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- Run-D.M.C. will perform alongside Aerosmith at the 2020 Grammys.
- The rap and rock 'n' roll icons collaborated back in 1986 for the chart-topping hip-hop remix of "Walk This Way."
- Below, we detail all you need to know about Run-D.M.C., a.k.a. Joseph "Rev Run" Simmons, Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels, and the late Jason "Jam Master Jay" Mizell.
You can't have a conversation about hip-hop's impact on American culture without honoring the groundbreaking 1980s rap group Run-D.M.C. I mean, who doesn't know the hook to "It's Tricky"?
The group's three members—Joseph "Rev Run" Simmons, Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels, and Jason "Jam Master Jay" Mizell, who tragically died in 2002—are the original faces of mainstream hip-hop, having been inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009 and given a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 2016. (They were the first rappers to be recognized with both). And now, they're taking the stage at the 2020 Grammys to perform their iconic 1986 riff of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way."
So in case you're watching the greats perform and decide you need a refresher on their unmatched career, we've taken the liberty of gathering the need-to-knows about Rap Kings Run-D.M.C.
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Run-D.M.C. was started in Queens, New York.
The lyrics to many of their hits (ahem, "It's Christmas In Hollis") always include shoutouts to their native New York City borough. Run, D.M.C., and Jam Master Jay all grew up in the middle class Black neighborhood of Hollis, Queens, and it's where they founded their group in 1981.
According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Run was a DJ and beat-boxer and joined his childhood friend D.M.C. to start creating rhymes. Once the duo began college, they recruited successful local DJ Jam Master Jay (then known as "Jazzy Jase") to work the turntables for their act. Run's brother, Russel Simmons, became their manager and Run-D.M.C. was born.
The group is credited with bringing hip-hop to the mainstream.
With 230 millions records sold worldwide and a total of six albums—their debut was the self-titled Run-D.M.C.—they are known to many as the Kings of Hip-Hop. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009, the group smashed boundaries for rap and established it as a legitimate aspect of popular culture.
Their unique blend of bold and intense raps exchanged (and often yelled) between Run and D.M.C., backed by Jam Master Jay's signature raw beats, made them a force to be reckoned with. Oh, and we can't forget their look—but more on that later.
"Before us, rap records were corny,” Jam Master Jay said, according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “Everything was soft, nobody made no hard beat records... Before Run-D.M.C. came along, rap could have been a fad.”
And what's often credited with cementing them in music history is their 1986 remix of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way," which appeared on their third studio album Raising Hell. We can thank famed music producer Rick Rubin for the collaboration. At the time, the legendary Aerosmith was fighting a lull in their discography and Run-D.M.C. needed something to get them playing on the radio in the suburbs of America. Music had never seen anything like it, and "Walk This Way" became the first rap single on Billboard's Top 10.
... and speaking of "firsts."
Run-D.M.C. left their mark as the first in their genre to reach many of music's biggest milestones. Their accomplishments are—in the best way possible—absolutely ridiculous:
- The first to have a platinum rap LP for Raising Hell.
- The first rap group to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone.
- The first rappers to earn a Grammy nomination.
- The only rappers to perform at Live Aid.
- The first rappers to have gold, platinum, and multiplatinum albums.
- The first non-athletes to get a sneaker endorsement deal.
- The first artists to have a rap video appear on MTV.
- The first artists to have a rap single on the Billboard Top 10.
Yes, they paved the way for all of the biggest rappers working today. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame dubbed them "the Chuck Berry and the Elvis of their genre." Eminem inducted them in the Hall of Fame in 2009 and said in his speech, "They were the first movie stars of rap… They are the Beatles."
Let's not forget that Run-D.M.C. are fashion icons.
An indisputable aspect of their commercial appeal was their signature look. In contrast to the rappers that emerged from the 1970s in what Business of Fashion described as "vestiges of glam rock and camp African King attire," Run-D.M.C. kept it real in effortless streetwear that has served as the foundation for all hip-hop fashion in the years since.
For them, it was all about being comfortable and cool. They wore black fedoras, thick and braided gold chains, jeans, and Adidas gear (hence their iconic song "My Adidas") that included tracksuits and unlaced, shell toed "Superstars" sneakers. They rocked the brand so much that Adidas offered them its first-ever non-athlete million-dollar endorsement deal. (No, Beyoncé and Kanye were not the first to do it). And let's not forget D.M.C.'s iconic black frames. According to the group website, he owns 200 pairs.
Robin Mellery-Pratt wrote for Business of Fashion in 2014: "Hip-hop fashion, streetwear, the cachet of sportswear brands and the increasingly inextricable relationship between music and fashion have all, in some way or another, been influenced and affected by the group."
They haven't technically broken up.
Run-D.M.C.'s last album, Crown Royal, was released in 2001, and the one before that hit the charts eight years prior in 1993. In 2002, Jam Master Jay was shot and killed at his recording studio in Jamaica, Queens. At the time, Rolling Stone reported that Run announced the group "is officially retired." He continued, “We can’t perform anymore. I can’t find a way to do it without three members.”
In the years following, he and D.M.C. dealt with their own differences as the latter battled addiction, entered rehab, and achieved sobriety, while Run experienced "a religious awakening" and converted to pentecostalism, becoming an ordained minister and changing his stage name to Reverend "Rev" Run. And let's not forget his beloved mid-2000's MTV reality show, Run's House.
But the two have reunited since, as they performed their first show in a decade at the Made in America festival in 2012. Jam Master Jay's two sons took his place at the turntables onstage. They were also the first rappers to earn a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 2016 and are performing again at the 2020 Grammys with Aerosmith.
As for an official revival of the group, D.M.C. explained in 2013, "We’re not back together as a group, we just have some good offers to do some shows. But at the same time we get to showcase Jay’s children and bring awareness to the JMJ Foundation, which his wife created to keep music programs in school. We’re going to stick to doing big shows, but we’re not doing an album, no world tour. We can’t really be Run without Jay, but we can show up for certain shows."
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McKenzie Jean-Philippe is the editorial assistant at OprahMag.com covering pop culture, TV, movies, celebrity, and lifestyle. She loves a great Oprah viral moment and all things Netflix—but come summertime, Big Brother has her heart. On a day off you'll find her curled up with a new juicy romance novel.
