Deep Album Cuts Vol. 237: Run-DMC
I've been on kind of a big '80s rap kick lately, maybe party because of Biz Markie's death or partly from working on my '80s lists lately. So I decided to finish up this playlist that I started last year when I worked on the Spin feature that named Run-DMC one of the 10 most influential acts of the last 35 years.
Run-DMC deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):
1. Hit It Run
Run-DMC deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):
1. Hit It Run
2. Beats To The Rhyme
3. Darryl And Joe (Krush-Groove 3)
4. Dumb Girl
5. Jay's Game
6. Come On Everybody featuring Q-Tip
7. Proud To Be Black
8. Word Is Born
9. How'd Ya Do It Dee
10. You're Blind
11. Ay Papi featuring Fat Joe and Bo Skaggs Nitty
12. Radio Station
13. Not Just Another Groove
14. Raising Hell
15. It's Not Funny
16. Big Willie featuring Tom Morello
17. Roots, Rap, Reggae
18. Wake Up
19. Son Of Byford
20. Tougher Than Leather
Tracks 5 and 18 from Run-DMC (1984)
Tracks 5 and 18 from Run-DMC (1984)
Tracks 3, 10, 15 and 17 from King Of Rock (1985)
Tracks 1, 4, 7, 14 and 19 from Raising Hell (1986)
Tracks 2, 9, 12 and 20 from Tougher Than Leather (1988)
Tracks 8 and 13 from Back From Hell (1990)
Tracks 6 and 16 from Down With The King (1993)
Track 11 from Crown Royal (2001)
It's kind of crazy that "Beats To The Rhyme" wasn't one of the four charting singles from Tougher Than Leather, it's really the masterpiece of that record and the first (I think?) of several 1988 classics that sampled "Nautilus" by Bob James (including Eric B. & Rakim's "Follow The Leader" and Slick Rick's "Children's Story"). "Dumb Girl" has become kind of a significant record thanks to samples -- the "dumb" hook was looped for E-40's "Tell Me When To Go," and Run's voice was sampled on Jay-Z's "Jockin' Jay-Z." And "Proud To Be Black" was parodied memorably in CB4.
It's fun to put together some songs that show Run-DMC's whole musical range, not just the guitar-heavy rap/rock stuff that they're best known for. They nod to all sorts of genres including songs like "Roots, Rap, Reggae" (although the less said about "Ragtime" the better). There was a point when DMC was probably the best rapper on earth, I love his voice so much. One thing that surprised me about Run-DMC's catalog is that while the first two albums are arguably their most important, they're a little thinner outside the singles, the albums that followed were longer and more consistent. Jam Master Jay actually rapped on two songs on the surprisingly solid 1990 flop Back From Hell, including "Not Just Another Groove," he was by no means a master MC but it's cool to hear his voice and he had a decent flow.
Run-DMC's last two albums were full of guests helping them stay current, for better and for worse. Down With The King has aged pretty well, although I wish Tom Morello's guitar was mixed louder on "Big Willie." Crown Royal came out at a time when the rap/rock fusion that Run-DMC helped invent was at its commercial peak, so it's full of guys like Kid Rock, Fred Durst, and Everlast, but I would say a bigger problem with the album is that DMC is barely on it, "Ay Papi" is one of only a couple songs where he has a verse. And when Jam Master Jay was murdered a year later, the group disbanded, so that's probably gonna remain the last Run-DMC album, but they have a hell of a legacy regardless of
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