Run DMC build on what The Furious Five laid down previously, with a harder beat and a more stripped-back sound to the backing delivered by Jam Master Jay as DJ. Meanwhile the MCs Daniel McDaniels ("DMC") and Joseph Simmons ("Run") back and forth with the lyrics. Unlike the “My name is [X] and I’m here to say...” style of the Furious Five, Run and DMC do a lot of push and pull, taking a line each, sometimes finishing each other’s lines like twins. This kind of rap style would be used from the likes of The Beastie Boys and (God help us) PJ and Duncan.
There are lots of goodies to be found here. The first (at least one of the first) diss tracks, Sucker DJs, which doesn’t call out anyone in particular but makes fun of bad rappers. The synth beats of 30 Days (“And if you find you don’t like my ways, you can send me back in thirty days”) feel like something from a Tom Tom Club song. Rock Box mixes the hip hop with some metal guitar from Eddie Martinez, a precursor to Run DMC’s future collaboration with Aerosmith and the start of the “rock-rap” hybrid. In a way it’s a logical thing to expect; both rap and rock having more than an air of willy-waving about them.
Album closer Jay’s Game is where the DJ gets to show off his scratching and mixing skills, and I have to say it all feels a lot more fluid than Grandmaster Flash's Wheels of Steel did. That’s what you get when you have the luxury of building on what has gone before rather than being the pioneer.
I’ve commented on some albums before, especially hard rock and heavy metal, that this is where the rules of the genre get laid down, and I think this is true for the next wave of hip-hop and rap.
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