Raising Hell

Run-DMC: Joseph "Run" Simmons, Daryll "DMC" McDaniels (rap vocals); "Jam Master" Jay Mizell (keyboards, percussion, scratches). Additional personnel: Steven Tyler (vocals); Joe Perry, Rick Rubin (guitar); Daniel Shulman (bass); Sam Sever (drum programming). Engineers include: Steve Ett, Andy Wallace, Jay Burnett. Rap music may have been making some headway in terms of mainstream acceptance by 1986, but it was the release and breakthrough of Run DMC's cover of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" that cemented the deal. Rap was out of the urban ghetto and into the white, hard rock suburbs. And Run DMC was the perfect band to initialize the natural crossover, being among the first of hip-hop's nationally respected acts, and definitely the first to hint at the marriage of hardcore rap and power chords with 1983s "Rock Box" and 1985s "King of Rock." RAISING HELL, the band's third full-length release, includes far more classics than just that one pop hit. "Peter Piper," "It's Tricky," "My Adidas" and "You Be Illin'" define the old-school hip-hop aesthetic about as well as any four songs on any rap full-length recorded in the '80s. Listen to any song on this LP and you'll recognize two to three lines that have become standards in the language of rap. A historic album? You don't know the half of it.