Run-DMC

USA, 1981–2002

Queens trio who stripped rap to hard beats and rock guitar — Raising Hell and the Aerosmith 'Walk This Way' broke hip-hop into the mainstream and MTV.

MusicRoots documents 4 artists who influenced Run-DMC and 5 artists Run-DMC influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.

Who influenced Run-DMC?

• Kurtis Blow — Run (Joseph Simmons) DJed for Kurtis Blow as a teenager, billed 'the Son of Kurtis Blow' — the direct apprenticeship that grounded Run-DMC in hip-hop.
• Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five — Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were Run-DMC's forebears — the Bronx DJ techniques and socially conscious rap the Queens crew hardened and stripped down.
• Aerosmith — Run-DMC's genre-busting cover of Aerosmith's 'Walk This Way' (1986) — cut with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry — fused rap and rock and became the template for the crossover.
• Led Zeppelin — Led Zeppelin-style rock riffs were part of Run-DMC's hard rock-rap fusion — the guitar power under 'King of Rock' and 'Rock Box'.

Which artists did Run-DMC influence?

• Beastie Boys — Run-DMC's stripped rap-rock was the direct model for the Beastie Boys' pivot from hardcore to hip-hop — Licensed to Ill built on their template.
• Geoff Barrow — Barrow came up as a bedroom hip-hop DJ spinning Run-DMC and the Def Jam sound, the backbone of Portishead's beats.
• Eminem — Run-D.M.C. were part of the golden-age hip-hop Eminem grew up on and cited among his formative influences.
• 50 Cent — Run-DMC's Jam Master Jay was 50 Cent's mentor: he taught him to count bars, write choruses and structure songs, and produced his first (unreleased) album.
• Bone Thugs-n-Harmony — Run-DMC's foundational hardcore rap is part of the hip-hop lineage behind Bone Thugs' rapid, rhythmic flow.