A
A-Trak – One of the best ever DMC Champions
Most 15 year olds think about football, girls and having a sneaky can of lager in their dad’s garden shed. Not this one. One of Canada’s finest, swoops in and takes the DMC title, making him the youngest and first Canadian winner in 1997. “When I was 13, I took my Bar Mitzvah money and bought myself some turntables and a mixer. I practiced for about 18 hours a day. Then I came out of my basement, packed my lunch and won a bunch of world championships. Joy! I formed a DJ crew called the Allies with Craze and friends, we toured the world for a while…I guess I’ve been touring for the last 11 years. Time flies. In 2004 Kanye West hired me as his official tour DJ and I’ve worked closely with him ever since, both on stage and off. We continue…”
B
Babu – The man who coined the word ‘Turntablism’
“It was around ’95. I was heavily into the whole battling thing, working on the tables constantly, mastering new techniques and scratches and all the while working in a gas station and spending my spare time concentrating on all these things. One day, I made this mix-tape called ‘Comprehension’ and on there was a track called ‘Turntablism’ which featured Melo-D and D-Styles. And this is part of where this whole thing about turntablist came from. This was at a time where all these new techniques were coming out, like flares and stuff and there were probably 20 people or so, in around California between Frisco and LA who knew about these. So we worked on them, talked about it and kicked about the ideas that these techniques and new ways of scratching gave us. And what I would do is write ‘Babu the Turntablist’ on tapes which I was making at the time – and somehow it got out a bit. The media got hold of it and it blew into this whole thing we know now. But it was really nothing to start with. We’d all talk about these new scratches and how they really started to allow us to use the turntable in a more musical way, how it allowed us to do more musical compositions, tracks, etc. and then we’d think about how people who play the piano are pianists, and so we thought “we’re turntablists in a way, because we play the turntable like these people do the piano or any other instrument”. Beyond that, it was just me writing ‘Babu the Turntablist’, because it was something I did to make my tapes stand out. I’d just get my marker pen out and write it on there.”
C
Coca-Cola Cans – DJ David getting fizzy on us
To this day, DJ David’s 1991 routine is still renowned for creating the most flamboyant tricks in the Championships history. Scratching an SL1200 atop four Coca Cola cans whilst the lower deck played a looped vocal. For his finale David climbed onto the deck supporting himself in a one arm handspin as the mighty Technics turntable took his entire weight and spun him like a human record, whilst the other deck played the Jungle Brothers ‘I’ll House You’ and spat “Round and round and round and round and round and…” – the audience erupted.
D
DMC – The company that changed the DJ world as we know it
So where do we start? Founded by husband and wife Tony and Christine Prince in 1983 photocopying pages of the Yellow Pages in a library in Slough to attract mobile DJs to join this revolutionary new DJ club. This was the point that DJs threw their mic’s in the bin and started to actually mix records together seamlessly – without the crap of talking to their dancefloor. Members paid a subscription to receive upfront and exclusive mixes on current and old tunes re-worked by our in house producers and special guest superstar DJs. DMC exploded. The DMC World DJ Championships began and over the years took place at such venues as The Royal Albert Hall, Wembley Arena and The Millenium Dome. DMC started a new magazine called Mixmag which became the biggest selling dance magazine ever. The Back To Mine CD series was created starring the likes of Underworld, Groove Armada, Faithless and Pet Shop Boys erupted. Management for the likes of DJs Sasha and Radio 1’s Lottie and Fergie followed, organising tours for MTV, plus, to date, DMC have hosted over 10,000 events around the world. Thank god for that photocopier. Oh and by the way, Run DMC’s Darryl McDaniels – we didn’t nick your name!
These days we owe DMC’s Sally McLintock the high fives for organising the World Finals – she has revolutionised the competition as we know it – and don’t the competitors love her. This girl knows her shit.
E
Electro
Electro was pioneered by Germany’s Kraftwerk in the mid ’70s following the decline of Disco. Hip Hop DJ pioneer Afrika Bambaataa taught the Hip Hop DJs at that time to seek all genres of music since they too also contained that perfect beat, that’s how he earned the title Master Of Records! He’s also know as the God Father of Hip Hop. In 1982 Bambaataa alongside the Soul Sonic Force released the seminal track ‘Planet Rock’ which contained influences from Kraftwerk’s ‘Trans-Europe Express’ and ‘Numbers’ which to many, was the exciting new sound in Hip Hop entitled by Bambaataa as electro funk. This paved the way to classics in ’83 Hashim create ‘Al-Naafiysh (The Soul)’ which was influenced by Man Parrish’s ‘Hip Hop, Be Bop’ and ’83 was also the year Herbie Hancock brought us ‘Rockit’. The last stance of electro music came from Mantronix with DJ Kurtis Mantronik and rapper MC Tee. The feeling of Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, Kraftwerk and Neu all combined in Mantronik’s music. It was a neat tie between old-school and new jack, and Mantronix had the field to themselves.
F
France
The country that brought us C2C – The best Team DMC has ever seen
With Turntablists constantly focusing on being technically great, there’s usually a very important but simple ingredient being overlooked – and that’s musical appeal. C2C are DMC’s four man team from France who came into the competition at the right time and proved just how important that balance is. Atom, Pfel, 20 Syl and Greem are true musicians. C2C’s second defence was more like a party set than a competition performance. With dynamic introductions that requested a crowd response, they played on our emotions and within the first two minutes of their set, we knew they were the winners. C2C took customised records to another level since there was so much music being selected, covering virtually every genre. They must have spent as much time in the studio developing this as they did practising. Turntablists like to make bold statements that they are musicians, but there’s lots more to manipulating records cleverly for six minutes. With two title defences firmly under their belt, the choice of defending a third time doesn’t usually enter many World Champions minds – only DJ Craze managed to pull off such a challenging feat back in 2000. So when C2C announced they were back for a third time DMC were very excited. Most competitors base their sets around urban music, C2C however explored outside of this field and were bold enough to compose Jazz, Samba and Blues – head nodding masterpieces whilst constantly displaying a very visual well choreographed performance. Billy Biznizz summed it all up by announcing “There is nothing more to be said!” as C2C exited the stage! After blasting the competition out of the water C2C then announced a fourth title defence. Sticking with tradition, they started off with a big dynamic intro with choreographed movements – it didn’t take long to see where they were going with a special cut down tribute of the favourite bits of their past winning performances that left them to indulge us with a very musical head nodding and foot tapping scratch vocal piece. The finale was a well choreographed set of sampled horns that each member had in a different key as they took turns to cut in. Four DMC turntablist geniuses. Game over.
G
Golden Turntables – The pot at the end of the rainbow
Technics revolutionised the music world as we know it. Our DMC golden turntables presented to our winner every year is one of the most coveted prizes as we know it. Sure, Girls Aloud and Robbie Williams may site scooping a Brit Award as their Holy Grail, but to the likes of Craze and Rafik, a golden Technics turntable is what it’s all about. The SL 1200 was created in 1972 by Matsushita under the brand name of Technics. Originally released as a high-fidelity consumer record player, it quickly became adopted amongst radio and club DJs as their choice. 1978 saw the SL-1200MK2 and then its successors blow dancefloors apart – millions have been sold everywhere – you can walk into a beach bar on a tiny island in the Indian Ocean and find the DJ spinning on of these pieces of musical magical equipment. Okay, he may be playing Kylie, but you can’t have everything.
H
Headstands – DMC royal ruler Tony Prince’s stage party piece
Now let’s get one thing straight. This is my dad I’m talking about. A man who DJ’d on the FIRST ever pop music radio station – Radio Luxembourg and pirate radio ship Radio Caroline, met Elvis, knows Paul McCartney’s mobile phone number, has basically, changed the face of dance music as we know it with DMC. He’ll cuddle his grand-daughter Bluebell in church to keep her quiet, knock the socks off me at golf and fall asleep watching X-Factor on a Saturday night in his favourite chair. So how can this man go on stage year after year and during the award ceremony announcing who has won the DMC titles – bearing in mind there are thousands of cool Hip Hop headz out there, stand on his bloody head with a microphone in his hand?
I
IndigO2 – DMC’s new spiritual home
IndigO2 is the hidden gem under The O2 roof – and for DMC, it rocks. A brilliant 3500 capacity venue that has seen so many cool acts rock the stage including Ne-Yo, Estelle, N*E*R*D and Busta – this place rocks our box. We’re tellin’ ya.
J
Juggling – The art that mixed it all up
The inventor of the technique, known to the media as “beat juggling” was invented by Harlem Hip Hop DJ legend, Steve Dee. He referred to it as simply “the funk”. He effectively made his own beats from reconstructing different parts of songs. The technique was embraced by the DJ crew The X-Men, which Steve founded. Certain members of the X-Men later went on to form The X-ecutioners DJ crew. Along with the scratch, beat juggling become essential for battle DJs worldwide and is the last major turntablist technique created to date.
K
Kool DJ Herc – Founding Father of Hip Hop
Campbell was born in 1955 and we owe a lot to him. He was the first of six children, born to Keith and Nettie in Kingston, Jamaica. Whilst growing up he heard the sound systems of neighborhood dancehall parties and the accompanying speech of Djs, locally known as toasting. His family eventually moved to the Bronx NYC. Known as Kool DJ Herc, this Jamaican born DJ is so deep in our Hip Hop lives. His alternative style of Hard Funk records along the lines of James Brown, was an alternative both to the violent gang culture of the Bronx and to the nascent popularity of Disco in the 1970s. In 1972, in response to the reactions of his dancers, Campbell began to isolate the instrumental portion of the record which emphasized the drum beat which became known as ‘the break’ -and switch from one break to another to yet another. Using the two turntable set-up of the Disco DJs, Kool Herc innovated the use of two copies of the same record to elongate the break. This Breakbeat DJing, using hard Funk, Rock and records with Latin percussion, formed the basis of Hip Hop music and was quickly taken up and streamlined by Grandmaster Flash. Herc addressed the dancers who danced on the break at his legendary parties, ‘b-boys’ and ‘b-girls’.”
L
LL Cool J – Ladies Love James
Although now known as a TV celebrity, James Todd Smith coming from Bay Shore, New York in 1968 was once the don. I once went to a live gig of his and the audience was so packed and couldn’t move, some random guy pulled down his pants and shit on the floor by my Adidas. I still laugh about it now. LL’s tunes have always been a stalwart in DMC competitor’s sets thanks to massive tunes such as ‘Rock The Bells’ – overused, but always props to. We love the fact that LL spent most of his youth performing in the church choir, in the Boy Scouts and delivering papers before, thankfully, his grandfather bought him some one’s and two’s at the Sears department store…
M
Mixer – Without it, we’d be up shit creek without a paddle
Right. Now I am a complete technophobe, can’t change a plug, have no idea what a fuse is and a Scart Lead? No chance. However, when it comes to our today’s mixers…
A typical modern DJ mixer generally has between two and six stereo channels for connecting and mixing audio sources. Each channel usually has a phono imput with RIAA equalization for turntables and one or two line level inputs for sources such as CD players. Controls for individual channels are arranged in vertical columns (channel strips), starting with a switch or a knob selecting between the inputs. Below the input selector is a gain (or trim) control, used to match signal levels between channels. Next follows an equalizer section, used to fade parts of tracks in and out; a common basic technique is to kill the bass on one channel while mixing so the two basslines don’t clash. A typical mixer features separate knobs for the low, mid and high frequency ranges. Some more controls may follow, such as a balance knob, built-in sound effects for external X-FX units. Below there’s normally a cue switch sending the signal to the headphones, letting the DJ preview and beatmatch a track without sending it to the master output but on some mixers there’s a different way to select the cued source. The channel strip ends with a fader which sets the channel’s signal volume in the final mix. The signal may pass through a crossfader. On simple mixers there are normally two channels assigned opposite ends of the crossfader, sometimes with a button to reverse the crossfader’s direction. More advanced mixers have assignable crossfaders in which each channel can be assigned to either end of the crossfader or to bypass the crossfader entirely. Many scratch mixers have a crossfader curve control that effectively changes the distance the crossfader needs to travel to open the channel fully, letting to shorten it to a millimetre or two, which is useful for speedy scratching.
N
New York – Without it, we’d all be up shit creek without a paddle
Think steam coming out of the road, an eternal noise of car horns hooting, hot dog stalls on every corner, think music – because New York is music. Think Trax on 72nd and Columbus back in the day. Block parties such as Fire Island and Ice Palace. Danceteria on 38th Street which was back then an illegal Mafia club with no liquor license but just rocked with Mark Kamins spinning Motown and R&B with Sean cassettes for 12 hours – this was the club where The Beastie Boys swept the floors, Madonna was one of the dancers, LL Cool J was a busboy and Sade was a bartender for chrissakes. Frankie Knuckles, David Morales, Larry Levan, David Rogriguez, Little Louie Vega and Jellybean killing it all across the city, Andy Warhol’s ‘Factory’ covered by tin foil and silver paint where the cool kids hung up on the sixth floor of The Decker Building – Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Salvador Dali all got smashed off their faces here. Imagine the riots that ensued on the dancefloor at Max’s Kansas City with Blondie, David Bowie, The Ramones and Bob Marley ripping it up – the scene mirrored what was going on over The Atlantic in a suburb of London called Soho. DJs hooking up their sound systems in parks – straight into street lights to get the power. Disco DJ Tony Smith hanging out with Danny Krivit at clubs such as Barefoot Boy, Reade Street, Xenon and Funhouse. Magical clubs such as Mars, Tunnel, Twilo, Sound Factory, The Limelight, Palladium and Nicky Siano’s The Gallery (Nicky – playing the ‘Carrie soundtrack into ‘Love Hangover’ – off the hook). B-Boying (inaccurately named by the media as “breakdancing) in The Bronx with African American and Afro-Caribbeans youth battling it on street corners attracting crowds watching the spectacle. Amazing graffiti covering huge walls. Former gang member Afrika Bambaataa promoting Hip Hop as an alternative to gangs with his ‘Planet Rock’ a message to us all – who knew what was about to happen! The Furious Five in 1982 bringing us ‘The Message’ . Bronx DJ Grandmaster Flash revolutionising DJing by introducing numerous turntable techniques, cutting, backspinning and phasing – Joseph we salute you. Gil Scott Heron and The Last Poets involved in the post civil rights era of the 60s and 70s. New Jersey’s Sugar Hill Gang and their ‘Rapper’s Delight’ smash in 1979, Mercury Records signing Kurtis Blow, Hollis’ home boys Run DMC – Jam Master Jay we miss you. Long Island – what you have brought us, Public Enemy ‘s ‘It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back’ and and De La Soul’s ‘3 Feet High And Rising’ – simply seminal. Gang Starr, Pete Rock and DJ Premier – the East Coast massive. Rappers like Melle Mel with The Furious Five. The New Music Seminar – Miami’s WMC, you wouldn’t be here today without it. A Tribe Called Quest getting all funky on us, Teddy Riley also hailing from the Bronx one of the best producers’ ever with his New Jack Swing sound working with Keith Sweat and Heavy D. Salt-N-Pepa pushing it, Stetsasonic talking all that Jazz, Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock showing us it takes two sometimes. Tupac, another sad loss alongside the Notorious B.I.G. – Sean Combs and Brooklyn’s Shawn Carter coming into town more recently and simply earning the dollars with their Billion Dollar enterprises with fashion and their music. Roc Raida, Precision and Shiftee – DMC Champions that will go down in folklore and current hot spot clubs, The Knitting Factory and Santos Party House – we love you. What a city. No, WHAT A CITY!
O
Old Skool – Being a teenager, summer sun and the best beats…
You mention the words ‘Old Skool’ to kids on the dancefloor (or probably thinking about it, in an old persons home!) and they will talk all dreamy eyed about raves such as Raindance, Sunrise and Fantazia plus DJs like Slipmatt & Lime and The Ratpack. Bollocks to that this is what ‘Old Skool’ is – Full Force, Mantronix, Grandmaster Flash, Rockers Revenge, Herbie Hancock, Man Parrish, Rock Steady Crew, Jellybean, Shannon, Freez, Afrika Bambaataa, Chaka Khan, Whodini, Break Machine, Lisa Lisa And Cult Jam, Boogie Down Productions, The Real Roxanne – these were smashing my ghetto blaster as I rocked down my local High Street aged 15. These are some of the artists that switched on the ears of DJs that one day would become DMC World Champions.
P
Philadelphia – ‘The City Of Brotherly Love’
In my opinion, one of the most under-rated cities in the world music wise – this place needs proper props. Kurupt, Jazzy Jeff, Spinbad (the transform mix king), DJ Miz and Steady B all hailed from this city. Bahamadia is one of the best female MCs I’ve ever seen — her shit with Gang Starr rocks. And what about Schooly D – a huge influence to Gangsta rapper Ice T. Talking about his own tune ‘Six In The Morning’…”The first record that came out along those lines was Schoolly D’s ‘P.S.K’. When I heard that record I was like “Oh shit!” and call it a bite or what you will but I dug that record. My record didn’t sound like “P.S.K.”, but I liked the way he was flowing with it. “P.S.K.” was talking about Park Side Killers but it was very vague. That was the only difference, when Schoolly did it, it was “…one by one, I’m knockin’ em out”. All he did was represent a gang on his record. I took that and wrote a record about guns, beating people down, and all that with ‘Six In The Morning’. The Philly Hip Hop Hall of Fame has brought us some real stars…The Goats, Robbie B, Bilally B, Jazz Fresh, Philly Floor Takers, Xzulu, Espo, Task Force, Divine Beings, Joe ‘The Butcher’ Nicolo, DJ Kam, Mimi Brown, 100 X, DJ Rocksteady, Chuckie Go Go, Tat Money, Rich Medina, Charlie Mac, Mimi Brown, Crazy D, DJ Grem, Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes, John Shecter, Cool C, Big John, Pose II, Jay-Ski, Krown Rulers, Malika Love, EC La Rock, Funk Wizard Snow, Poor Righteous Teachers, Grand Wizard Rasheen, Grand Tone, Grandmasters of Funk, Captain Boogie, DJ Kid Swift, Rennie Harris, DJ Lightin’ Rich, Cosmic Kev, Estro, Steady B, Parry P, DJ Groove, B-Force, Shawn G, Jeff Mills, Bahamadia, Scanner Boys, Disco Rat, the Tuff Crew, DJ Todd 1, Ice Cream Tee, DJ Spinbad, DJ Miz August Baby DST, Disco C, Grandmaster Nell, Yvette Money, Bobby Dance and Three Times Dope. What a list. Then we have Cash Money – 1988 DMC World Champion. A one time ‘Stepping’ dancer who was influenced forever by a certain Grand Wizard Rasheed who was the DJ of his crew… “I was always amazed by him because he had all the beats like ‘Super Sporm’. He’d be pause tappin’ em, then he got the turntables and he started cuttin’, I’d be like, damn, man, I like this! So I started imitating him. He showed me how to go back to back, how to stay on beat, blending records and stuff. I kept doing it until I got good, then I started doing little house parties. I was using B-101s back then. To be honest with you, I never knew what 1200’s were until I met Jazzy Jeff. I saw them on the Malcolm McClaren album, but I never knew what they were.” One of the biggest debates among Philly heads back then was over who was the nicest on the cut: Cash Money or Jazzy Jeff. “Being that I lived in the suburbs I had a lot of rep, but all the big parties was in the city”. I was supposed to battle Jeff at this place called the Cozy Nook back in 1984. I’d never met him before, but they put me up against him for the battle. Cash made it to the battle too late, but he and Jeff exchanged digits and got together later on. After seeing what Cash could do, Jeff hooked him up with the promoters’ for local parties and the rep began to blossom, although never quite as big as Jazzy’s. “I was always overshadowed by him because he took a lot of my stuff and used it”. When I met Jeff he didn’t have a lot of that fast stuff, that was my own originality. He was getting all the parties, so when I came up they were like, ‘oh damn, another Jazzy Jeff’. We were the only two doing this style of scratch. At the time ‘D.S.T.’ scratches were out, and that’s what Jeff was doing. He was sharp, he was on point, but all that real fast scratching was originated by me”. His legend began to grow, eventually reaching the mecca of hip hop, New York. “We did a show at The Zodiac Cub, I think in the Bronx”, recalls Cash. “I was scared because when you see movies like ‘Wildstyle’, they always show the dark side. I went up there with my Izod sweater, looking like a college student walking up there with two new 1200s! I couldn’t believe we were doing a show in New York because that was the bomb. At first when I was setting up , people were laughing at me because of the way I had my turntables set up, you know, sideways with the arm at the top. Plus I had a small mixer. My rapper Marvelous was nervous, so I told him to just let me go for self. And we ripped it! Everybody was saying, ‘oh shit, he’s using a machine!’ Then we started doing shows at the Latin Quarter, that’s when I really broke through. That was the spot.” One of Philadelphia’s finest. And then we come to Jeffrey Townes, January 22nd 1965 a fine day for the city as the future Jazzy Jeff was born. Here’s a guy who got stuck in real early, a paper boy at the age of seven to support his family and then beginning a career that began DJing at Block parties that took him to winning the 1986 New Music Seminar DJ Battle, part of the duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince who were the first Rap act who won a Grammy in 1989 for ‘Parents Just Don’t Understand’ branching into television with the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, producing the likes of Jill Scott and Musiq at his A Touch of Jazz company – the list goes on. Oh, and he’s bezzie mates with Will Smith.
Q
Q-Bert – 1992/1993/4 DMC World Champion
Richard Quitevis, a Filipino American Turntablist who people used to call ‘The Jimi Hendrix of The Turntables’, this 39 year old invented the first musical annotation system for scratching, battling and composing on vinyl. He grew up in San Francisco’s Excelsior District. Given his first Fisher-Price turntable whilst in his nappies, he started DJing properly at the age of 15 influenced by local graffiti and street performers in his area as well as a love for Jazz musician legend Miles Davis. His first battle? Taking on Mixmaster Mike in his school cafeteria – and losing. But a friendship was made, forming the group FM20 with Mixmaster Mike and DJ Apollo in 1990, then when doing a show in New York, was spotted by Crazy Legs who invited them to join the Rock Steady Crew and in 1992, Q-Bert, Mike and DJ Apollo scooped the DMC World title as The Rock Steady DJs and then Q-Bert returned the following year, with Mix Master Mike, as The Dream Team. Someone we can honestly call, a DMC legend.
R
Run DMC
Every year a Run tune drops onto the SL’s at the DMC World Final – legends
Hailing from Hollis in Queens, New York, the forerunner Joseph ‘DJ Run’ Simmons, Darryl ‘D.M.C.’ McDaniels and Jason ‘Jam-Master Jay’ Mizell came together in the mid 80s and became the biggest Hip Hop act the world, to date, we had ever seen. Since then the likes of MTV, VH1, Rolling Stone Magazine and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame cited them as the biggest Hip Hop stars we have seen. It all began when Joseph was recruited by his older brother, a certain up and coming Hip Hop promoter named Russell Simmons to be the on stage rapper for Kurtis Blow – he was quickly christened ‘DJ Run, Son of Kurtis Blow’ and overnight started beat-boxing and trading rhymes with Kurtis. After playing these recordings to his friend Darryl, he suggested to him Hip Hop was the way forward as a career instead of athletics which he was persuing at the time and convinced him to buy some decks. After some initial stage fright’s, Darryl started rapping in public, the pair would hang around Two-Fifths Park where the most popular DJ at the time was a certain Jason Mizell. Here was the guy that was known for his flash clothes and a real B-Boy attitude – and had troubles with the law as a teen. Putting that behind him, he pursued music and once Simmons and McDaniels rapped in front of him, the three became friends. After they completed High School and started college in 1982, Simmons and McDaniels finally convinced Russell to let them record as a duo, and they recruited Mizell (who now called himself ‘Jam-Master Jay’) to be their official DJ. A year later, in 1983, Russell agreed to help them record a new single and land a record deal – but only after he changed D’s name to ‘DMC’ and christened the group ‘Run D.M.C.’–a name, incidentally, that the group hated. DMC said later, “We wanted to be the Dynamic Two, the Treacherous Two – when we heard that crap, we were like, ‘we’re gonna be ruined!”. Signing to Profile Records in ’83 saw ‘It’s Like That’ smash the roof – a sound that revolutionized Hip Hop with their cocky, aggressive rhymes over spare, minimal beats. What followed was immense – one of the best albums ever made Hip Hop stylee ‘Run DMC.’ – here’s a funny story. I went to a Run DMC gig once in London, it was so jammed it was impossible to get to the loo or the bar. Some guy in front of me was obviously in trouble. So much so, during one track he pulled down his pants and did a shit on the dancefloor that missed my Adidas by an inch. Anyway, back to the DMC. – what I really respected from these guys back then was the way they discarded the cheesy attire that (not mentioning any names) some big Hip Hop acts wore – DMC. kept it real. Run said later, “there were guys that wore hats like those and sneakers with no shoestrings. It was a very street thing to wear, extremely rough. They couldn’t wear shoelaces in jail and we took it as a fashion statement. The reason they couldn’t have shoelaces in jail was because they might hang themselves. That’s why DMC says ‘My Adidas only bring good news and they are not used as felon shoes.’ That embraced the look and style of the street that would define the next 25 years of Hip Hop fashion.” 1985 ‘King of Rock’ saw Run and DMC cause havoc in a video in a museum that MTV adored that resembled the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. ’86 saw the boys back in the studio with producer Rick Rubin who had just produced LL Cool J’s debut album ‘Radio’. And then wow. ‘Raising Hell’ was brought to the table – Run DMC’s mother of an album, spurred by the single ‘Walk This Way’ – a cover of the classic hard rock song by Aerosmith. The original intention was to just rap over a sample of the song, but after Rubin and Jay insisted on doing a complete cover version, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry joined Run DMC in the studio to add vocals and lead guitar. ‘Raising Hell’ saw the group hit four top five hits in the Billboard Hot 100 with the single ‘My Adidas’ leading to the group signing a $1.6 million endorsement deal with Adidas. Cool huh? In this golden era of Hip Hop, these were the boys that, without saying any shit, changed EVERYTHING. LL, The Beasties, Public, Big Daddy – this is the act that made it all possible. A string of hits followed, but Run-DMC met with problems as the ’80s waned. The group put out Tougher Than Leather’ in 1988, not though selling as well as ‘Raising Hell’. The members’ personal lives were in turmoil – McDaniels had to overcome a bout with alcoholism, Simmons was accused of rape but the charges were later dropped. Both artists later become born-again Christians. Mizell formed his own label, Jam Master Jay Records, in the late ’80s. In the 1990s, he was in a car accident and was wounded by a gunshot. But the group overcame its obstacles and reformed in the late ’90s, recording ‘Crown Royal’. However, October 2002 was one of the saddest days in Hip Hop history when Jam Master Jay was shot and killed in a Queens studio. Big Daddy Kane broke the news to city at The Ham
