I'm of the generation that discovered Aerosmith because of Run-DMC. They just looked crazy to me. They were the dudes in the Run-DMC video. That's who Aerosmith was.
I was into hip-hop, growing up early, so I loved Run DMC, LL Cool J, rappers.
As far as rap goes, I grew up in Hollis, Queens, so early influences were people like Run DMC and LL Cool J.
On the night he died - he was twenty-seven - Basquiat had been planning to see a Run-DMC show. When people asked him what his art was about, he'd hit them with the same three words: "Royalty, heroism, and the streets.
To me, it isn't tight sweaters. That's not what rap is. That's not hip-hop at all. Every phase went through changing up their dress styles and all that, but since Run DMC came out, it's been baggy jeans.
If you hear people talking about the Golden Era of rap, they're usually talking about the early Wu Tang Clan era and then Nas and Biggie and so on. But for me, it goes back to the '80s - 1986 to 1989.
I was definitely a big Run-DMC fan.
I'm a huge hip hop fan going way back, like, back to '83. I had my Gemini mixer listening to Run-DMC and Kurtis Blow.
I love everything from The Rolling Stones to Run-DMC to Nina Simone.
Run DMC brought us out of that underground-only feel. They brought rap above ground and made it respectable as an art form to mainstream music.
Scandinavian rap started in the '90s, off the back of Run DMC, and it was a bunch of Swedish dudes doing the same thing.
My entryway into hip-hop was - my biggest introduction was obviously like, you know, the Def Jam, Run D.M.C., Beastie Boys, like, that conglomerate.
I produced Run DMC. I produced some early records, lots of records early on.
Krush Groove was a movie at the time. That was my first break. I just got to New York. I was right out of college and I was happy to have a job.
This album is moments that I haven't done before, like just my voice and drums. What people call a rant - but put it next to just a drumbeat, and it cuts to the level of, like, Run-D.M.C. or KRS-One.
It's lifestyle music. It's not like some secretary who likes some pop song, but can't name who the band is; whereas a heavy metal fan is into every aspect of it. We'll see if rap holds up to that. Run-DMC seemed to be the Led Zeppelin of rap.
