Tag Archives: Run DMC

Shorties

The Oral History of Walk This Way

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Stop what you’re doing and read this Washington Post piece: The inside story of when Run-DMC met Aerosmith and changed music forever by Geoff Edgers. It’s as amazing as you could hope for. Even if you don’t have time to read the whole thing right now, at least watch 4-minute collection of unreleased MTV News footage from the recording studio on that day.

I love the fact that DMC’s first reaction to listening to the lyrics was: “Hell no, this ain’t going to happen. This is hillbilly gibberish, country-bumpkin bullshit.” Glad he changed his mind!

I remember loving the video as a kid, and then one day I was at my cousin’s house watching MTV. He was three years older and by 1986 was a heavy metal stoner. His reaction to the video surprised me. “They ruined a perfectly good song.” I had never heard the original. When I finally did, I was let down. The Run-DMC version is way better.

Video: Run-DMC – “Walk This Way” ft. Aerosmith

Audio: Aerosmith – “Walk This Way”

Articles

For What It’s Worth

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The Sunday New York Times for November 3 ran a front-page story—below the fold, but still on the front page—on rap music that was undoubtedly assigned as a result of the murder of Jam Master Jay the preceding week. What is striking about the story is that the first person quoted is Bert Padell, “an accountant whose clients include Madonna, Run DMC and others.” While this may seem to be somewhat unusual, it should be noted that the subject of the article, which is headlined “In Rap Industry, Rivalries as Marketing Tool,” states, “Now with rap album sales even more depressed than the music industry as a whole, these rivalries”—as in the East Coast vs. the West Coast, for example—”may hold a key to its turnaround.” Great. People rhymin’ against one another, people shootin’ one another… All for a turnaround.

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