Run DMC Group History

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Simoun Redoblado

Simoun fell in love with Hip Hop when he first heard Eminem's single Lose Yourself in 2002. By the time he was an adult, he tends to listen to exclusively Hip Hop, a trend that continues to this day. As an English teacher, he loves Hip Hop for what it is underneath, beautiful poetry that blends sound, imagery, and wordplay. What's not to love!

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Before I knew of Run-DMC, I was only familiar with Run TMC. (Hey, I’m a hoops junkie from the Philippines. Can you blame me?)

While the fast-paced style of the Hardaway-Richmond-Mullin trio certainly has a legacy on the hardcourt, I wouldn’t dare equate it to the revolutionary impact of three gentlemen from the Hollis neighborhood of Queens.

Thanks to this ’80s triumvirate, hip hop came to be loved as the music and poetry of the streets. The blockbuster hits of Run-DMC helped to propel the rap genre beyond the nightclubs of the Big Apple and into the national consciousness.

Indeed, without the trailblazing work of DJ Run, Jam Master Jay, and DMC, hip hop’s global conquest might have taken much longer to materialize.

Why else would Eminem brag about being able to “induct them into the motherfuckin’ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame” in his 2013 track “Rap God?”

Just like Em, every student of the rap game needs to recognize the historical significance of the Kangol hat-clad, Adidas-sporting artists who gladly welcomed the world into the never-ending party that is hip hop.

Quick Facts

Early Years

Interestingly, the story of Run-DMC begins with someone outside the trio.

A child of the late ’50s and early ’60s, Russell Simmons grew up in a community where drugs like heroin and weed were prevalent. Though this Hollis, Queens native took an interest in selling marijuana, he found an artistic outlet that would end up taking over his life.

As a student of City College in the Big Apple, Russell got to discover a burgeoning movement in the nightclubs of Harlem. This fresh music, which had barely emerged from its infancy, was none other than hip hop.

Around this time, Russell befriended another City College student who was also passionate about the genre on the rise. Russell’s buddy was named Kurtis Walker, and throughout the course of the late ’70s, their friendship would become a full-blown professional partnership.

Kurtis Walker became Kurtis Blow, and with Russell as his manager, he rose to fame as one of hip hop’s first superstars. (“Christmas Rap,” anyone?)

As Kurtis Blow embarked on tours across the country, Russell got him some help on the DJ’ing front. Russell tapped his own brother Joseph Simmons (affectionately known as Joey) to work the turntables for Blow night in and night out.

By breaking his brother into the music industry, Russell laid the first cornerstone for the formation of an iconic group.

I can’t think of any other word to describe Joey Simmons other than prodigy. Did you know that he became Kurtis Blow’s DJ at the tender age of 12?

Blessed with quick hands that could cut through the tables like nobody’s business, Joey became somewhat of a hip hop veteran at a young age. Alongside Blow, he honed not only his DJ’ing skills but also the quality of his verses as an MC. 

As it so happened, Joey had a childhood friend who also cared deeply about writing sick rhymes. When Joey laid his eyes on the rap lyrics written by Darryl McDaniels, he knew that he had found a partner that he could make music with. At first, Darryl barely showed any enthusiasm for the music career ambition that Joey was harboring.

But, with the encouragement of Russell, Darryl came around. As rap performers, they donned stage names: Joey was DJ Run (or simply Run) and Darryl went by DMC.

After the duo graduated from high school in 1982, they enhanced their music act by adding their friend Jason Mizell. Well-versed with the turntables and a number of instruments, Mizell signed on to be the group’s DJ named Jam Master Jay.

DJ Run. DMC. Jam Master Jay. The stage was now set for Run-DMC to change the course of hip hop’s future. 

Running Roughshod Over the Industry

Through the years, many emcees have been described as imparting a cultural impact. In the case of Run-DMC, I’d take it a step further. Run-DMC didn’t just influence the culture—they were the culture. 

To begin with, their sound was uncharted territory as far as industry norms were concerned. This much was evident in their very first single. In the 2016 HBO Canada series Hip-Hop Evolution, Russell Simmons (who went on to produce a number of Run-DMC tracks) recalled how his production team reacted to his vision for the trio’s music.

“When we made ‘Sucker M.C.’s’, everybody’s saying, ‘Okay then, tomorrow we put the bass and guitars in,'” recounted Simmons. He promptly clarified, “No man, we ain’t fucking with no bass and no guitar, it’s done.”

In Simmons’ mind, Run-DMC would bank on sparse beats and the gritty scratches of the turntables to create a distinct soundscape for their rhymes. 

The rhymes themselves were a breath of fresh air. In the fledgling years of hip hop, rap songs usually consisted of easygoing, upbeat subject matter that made for a smooth listen.

When DJ Run and DMC picked up the mic, though, they brought an unprecedented level of aggression to their verses, as though they were fiercely battling to prove their supremacy in the music industry. Listen to those early Run-DMC tracks, and you will hear the forerunners of the braggadocious rap anthems that have emerged across the decades.

Through their music, Run-DMC made it perfectly clear that they were hotter and cooler than every other performer out there.

That was exactly the message they sent with the release of their first single “It’s Like Me/Sucker M.C.’s” in 1983. With each hard-hitting line skillfully executed by Run and DMC, they crafted the blueprint for a new school hip hop blockbuster.

Run-DMC would further establish their unique style with their subsequent singles: “”Hard Times/Jam Master Jay,” “Rock Box,” and “30 Days.”

These singles, of course, all built up to the release of their debut album Run-D.M.C., which hit the shelves on March 27, 1984. Run-D.M.C. cracked the upper half of the Billboard 200 and went on to become the first rap album to achieve gold certification.

As it turned out, this was merely the opening act or a historic run in which the trio achieved multiple milestones.

On January 21, 1985 (less than a year after they put out Run-D.M.C.), the group released their second album King of Rock. Here’s another historic achievement: this was the first ever rap album to be distributed via compact discs (CDs).

Gen Z music fans might scoff at the thought of using hardware to play recorded tracks, but back in the 1980s, CD albums like King of Rock were a breakthrough.

Though this project’s Billboard 200 performance essentially matched that of its predecessor, it reached new heights by becoming the first album to go platinum. Think about this for a second: way before the likes of MC Hammer, Tupac Shakur, and Outkast went diamond, Run-DMC paved the way for rappers to attain mind-blowing commercial success.

My Adidas, Their Adidas

At this point, we need to recognize another key aspect of Run-DMC’s influence: the clothing department. In retrospect, I look at the preferred attire of forefathers like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and I see the strong influence of ’70s disco and funk acts.

With colorful ensembles that included flashy jackets and even flashier hair, the earliest rappers certainly put on a spectacle with their apparel.

Such was not the case with Run-DMC. Early on in their career, they made the decision to wear clothing that offered better representation of the streets. Run-DMC’s wardrobe consisted of plain leather jackets (instead of their forebears’ colorful showstoppers), tracksuits, Lee jeans, Kangol hats, and simple gold chains.

And, of course, their signature Adidas.

Now that I think of it, Russell Simmons may as well have been the fourth member of Run-DMC, as he came up with some great ideas to elevate the group’s stock. Realizing the emblematic significance of the trio’s favorite shoes, he suggested that they come up with a song called “My Adidas.”

This single was released on May 29, 1986. Taking it a step further, the group’s co-manager Lyor Cohen arranged for Adidas executive Angelo Anastasio to attend a Run-DMC concert in Madison Square Garden on July 19, 1986.

As it turned out, a number of other Adidas executives showed up; this ultimately ended working in favor of Run-DMC, as multiple higher-ups from the company got to see firsthand how the trio fuelled their fanbase’s affinity for Adidas.

As a result, Adidas signed Run-DMC to a $1 million-dollar endorsement deal—yet another milestone for the trio, who became the first musical act to secure an endorsement deal this lucrative.

“My Adidas” also happened to be the first single off the tracklist of their third album Raising Hell, which came out on May 15, 1986. For the production of this album, Russell Simmons enlisted the help of his Def Jam co-founder Rick Rubin, another brilliant hip hop mind.

With the Simmons-Rubin  production tandem in tow, Raising Hell became the pinnacle of Run-DMC’s commercial and critical success.

The album peaked at number three on the Billboard 200; went triple platinum; and received a nomination for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. (This was 1986, y’all. Evidently, the Academy had not been caught up to speed on the whole hip hop thing.)

There was one more key contributor to the mainstream success of Raising Hell. Rubin, who got great results with past rap-rock experiments, decided that the finishing touch of the album’s production would be a powerful rock-based track. Rubin decided on “Walk this Way,” a popular song from the legendary ’70s band Aerosmith. 

Lo and behold, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry agreed to re-record the song with Run-DMC. The result: a genre-bending hit that boosted the crossover appeal of the rap trio. (I suppose, then, that the $8,000 paid to Tyler and Perry for that one recording session was well worth it. Yes, $8,000.)

Highs and Lows

In any era of the music industry, the challenge of any recording artist is to sustain commercial and critical success as long as humanly possible. Run-DMC, of course, was not immune to the ebbs and flows of the business. After achieving their peak with Raising Hell, the trio went through a few lowlights, career-wise and even in their personal lives.

The last album released by Run-DMC in the 1980s was Tougher than Leather, the fourth of their discography. This 1988 album had the unenviable task of doing battle on two fronts.

On one hand, the hip hop scene was getting hotter like never before, and so Tougher than Leather was being juxtaposed with projects by The Beastie Boys, Eric B. and Rakim, and Public Enemy.

On the other hand, Run-DMC may have become a victim of their own success, as they were also striving to live up to the standards of King of Rock and Raising Hell.

It didn’t help that the accompanying film of the same title (which was directed by Rick Rubin and also starred the rap trio) was heavily panned. Though Tougher than Leather managed to go platinum, the project was evidently not on the same plane as their previous releases.

Rolling Stone‘s Cary Darling summed up the album’s performance by saying, “No matter how good some of the new material is, there’s an underlying timidity on Tougher than Leather that is troubling.”

Unfortunately, the group declined further with the release of their fifth album Back from Hell in 1990. By this point, the street poets on the West Coast (such as the new solo act Ice Cube, his former group N.W.A., and gangsta rap pioneer Ice-T) had commanded the world’s attention as well, making it even more difficult for Run-DMC to assert their relevance.

In this regard, the trio did poorly as critics were quick to observe how they barely kept up with all the competition surrounding them. Their commercial performance reflected this downward turn as well; Back from Hell was their first album that failed to go gold or platinum.

Compounding the group’s problems were some personal demons that the members grappled with. Burdened by the weight of expectations, DMC found himself drinking more and more, to the point that he was hospitalized in 1991 with acute pancreatitis.

That same year, DJ Run faced rape allegations from a woman who claimed that he sexually assaulted her after an August 9 concert in Cleveland. As it turned out, DMC achieved a full recovery and Run was cleared of the rape charge. Afterwards, both childhood buddies became born-again Christians.

Rejuvenated by their newfound faith, the duo once again teamed up with Jam Master Jay to get back to their winning ways. The group’s buoyant spirit is on full display in their sixth album Down with the King, which was released in 1993.

With songs like “Ooh, Whatcha Gonna Do,” the Q-Tip assisted “Come On Everybody,” and the title track (which features Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth), Run-DMC was able to bounce back big time. For the final time in their career, the group achieved gold certification.

As the 1990s unfolded, the genre of hip hop blew up exponentially. With Run-DMC setting the wheels in motion, rap became a force to be reckoned with in the music industry, with millions around the world embracing the rhymes, flows, and larger-than-life personalities of emcees.

Kings such as Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. emerged, while rappers from the East, West, South, and Midwest went on to stake their claim to the throne.

Run-DMC, though, had one more salvo to fire. On April 3, 2001, they released their seventh and final album Crown Royal. If I were one of the many collaborators on this project, I’d have been giddy as I shared the studio with the OGs.

Where would Nas, Prodigy, Method Man, and Fat Joe be without the pivotal influence of the original Kings? I also think it’s nice that, 17 years after the release of their debut album, Run-DMC still managed to crack the Billboard 200 in the new millennium.

Regrettably, the group will never be whole again. On October 30, 2002, Jam Master Jay was shot inside his recording studio in Jamaica, Queens.

A week after this tragedy, DJ Run and DMC set up a press conference to announce that they were setting up a fund to provide financial assistance to Jay’s family. At the same press conference, the two surviving members announced the official retirement of Run-DMC.

Death may have claimed one third of this OG squad, but even after the two remaining members write their final verse, the legacy of Run-DMC will endure.

Every rap superstar, icon, monarch, and (dare I say it) god owes their box office success to the trio that blew the doors wide open in 1984. As long as hip hop occupies a place in the hearts of the worldwide fanbase, the influence of Run-DMC will continue to raise hell.

Legacy

Simply put, Run-DMC brought hip hop to the masses. With striking clarity and catchy flows, they created music that resonated with the people on the streets. Consequently, they were able to help hip hop evolve from a New York City thing to a beloved international phenomenon.

Why is Run-DMC Influential?

Run-DMC was relatable through and through. Their verses were reflective of the masses’ lives; their clothing was widely accessible; and their personas had the right mix of familiarity and charisma.

FAQs

Bottom Line

Without Run-DMC, hip hop’s trajectory would have taken a different turn. The artistry of DJ Run, DMC, and Jam Master Jay gave hip hop its gritty, urban identity that endures to this day. Though the rap genre has taken many shapes and forms over the passage of time, Run-DMC will forever be credited for laying a blueprint that’s infinitely tougher than leather.

Sources:

• RUN-D.M.C. Biography
• RUN-D.M.C.
• Kurtis Blow, One of Hip Hop’s Founding Fathers, Turns 60
• The Ego Has Landed
• All GRAMMY Awards and Nominations for Run-D.M.C.
• Hip-Hop Evolution
• How Run-DMC Earned Their Adidas Stripes
• Aerosmith, Run-DMC and the Story Behind Their Genre-Bending Hit “Walk This Way”
• Tougher Than Leather
• Down With The King
• How Confronting Addiction and Depression and Finding His Birth Mom Saved Run-DMC’s Darryl McDaniels from Committing Suicide
• Rape Charge Dismissed Against Rapper From Group Run DMC
• Jam Master Jay accused killers will not face death penalty if convicted
• Surviving Run-DMC members retire group
• DMC from Run-DMC: ‘I snorted and guzzled through almost every day’
• Inside Joseph ‘Reverend Run’ Simmons’ Journey – from Being a Rapper to an Ordained Minister
• Rapper-Turned-Reverend Blends Gospel With Hip-Hop
• Minister on MTV? Yep, he’s a Rev Run

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