Some old-school hip-hop once again, and here it feels like Run DMC have really solidified and tightened their sound – the vocal interplay of Run and DMC, while still in the old school style of four or five syllable scansion, are agile and fast, the samples and drop-ins from Jay are tight and controlled, possibly due to the presence of producer Rick Rubin who is also responsible for the infusion of rock elements.
This is the album with the legendary collaboration with Aerosmith on Walk This Way – originally Aerosmith incorporating rap-style elements to their vocals. Here, Run DMC take those and show the rockers how it should be done, while the track keeps the electric guitar riffs of the beat and Steve Tyler’s rock scream chorus, making it a one-of-a-kind track that’s never really been beaten.
Except by Run DMC themselves, on this album, in my opinion. It’s Tricky is another rock-rap track that plainly uses elements of The Knack’s My Sharona for the beat-line, but again blends in rock guitar with hip-hop. As does Raising Hell, which also incorporates images of devils and Hell so beloved of rock - “It's highly appraised when the hell is raised, so demanding and commanding that you all stand dazed. The unbelieving receiving prophecy so true, I cut the head off the Devil and I throw it at you”.
At heart, though, it’s a boast track like much on here, even one about trainers (My Adidas). The final track, however, Proud To Be Black, is a powerful anthem to black heroes like Martin Luther King Jr or Jesse Owens, and is arguably the most political of tracks on here (in the time of Reagan, that’s quite a feat of self-control).
Apart from some beat-boxing that’s so laughably terrible that I can only assume that it’s done on purpose as a parody (on Hit It Run), this is a stronger album than their debut. As I called Steve Earle’s Guitar Town a country album for people that don’t think they like country, this is a hip-hop album for people that don’t think they like hip-hop.
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