Key Takeaways

• Album Legacy: RUN DMC reflects on the lasting impact of Raising Hell on hip-hop culture.
• Industry Influence: DMC emphasizes that the album was created to showcase hip-hop, not just to cater to the music industry.
• Collaboration Significance: Rev Run highlights the importance of their collaboration with Aerosmith in bridging rock and rap.
• Jam Master Jay’s Role: The group credits Jam Master Jay for his crucial contributions to the album’s production.

Forty years later, RUN DMC looks back on Raising Hell. In this exclusive anniversary reflection, RUN and DMC revisit the album’s legacy, its impact on hip-hop and culture, and what it means to them four decades later. DMC calls Raising Hell “the Sgt. Pepper’s of Hip-Hop,” while RUN reflects on realizing the album was changing music when audiences already knew every word just days after its release.

Rev Run: I don’t know if the youth really know how impactful it was at ’86 when it dropped.

DMC: Raising Hell is special because we wasn’t trying to make a music industry album, we was trying to make a hip-hop album. We took the beat from the street and put it on TV for the world to see.

Rev Run: We were hot from King of Rock, we were hot from “Rock Box” and “Sucker MCs,” and all the records that came before. So, again, Raising Hell exceeded my expectations.

DMC: You know, but it was ’86 but we were the OGs, but you know, it was like, how long can the rain last?

Rev Run: 40 years. I pray that it lives up to how it felt for me and D in ’87 going on tour.

DMC: Raising Hell is the prototype, the blueprint. It’s the Sgt. Pepper’s of hip-hop. It made everybody after us. If you want to do an album, you got to do it on that level.

Rev Run: We had already crossed rock and rap with “Rock Box” and “King of Rock,” but getting with Aerosmith took it to the next level, and then the record, “My Adidas.”

DMC: “My Adidas” was so popular, I hit a sneaky deal, just like Jordan on these guys, I don’t need to play no ball, and I got a sneaky deal, just like the ball players.

Rev Run: Jam Master Jay was everything to Raising Hell. He stayed in the studio when we went home. He was there mixing “Peter Piper.” He was coming up with beats and scratching, and he was like the one man band making Raising Hell.

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