band's least inspired. It barely scraped the top 40 on the album chart. In short, when Tyler and Perry were approached by Rick Rubin and Def Jam in 86 to consider re recording Walk this Way, Aerosmith were about as out of favor as a formerly multi platinum rock band could be. They needed Run DMC even more than Run DMC needed them. Indeed, the only reason Run DMC's team needed them at all was as a kind of Good Housekeeping seal of approval on their remake. Unlike his Brazen sampling of AC DC and Led Zeppelin with the Beastie Boys, R.A. rubin, who would be producing a Run DMC album for the first time, was looking to make his experiment legit. They say success has many fathers and mothers. Among the people who take credit for the idea of a remake of Walk this Way is Sue Cummings, a writer at Spin magazine who, while preparing profiles of both Run DMC and aerosmith in early 1986, observed the that the hip hop trio were at least slightly familiar with Walk this Way. Cummings even called Rick Rubin to ask for a tape of Run DMC to give Aerosmith and to suggest that the two groups should meet. So Cummings was instrumental in fomenting the rap rock summit, but so was Rubin and Run DMC themselves. The rappers did know the opening beat and riff of Aerosmith's hit long before they'd met Ruben. Jam Master Jay had it in his arsenal of beats that could be looped and scratched, but they weren't actually all that familiar with the whole song Run claims they didn't even know the title. And the idea that Walk this Way could be rapped, even though Steven Tyler's lyrics were practically rapped to begin with, wasn't theirs. It was Ruben who put together all of the elements. In an interview with the Washington Post about the history of the song, Rubin said, quote, we had finished the album and I listened to it and it felt like there was something missing. There was also this conversation about how hip hop and rap were not music to people who were not already fans of it. The gap was so far that not only did they not understand it, they did not understand it to be no music. I was looking for a way to bridge that gap in the story, finding a piece of music that was familiar and already hip hop friendly so that on the hip hop side it would make sense. And on the non hip hop side, you'd see it wasn't so far away. Rubin's friend, musician and journalist Tim Sommer, told Rick that a remake of Walk this Way would be stronger if Aerosmith were actually on it. And Rubin replied, they'll never do it. Old white guys don't get this rap thing. As it turned out, Steven Tyler was a minor fan of hip hop. During his drug using years, while going to score on New York street corners, he'd also purchased rap mixtapes and began noticing, out of the corner of his eye, the burgeoning New York rap scene. For his part, Joe Perry saw the connection between rap and the blues music he loved. Both men were wary of Rick Rubin's proposed hybrid, but they also had very little to lose. If anything, Run DMC were much more skeptical. Rubin had to convince the rap trio that the idea wouldn't be corny. Hell no, this ain't gonna happen, DMC later recalled in the Washington Post. This is hillbilly gibberish, country bumpkin bullshit. The Walk this Way session with Run dmc Tyler and Perry could have been a train wreck. Run objected to the hokiness of lyrics like Backstreet Lover always hide beneath the covers. Tyler and Perry were aghast that Run DMC came into the studio barely knowing the song. In addition to playing guitar very capably, Joe Perry realized the recording lacked a bass part, and he asked the Beastie Boys who were hanging around the studio if they had a bass he could borrow. When Tyler and Perry left, they were charmed and bemused, but not even convinced the recording would come out. But come out it did. Walk this way materialized in May 1986 on Raising Hell. Run DMC's third album and first full Rick Rubin production. It would become the album's second single following the aforementioned My Adidas, the crew's ode to shell toed sneakers backed by the potent B side Peter Piper. My Adidas, which actually spawned a sponsorship deal with the Shoemaker, got as high as number five on Hot Black Singles, run DMC's biggest R& B hit. Having re established run DMC's bona fides at black radio, Walk this Way was issued by Profile Records as the album's second single right in the middle of the summer of 86. And it might not have been half the monster hit it became without its music video. A clip that reunited the Run DMC crew with Aerosmith in an empty theater in Union City, New Jersey. If Walk this Way, the song was an unabashed attempt to break down barriers between rock and rapid. The Walk this Way video was even more literal minded. Director John Small actually erected a wall on stage between the two crews rehearsing. Jam Master J starts the dialogue scratching over the beat of the song as it starts. Run and DMC rap at the top of their lungs, drowning out Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. And it is finally Tyler who takes his mic stand and busts a hole in the wall just in time for the chorus. For all its journey, drama and production value, the video was not guaranteed rotation at mtv. The music video channel had begun to get past the institutionalized racism of its early years. By 1986, artists from Prince and Whitney Houston to Lionel Richie and Janet Jackson were in regular rotation on the channel, but MTV was still playing little to no rap. Yo, MTV Raps wouldn't exist for another two years. Good thing the Walk this Way video was so irresistible. And even though Aerosmith were not at this time terribly beloved by the video channel, the combination of Aerosmith and Run DMC was MTV catnip. The clip dominated Dial mtv, the channel's daily call in request show, and MTV placed the video into power rotation. All that exposure finally made Run DMC platinum superstars the week. Walk this way peaked at no. 4 on the Hot 108. At Hot Black Singles, Raising Hell reached its album chart peak of number three. The album was certified platinum in July, double platinum in September, and the following spring triple platinum, all sales milestones that no rap album had ever seen. By early 1987, Raising Hell had also spawned multiple hits, including the comic book story song Ub Illin, a 29 pop hit in the fall of 86, And the Tongue Tripping It's Tricky, another hit video that was a regular Dial MTV favorite and a top 20 R&B hit in the winter of 87. After the platinum breakthrough of Raising Hell, the acts on Def Jam were primed to break into a higher level of fame, and the first to benefit would be the Beastie Boys. They had been working on material for their debut full length album all year, and they'd even gotten help from Run DMC. Darryl McDaniels Co wrote there Slow and Low, a Beasties song that echoed Run DMC's flow. But the Beasties most obvious hitbound track was another Rick Rubin production with very prominent guitar, written primarily by Adam Youth AKA mca. You gotta fight for your right to Party was meant to be a parody of frat boy shenanigans that was of course enjoyed unironically by the Beasties growing Dudebro fanbase. The music video portrayed a food fight that spun out of control, and it included cameos from Rick Rubin, LL Cool J, and then unknown future MTV VJ Tabitha Soren.
- [51:16]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
You gotta fight for your right to party.
- [51:25]
Chris Melanphy
Throughout their album, the Beastie Boys not only riffed on rock poses and attitudes, they produced effective hybrids of rap and crunching hard rock. No Sleep Till Brooklyn even featured guitar licks from Kerry King of Slayer, a respected thrash metal band Rubin had signed to Def Jam and whose album Rain in Blood Rubin himself produced. In the video, the Beasties took a page from Run DMC's King of Rock video, taking the piss out of rock fans who didn't think rap was legitimate music.
- [51:55]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Who the hell are you with the band? The band? Where's your instruments?
- [52:02]
Chris Melanphy
What the.
- [52:04]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
We only play rock music here.
- [52:07]
Chris Melanphy
Why you dissing that.
- [52:12]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Rock and roll? Yeah, dude, like I think we're the band. I've been waiting for you boys all day. Get on stage.
- [52:32]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Reuben and Simmons talked the Beasties out.
- [52:34]
Chris Melanphy
Of some of their most puerile jokes.
- [52:36]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
For the album's title, including an unfortunate gay slur the Beasties later came to regret. But the group did sneak an Easter egg onto the COVID hold it up to a mirror, and the tail code on the back of the airplane reads Eat me. The snideness and political incorrectness of the album would have been insufferable, and to some music fans in 1986 they were if the music weren't so irresistible. It's the handiwork of three dudes barely out of their teens, lobbing a raspberry at both rock and rap. Even the deep cuts on License to Illustrate, like Slow Ride, Time to Get Ill and Girls Became Barroom standards. The album's release was summed up brilliantly by a headline in the Village Voice.
- [53:24]
Chris Melanphy
Three jerks make a masterpiece.
- [53:31]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Girls. And in the morning it's girls. Girls. Cause in the evening it's girls. I like the way that they walk and it's chilly in a park. And I can always make a smile. From White Castle to the now.
- [53:58]
Chris Melanphy
Back.
- [53:58]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
In the day.
- [54:02]
Chris Melanphy
Although it took a few months to climb the trail charts, Licensed To Ill went where no rap album, including Run DMC's Raising Hell, had gone before. All the way to the top. One month after Christmas, Ill broke into the top 10, and by March of 1987, the Beasties knocked Bon Jovi's Slippery when Wet out of the Billboard album charts top slot. Ill spent seven weeks at number one, and that same month the single Fight for your right peaked at number seven. By the spring of 87, the album had matched Raising Hell's triple platinum sales. Three decades later, License to Ill is diamond certified for 10 million in US sales. It remains one of the best selling single albums in rap history. For all their importance to rap's crossover, the Beastie Boys both expanded rap's fan base and complicated its media image. In 1986, they supported Run DMC on their Raising Hell tour alongside LL Cool J and another Russell Simmons act, Houdini. But the Beasties profile and the havoc they wreaked cast a shadow on the whole enterprise. Toward the end of the tour, a riot broke out at a show in Long Beach, California, and the Beasties, rowdy fans, were a prime cause of the chaos. By 1987, the Beasties were back out on the road with Run DMC on the two Together Forever tour. Now that both Raising Hell and Licensed Ill had dominated the charts, the two crews shared equal billing. But wherever they went, the Beastie Boys made the headlines, usually negative ones. Early stops on the tour featured a 21 foot hydraulic inflatable penis. While the stage stunt was retired before the Together Forever tour was over, the Beasties also featured women writhing in cages, and the boys sprayed their audience with Budweiser. Run DMC largely stuck by the bratty fratty Beasties, but the negative attention was starting to rub off on the other rising rappers with all the implications of the Beasties white privilege. In a 1987 interview, LL Cool J didn't mince words.
- [56:09]
Guest Speakers or Interviewees (e.g., LL Cool J, Eminem, or other hip hop figures)
It was just ridiculous. You know, I'm real mad at the Beastie Boys because they definitely messed up up a lot of things for me because now that's one of the lanes that's like Been closed up a little, made tight, tighter. For me, it's harder for me to use that lane, which is one of my strong points. But I'm gonna continue to do it.
- [56:27]
Chris Melanphy
Some say the Beastie Boys are making a mockery.
- [56:31]
Guest Speakers or Interviewees (e.g., LL Cool J, Eminem, or other hip hop figures)
I feel they are. I feel. Look, I'm not mad at the Beastie Boys. I respect them. Look, I respect them. They sold albums, they know what to make because they made it. I have no problem with that. More power to you. I wish you much success, but I wish they wouldn't run around the country and make it hard for us. You know what I'm saying? I wish they learned how to act. They need some self control. They all get used on their report card from our group because they acting like little kids.
- [56:53]
Chris Melanphy
LL was annoyed not only because the Beasties were slowing his role on tour, but because they were disrupting his world domination plan just as he was taking it up a notch. LL spent the closing weeks of 1986 recording his second album, Bigger and Deafer, or Bad for short, released in the spring of 1987. After recording his 1985 debut with Rick Rubin for his sophomore effort, LL expanded his palette of collaborators, working with Los Angeles producer DJ Poo, who would go on to produce an array of 90s West coast luminaries such as Ice Cube and the Dog Pound. In general, DJ Poo's sharp sonic approach helped LL maintain his street credibility as heard on the album's leadoff single, I'm Bad. By the summer of 87, I'm Bad had reached the R and b chart top five and pushed the album to number three, matching Run DMC's peak the year before. Ll's renewed street cred would come in handy as Bigger and Duffer presented his biggest pop crossover move to date. He scored Rapp's first ever hit ballad with the succinct and shmoopy title, I need love.
- [58:31]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Romance, sheer delight, how sweet I gotta find me a girl to make my life complete. You can scratch my back, we'll get cozy and huddle. I'll lay down my jacket so you can walk over a puddle. I give you a rose, pull out your chair before we eat, Kiss you on the cheek and say ooh, girl.
- [58:47]
Chris Melanphy
I need love was unprecedented in more ways than one. It was the most emotionally vulnerable and any rapper had allowed himself to be since Melly Mel's the Message, but in a completely different, more bourgeois romantic context. It pushed Bigger and Deafer to double platinum status, putting LL in range of Run DMC and the Beastie Boys. The album would eventually sell 3 million copies and most unprecedented, it gave rap its first chart topping single. Right through the mid-1980s, Def Jam profile and the other rap labels had battled radio stations caution at playing rap, and not just at pop stations. Even black radio stations preferred the smoother or pop friendlier sounds of Freddie Jackson, Whitney Houston and Janet Jackson. But LL's kinder, gentler I Need Love was the Trojan Horse. It reached number one on Billboard's Hot Black Singles chart in September 1987 and number 14 on the Hot 100.
- [59:48]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
All three of rap's top selling artists were in clover by the end of 1987. The Beastie Boys License to Ill ranked as Billboard's third biggest album of the year, behind only Bon Jovi and Paul Simon. Run DMC had a very good Christmas. You might say a very special one. They were the only rap act invited to record a track for the multi platinum Spring Special Olympics benefit album A Very Special Christmas. Christmas in Hollis was the only new composition written specifically for the album. All of the other performers, from Sting to Stevie Nicks to Bruce Springsteen, recorded traditional carols, hymns or covers of holiday rock classics, though the song's royalties largely.
- [60:35]
Chris Melanphy
Go to charity, Christmas and Hollis remains.
- [60:38]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Running DMC's perennial scoring holiday airplay every year. In 2017 alone, according to Nielsen Music.
- [60:47]
Chris Melanphy
Christmas in Hollis was spun more than.
- [60:50]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
3,000 times on U.S. terrestrial radio, about a thousand times more than Walk this way.
- [60:58]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
It was Dec. 24 when Hollis at the Dog when I seen a man chilling with his dog in the park and I proved them very.
- [61:10]
Chris Melanphy
Finally, at the end of 1987, LL Cool J supplied a hot new single for a hit soundtrack populated largely by rock performers like the bangles and poison. LL's sharp, jazz inflected Rick Rubin produced single Going Back to Cali appeared on the soundtrack to the Brat Pack movie Less Than Zero, a gold album issued just before the 1987 holiday season. Cali, with witty lyrics, staccato horns and copious vinyl scratching, was a 12R B hit and a 31 hit on the Hot 100 by early 1988. LL wasn't the only rapper on Less Than Zero, however, and the track this other rap act previewed on the soundtrack album was a warning flare to rap's second wave that the ground was already shifting in the 50s babes, how low.
- [62:16]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Can you go, Death Row, what a brother know. Once again, back is the incredible Ryan.
- [62:30]
Chris Melanphy
Bring the Noise from Public Enemy wasn't just the Long island rap crew's most acclaimed single to date, later ranked by Rolling Stone and Pitchfork among the top singles of all time. It was also a preview of their most legendary album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. When it dropped In June of 1988, nation of millions unofficially inaugurated rap's golden age, upping the ante on sonic omnivorousness, political militancy and Afrocentrism of rap at the turn of the 90s. If Nirvana in 1991 would make a generation of rock act seem old hat, Public Enemy's second album and the conscious and gangster rappers that would emerge in their wake would represent a similar sea change in the sound of hip hop. Not unlike the shift Run DMC brought about in 1984, it was a period that would force run DMC, the Beastie Boys and LL Cool J to sink or swim with the tide.
- [63:30]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Other than their Christmas single, run DMC took 1987 off, the first year since 1984, they didn't release an album, a momentum killing move the trio came to regret. Still, heading into 1988, Run DMC were at an imperial peak of recognition. So they did what pop acts from Elvis Presley to Madonna to the Spice Girls did at their respective high points starred in their own movie. The film and its accompanying album were called Tougher Than Leather and it was directed by Rick Rubin, his only directorial effort. It was an odd fiction biopic hybrid, not as inspired as Desperately Seeking Susan and more grim faced than Spice World.
- [64:17]
Chris Melanphy
It was out of theaters quickly.
- [64:20]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
The Tougher Than Leather album was a solid seller, but not a blockbuster. It went platinum immediately, mostly on pent up demand from fans awaiting Run DMC's follow up to Raising Hell. But it spent only two weeks in the top 10 and about six months total on the album chart, less than half the length of any of their first three albums. Response from critics and the rap community was mixed. Certain hip hop heads, including, ironically enough, Public Enemy's Chuck D, praised the album's directness, as on tracks like the lead single Run's House. On the other hand, Rubin and Run DMC tried to make their rap rock lightning strike twice. This time, Rather than a 70s jam, Reuben reached back to the 60s and a well known album cut from prefab pop band the Monkees.
- [65:30]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary, where are you going to.
- [65:47]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Like Aerosmith, the Monkeys were were undergoing an 80s renaissance and it probably seemed a worthy follow up to the 1986 experiment. But Run DMC's redo was considerably less inspiring.
- [66:17]
Chris Melanphy
Now.
- [66:20]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Run DMC were the only one.
- [66:22]
Chris Melanphy
Of the major second wave rap acts.
- [66:24]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
To issue an album in the fabled hip hop year of 1988, a year that saw debuts by third waivers from N.W.A to Slick Rick to MC Lite to EPMD to Big Daddy Kane to Biz Markie, LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys were waited until 1989 for follow ups and for different reasons. Both would experience commercial slumps. In mid-89, LL issued Walking with a Panther, his third album. He maintained his loverman Persona with the set's lead off single, the smarmy I'm that type of guy.
- [67:07]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
The type guy.
- [67:11]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
But even more than the movie making Run dmc, LL was arguably the first rapper to experience a serious backlash from the rap community. Walking With A Panther was regarded as soft and lightweight, with novelty tracks like Big Old Bud. And at a concert that year at Harlem, New York's Apollo Theater, LL was.
- [67:32]
Chris Melanphy
Booed off the stage.
- [67:34]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
He would need to stage a comeback.
- [67:37]
Chris Melanphy
Wait for it.
- [67:39]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
As for the Beasties, who decamped from New York to la, their next move was more unexpected. After a cat cameo appearance in Tougher Than Leather, the Beastie Boys had a massive falling out with Def Jam and Rick Rubin. Over months of legal wrangling, they extricated themselves from their Def Jam contract and signed with Capitol Records.
- [68:13]
Chris Melanphy
As a result, Their second album came.
- [68:15]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Out three years after License to Ill, an eternity in pop, let alone hip hop.
- [68:21]
Chris Melanphy
They joined forces with the up and.
- [68:24]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Coming west coast production production team the Dust Brothers, who, like Public Enemies Bomb Squad, were experts at building dense collages of sound out of samples. While Ill had earned almost grudging respect from critics in 1986, 1989's Paul's Boutique did something no one saw coming. It was hailed as a high culture magnum opus.
- [68:51]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
But not just one people. And now we're going to bust with the Body Swole sequel. More Adidas sneakers and a plumber's got pliers got more suits than Jacobia and Myers.
- [69:01]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
The problem was that Paul's Boutique didn't connect with the general public, at least at first. It peaked outside the top 10 in the summer of 89 and went gold, a comedown from the multi platinum license to Ill. Its lead single, the funky hey Ladies, peaked at number 36. Paul's Boutique would become a word of.
- [69:33]
Chris Melanphy
Mouth hit the album, which, by the.
- [69:36]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Way, could not exist today. Given its dense thicket of samples that would be prohibitively expensive to clear would.
- [69:44]
Chris Melanphy
Take a full decade to work its.
- [69:46]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Way to double platinum. So who among the class of 1986 was hitting it big at the turn of the 90s? If all three of these acts were slumping. Go figure. It was the rockers, not the rappers. Remember Aerosmith's faltering 1985 comeback? Their 86 team up with Run DMC on Walk this Way did more than revive the Boston band's career, it reinvented it. Approaching the age of 40 in 1987, Steven Tyler, Joe Perry and the rest of Aerosmith suddenly found themselves bigger than they'd ever been. Prior to their early 80s wilderness period, Aerosmith had racked up a handful of gold albums and a couple of platinum discs. After 1986, they issued new albums that generated more pop hits and sold better than anything from their first decade. Their 1987 album Permanent Vacation, for example, with the hits Dude Looks Like a Lady, angel and Ragdoll, went double platinum within months and is now quintuple platinum. Their 1989 follow up, pump with the hits Love in an Elevator, what It Takes and Janie's Got a Gun.
- [71:23]
Chris Melanphy
Was.
- [71:24]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Quadruple platinum within a year and is now septuple platinum. For the rest of the 1990s, all of Aerosmith's new albums went consistently multi platinum as they sold truckloads to Gen Xers who were toddlers back when Dream on was a hit again. Being a part of Walk this Way had been good to everybody involved, but it was most good to the people.
- [71:48]
Chris Melanphy
Who could scurry back to the rock.
- [71:50]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Side of the rap rock divide. Ultimately, the same went for the Beastie Boys. By 1992, looking to reboot their career after the sales comedown of Paul's Boutique, the Beasties picked up their instruments again. Their third album, Check youk Head, was a hybrid of the punk derived rock the guys dabbled in as teenagers and the MC rhyme slinging that had made them famous. It was a savvy move. BY the early 90s, after Nirvana and Pearl Jam broke, the alternative rock format was booming. Check your Head righted the ship for the Beasties. Commercially hitting the top 10 and working its way to platinum in about a year, the Beasties had earned enough rock cred that they were welcomed on on.
- [72:50]
Chris Melanphy
Modern rock radio with songs like so.
- [72:53]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
What yout Want and the shrill punk anthem Sabotage.
- [72:57]
Chris Melanphy
The album that spawned Sabotage, 1994's Ill.
- [73:00]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Communication, was the Beasties first number one album since Licensed to Ill. For the.
- [73:22]
Chris Melanphy
Next two decades, the Beastie Boys enjoyed.
- [73:24]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
A kind of code switching rock fan embraced career unthinkable for a typical hip hop act. On tracks like their 1998 smash Intergalactic, the Beasties would still throw down rhymes but blend it with digital rock, enabling them to blanket radio formats from alt Rock to top 40 to rhythmic and dance. Rick Rubin, too, was a code switcher in the 90s. After having his own falling out with Def Jam, the label he founded, Rubin started a new label, Def American, later renamed American Recordings, and he began signing largely rock acts, from Danzig to the Black Crows to the Jesus and Mary Chain. He continued to produce tracks for such rappers as Sir Mix A Lot and Jay Z. But by the turn of the millennium, Rubin was racking up Grammy nominations for producing rock acts like the Red Hot.
- [74:37]
Chris Melanphy
Chili Peppers and reviving the careers of.
- [74:40]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Veterans like Johnny Cash.
- [74:42]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
What have I become My sweetest friend Everyone I know goes away in the and you could have it all My empire of dirt I will let you down I will make you.
- [75:25]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Run dmc, the group that had broken ground for Aerosmith and the Beasties and established Rick Rubin's production Bonafides, were not so lucky. By the early 90s they were trying to pivot to a post gangsta and new Jack swing sound. But 1990s Back from Hell peaked at number 81 on the album chart and became their first album not to even go gold.
- [75:53]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
What it is, what's it all about?
- [76:13]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
The rap community, however, continued to love and support Run DMC, and by 1993 they essentially came to the crew's rescue. The tracks on Run DMC's sixth album, down with the King, were produced by a Who's who of 90s rap, including Pete Rock, Q Tip, EPMD, Naughty by Nature, the Bomb Squad and Jermaine Dupree, plus guitar from Rage against the Machines, Tom Morello. The album was, in effect, a thank you to the group that had provided a foundation for so many of them. It received mixed reviews, with critics noting runs and DMC's attempts to adapt to young gun MC Styles. But down with the King was a modest success, returning Run DMC to the album chart top 10, going gold and generating the trio's final top 40 hit.
- [77:09]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Recruiting suckers Mack and Mike and making men of them Tears and fears for my peers they risen you think that it is, it is if not it isn't Race for the border my daughter Cause beats are banging out sheep's rocking beats in her streets and it's time for hanging out Gather or rather form a circle around just cause Brothers or others could never ever rock a crowd.
- [77:28]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
If there is a happy ending to.
- [77:29]
Chris Melanphy
The story of rap's Def Jam wave of the 80s, of musical code switching.
- [77:34]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
And and of attempts to stay afloat in an ever changing rap game, it must be LL Cool Jam. After Walking With a Panther underperformed, LL got the message. He teamed with Eric B and Rakim associate Marley Marle and produced a fourth album that won praise across the music spectrum, rap fans and rock fans, and even pop listeners.
- [78:10]
Chris Melanphy
It didn't hurt that the album's title.
- [78:13]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Track contained what is now considered one of the greatest opening lines in hip hop history. Unlike the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J did not have a second career as a rock act to fall back on, but he nonetheless proved a pop chameleon over the next decade. Plus, LL would switch up his game as the pop wins changed direction. Not all of his sonic tweaks connected, but when LL hit, he hit big, scoring some of his biggest pop hits in the mid-90s at the height of.
- [78:58]
Chris Melanphy
Sultry R and B.
- [79:10]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
And amazingly, LL scored his only Hot 100 number one hit in 2003 at the peak of the rappin B boom led by Ja Rule and Nelly. LL was the featured rapper on Jennifer Lopez's smash All I have. In the 2010s. LL Cool J is the Def Jam.
- [79:43]
Chris Melanphy
Era rapper still thriving.
- [79:45]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
He formerly took up acting and in both movies and TV in the mid-90s, and he hosted the Grammy Awards five times in the 2000 and tens. He has continued to release music, and while it has been a few years since his last album, LL's Decades of Goodwill mean he sells decently for a rapper in middle age. He has also been nominated for the Rock and Roll hall of Fame four times, although he has yet to be inducted. However, in 2012, he and Public Enemy's Chuck D helped induct the Beastie Boys.
- [80:19]
Guest Speakers or Interviewees (e.g., LL Cool J, Eminem, or other hip hop figures)
I'll never forget what I thought the very first time that Rick Rubin introduced me to the Beastie Boys. You know, I thought, what a bunch of punks. Some things never change. Then a few moments later, I thought to myself that I probably have about 30 years to write my speech inducting these three punks into the Rock and Roll hall of Fame. What can I say, people? I've just always had funny sense about these things. But the truth is that I've come here tonight to praise those little troublemakers, not to make fun of them, because the record shows that from their humble beginnings. Okay, well, you know, maybe not so humble beginnings. My buddies, the Beastie Boys, have made rock, rap and just plain old music history.
- [81:11]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
As you can hear in LL's induction speech, he and the Beasties had long ago buried the hatchet from their late 80s beef.
- [81:19]
Chris Melanphy
LL was also moved that the trio.
- [81:21]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Were soldiering on while Adam Youth was ailing from throat cancer. The man dubbed MCA the Beastie, who had converted to Tibetan Buddhism in the 90s and and led the group to renounce their previously sexist and homophobic antics, was unable to join his bandmates at the induction ceremony. Adam Horovitz, AKA Adrock, read a letter from their comrade.
- [81:46]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Adam Yauck wrote this and he wanted. Wanted me to read it, wanted us to read it. I'd like to dedicate this award to my brothers Adam and Mike, who've walked the globe with me, to anyone who has been been touched by our band, who our music has meant something to.
- [82:02]
Chris Melanphy
This induction is as much ours as it is yours.
- [82:07]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Less than one month later, youth died. He was 47. Three years earlier, the beastie's peers, Run DMC, were also inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of Fame, also with one man missing. Jason Meisel, AKA Jam Master J, did not live to see his induction. Meiselle was murdered in 2002, shot and killed by an unknown assailant. Meisell had proved the most active member of Run DMC in the decade after the crew's last hits, producing records for numerous acts, including Platinum rapper's Onyx and in his final act, helping to discover 50 Cent. Though Jam Master J's case remains officially unsolved, rap lore has it that he got mixed up in a quarrel involving a drug dealer and his prior beefs with 50 cent. At the Rock Hall, Eminem took the podium to acknowledge the debt he and all of hip hop owed the trio.
- [83:09]
Guest Speakers or Interviewees (e.g., LL Cool J, Eminem, or other hip hop figures)
Run DMC's effect on popular culture cannot be overstated. Whether you know it or not, you encounter them every day in the music you hear on the radio, in the sneakers you wear, in the videos you see, in the attitudes of the people you meet. All this from two turntables and a microphone. There's three of them. And if you grew up on hip hop like I did, they are the Beatles.
- [83:39]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
It was ironic and oddly appropriate. The premier white rapper of the 21st century inducting the leading black rap crew of rap's second wave. When accepting the induction, Joseph Simmons, aka Run, acknowledged that they had benefited from the mixing of cultures and sounds. And he exulted at being inducted into.
- [84:00]
Chris Melanphy
A hall of Rock.
- [84:02]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
I'm very thankful. And there was just so many smart people and so much help that got us here today. And we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for people like, like Russell who said put we'd be somewhere, but we wouldn't be in the Rock and Roll hall of Fame, We might have been getting some type of award. But if it wasn't for people like Russell, who told us to put the rock with the rap and was hanging out at places like the Dance of Terrier and Rick Rubin and a bunch of white people and just he knew stuff. He knew stuff.
- [84:36]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
I was inspired to do this episode of Hit Parade last summer when at an outdoor event in my hometown of Brooklyn, the musical guest was Darryl McDaniels, aka DMC. He performed a selection of Run DMC's catalog of hits and the crowd out on the pavement in Red Hook jammed and bobbed their heads. Since Jam Master J's passing in 2002, Run DMC have been officially broken up. But DMC continues to perform occasional live.
- [85:06]
Chris Melanphy
Events for with a small, efficient stage.
- [85:09]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Crew, as at live aid in 1985, McDaniels needs not much more than two turntables, a microphone and okay, now, a laptop. He continues to uphold the mantle of Run DMC as kings and pioneers of rock. Unlike at Live Aid, however, DMC has a crowd pleasing rock song, one now more especially associated with him Run and Jay than Aerosmith to move the crowd. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Hit Parade.
- [86:04]
Chris Melanphy
My producer is Chris Berube and we.
- [86:06]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
Had help this episode from Danielle Hewitt and Dan Berube. The executive producer of Slate Podcasts is Steve Lichti. Check out their roster of shows@slate.com podcasts.
- [86:19]
Chris Melanphy
You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever.
- [86:21]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
You get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture Gabfest feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please.
- [86:29]
Chris Melanphy
Rate and review us while you're there.
- [86:31]
Narrator/Commentator (possibly Chris Berube or another Slate contributor)
It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. Until then, keep on marching on the one. I'm Chris Melanthe.
- [86:49]
Various Rap Artists (e.g., Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys)
Like.