Run-D.M.C.

The Queens trio's best selling record to date, this multiplatinum burner from '86 is overflowing with classic jams: "Peter Piper," "My Adidas," "It's Tricky," and the quintessential rap/rock collaboration, "Walk This Way." Shortly after its release, Run-D.M.C.'s labelmates/proteges the Beastie Boys would drop "Licensed To Ill."

The guys in run-D.M.C. are so full of themselves, they'd be completely obnoxious if they
weren't right. Kings of Rock? Run and D.M.C. don't just rap rings around each other on their
third LP; they grab Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" and drag guest stars Steven Tyler and Joe
Perry into the Eighties, kicking and screaming. For every outrageous boast and randy pun,
these MCs have an angry insight and a wicked rhyme, while DJ Jam Master Jay w... More >

Like the Rolling Stones twenty years ago, they're middle-class lads who are into music that's hard above all--they're street because they want to be. Granted, the analogy is less than exact. Where the Stones dramatized their streetness by becoming bohemians, Run-D.M.C. remain defiantly and even paradigmatically middle-class, a much tougher trick. Run-D.M.C. project less respect for women than the Stones, and less interest in them, too. They commit more lyrical gaffes. And their music is a lot further out. Without benefit of a "Rock Box" or "King of Rock," this is their most uncompromising and compelling album, all hard beats and declaiming voices. They're proud to be black all right, but I don't think it has much to do with George Washington Carver. They're proud to be black because it means they can do this. (Grade - A-)