Raising Hell

I'd once again deeply like to apologize for the lack of posts over my last 2 weeks of holidays. Now on with the story...

I saw another video in grade 8 that was very fundamental in shaping my musical tastes. It was a collaboration between RUN D.M.C. and Aerosmith called "Walk This Way" The video depicted both bands practicing in their rehearsal spaces with nothing but a mere wall dividing them. Both bands are clashing over volume and eventually the wall breaks down and they all rock out together. Rock and Rap were friends and this appealed to me very much, so I went out and bought the RUN D.M.C. record "Raising Hell" which ended up being incredible and full of great songs.

Some of the tracks were comical, some were serious, and some were just straight up bad ass. Run & D flowed perfectly together with the right blend of Run's high voice and D's low voice, with DJ Jam Master Jay filling in the mids with sweet scratching. What appealed to me the most was the fact they used a lot of rock guitar in their songs much like the Beastie Boys. In the title track Run uses a lyric from a Beastie Boys song "slow and low" which I went on to learn was actually a D.M.C. song that they never used and donated to the boys. They were touring together and before long the two names went hand in hand.

These two rap groups brought the art form to the mainstream audience and paved a lot of roads for the years and acts to come. They were all over the headlines and in the pages of magazines, always sporting the Adidas logo which I had always been a fan and supporter of. Now I just had an excuse to buy more Adidas products.

Adidas poster boy for 1987.

I made a cassette tape to listen to in my Walkman, it contained "Raising Hell" on one side and the Beastie Boys "Licensed To Ill" on the other side. This tape was in constant rotation from the day I made it, right through the school year, and all throughout the summer of 87' and then some. Everywhere I went it was playing in my Walkman, if I was with friends it was playing in someone's boom box or on my small handheld tape player. These two albums were essentially my soundtrack for 1987 and not all of my metal head friends could quite understand why, in fact I even caught a lot of slack from them over the issue.

This bothered me to some degree but I knew that through my love and dedication to this new sound and through the perseverance of time and music that my friends would eventually understand it one day.....one day.