RUN-DMC "Down With The King" (May 4, 1993)

RUN DMC are the ultimate pioneers of Rap, and on this day in 1993, they released their final good album, 'Down With The King,' through Profile Records. I remember coppin' the 12" for 'Ooh, Whatcha Gonna Do?' at J&R near my mother's job at the World Trade Center; an unlikely place to cop a 12". Of course, the title track features one of Pete Rock's classic beats, and its amazing it wasn't the lead single. For those in graffiti culture, 'King' was a term for writers and most of us were heavy into bombing - especially at that time. I also grew up in the section of Queens nearest to 'Christ The King' High School, which made the song all the more popular in my area. In reality, the title was arguably more of a reference to their past title 'King of Rock,' finding God between their last album 'Back From Hell' in 1990 and a little braggadocio. With the strength of the previously mentioned singles and the EPMD-assisted 'Can I Get It, Yo,' the album was definitely looked at more favorably than 'Back From Hell,' which was a hot mess. 'Down With The King' had production from Q-Tip, Pete Rock, Kay Gee, The Bomb Squad, Jermaine Dupri, etc. Of course, Rest in Peace to Jam Master Jay! 

Rev Run & DMC discuss some of their inspirations in Spin, 1993...

Run DMC "Christmas In Hollis" (Press Release, 1987)

The new RUN DMC single "Xmas In Hollis" is taken from the Very Special Christmas LP released on A&M. The LP features Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Whitney Houston and U2 to name a few. Xmas In Hollis will be the only single released from this LP and all money made will go to the Olympics for the Disabled. It is also featured on London's Christmas Rap LP. There is a 7" and 12" available, the 12" includes "Walk This Way," "Peter Piper" and "King of Rock" in other words a greatest hits. This has to be the best 'all new' Christmas single in years and with MARRS, Eric B, LL Cool J and Public Enemy in the charts right now, no one can deny the importance and force of Rap-HipHop. Looks like Christmas is all 'Rapped Up': Yo, Ho, Ho, Santa's chillin'. - Press Release, 1987. The track samples Clarence Carter's 1986 holiday song "Back Door Santa," as well as "Frosty the Snowman", "Jingle Bells", and "Joy To The World". The track was featured in the greatest Christmas movie of all-time, Die Hard, as well as many others. If you've never seen it, some Canadian and American hip-hop legends did an exclusive remake some years back, as well... check it out HERE! Merry Christmas, y'all!

Below is the official music video for Run DMC's Christmas In Hollis...

Run DMC "Raising Heck" (July 16, 1986)

In July of 1986, Run-DMC released their third album, Raising Hell, and thanks to their Aerosmith-assisted cover of "Walk This Way," they were on the way to becoming rap's first crossover stars. Darryl "DMC" McDaniels got a sense of the madness that lay ahead in the form of a couple of fresh-faced autograph seekers outside his Hollis, Queens home. DMC shares, "That's my house on 197th Street, my driveway, my brand-new '86 Caddy. I used to come home and find cars parked on my block, people who'd driven from Philly or D.C. or Baltimore to see if DMC really lived there. There would always be girls, fly girls, B-boys. But those kids? I mean, when I discovered Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa, I was 12. These kids are like, five, six, and eight. I knew everyone in a 50-block radius, but I'd never seen them before in my life. That look on my face is "Oh Shit!" - they're looking at me like I'm famous, like I'm a celebrity. Before that, if you asked me for an autograph, you were a hip-hop fan, looking to have a 12-inch or a 45 signed... This picture is the beginning of my greatness, but the end of my normalcy. After this, we made a movie, Krush Groove, and went on tour for Raising Hell, and by the time I came back, it was those kids' mothers and fathers and then white people and then people flying in from Germany. Then in '88, the crack epidemic hit Hollis and I started worrying about motherf#ckers coming to stick me up or hurting my mother and father, so we moved to Freeport, Long Island. But I'd still drive to Hollis every day to hang out in front of the pizza place on 203rd Street. Run lived on 205th and Jam Master Jay was on 203rd. It's a great memory. I've got my Adidas three-striped on. I'm fresh till death. - Spin (7/01).

Run DMC "Down With The King" (Reissue, 2018)

Officially licensed reissue of the 1993 Pete Rock produced Golden Era classic featuring guest rhymes from Pete Rock & CL Smooth. Original Artwork by Ricky Also, who shares, "I love record sleeves that have a bit of a story behind them, I used to spend hours checking out every detail on every vinyl I brought, and you could always tell which covers were created with love, they would have that extra level of detail and story behind them. Down with the King is such a dope release, it still sounds as fresh as it did when it was first came out in the early 90’s. I wanted to create a cover design that looked as fresh as the record sounds, but also had that nod back to its past and the original sleeve design. The original sleeve shows Run, JMJ & DMC sat on a fenced wall in front of a graveyard and church. After a fair amount of research, a few educated guesses and a lot of routing through street view maps I found the same church on Jamaica Ave, Hollis, Queens NY. I was then able to create a broader view of the scene and show JMJ floating above the graveyard and Run and DMC still in the same position on the fence. It felt like a nice story to be able to tell, it reflects the history and roots of the group and almost gives the song a new perspective now that the legend Jam Master Jay is no longer with us." Revisit this classic track and instrumental below...

Run-DMC 'Tougher Than Leather' (May 17, 1988)

Today marks the 29th anniversary of RUN DMC's fourth studio album, 'Tougher Than Leather.' It was released through Profile Records on May 17, 1988. I was 10 years old when the album dropped, but I do remember sitting with the cassette and thinking it wasn't really speaking to me. To this day, the biggest track on the album, 'Run's House,' almost makes me cringe when I  hear it. In Dan Charnas' book, 'The Big Payback,' he says: 'It was March of 1988. The songs for Run-DMC's new album had been sitting on the shelf for almost a year. It was May before Profile shipped the Tougher Than Leather LP, which was supposed to be released in tandem with Bill Adler's Tougher Than Leather book (which went on sale a year earlier) and Def Pictures' Tougher Than Leather movie (which wouldn't hit theaters until September). Run-DMC's video for their first single, 'Run's House,' was received politely by hip-hop fans, in the way a person might greet an old lover after having been swept off one's feet by another. Both Rush and Profile paid dearly for their excessive sales expectations, printing and distributing far more albums than they sold. Tougher Than Leather became an industry joke: it shipped platinum. It returned double platinum." The group's impact on the culture is undeniable and many of us wouldn't be here without them, but suffice to say, this just wasn't the album for me. All that said, it did go platinum and it's rock influences certainly targeted a wider audience. The Run's Houe Tour in '88 was great and the Bonus Track version to the album included 'Christmas In Hollis,' which I do consider a classic, too. Have you seen the movie?

Run DMC "Down With The King" (The Source, 6/93)

"O.K., so there's a new Run-DMC album. There's plenty to get excited about here, especially the prospect of the greatest comeback in hip-hop history. You really won't be able to resist an album with such an array of top producers. And after ten years, it's good to know that the crew still sports the same command of the microphone... It's easy to be cynical about Down With The King because of its "We Are The World" overtones: here is an album that has the best producers in the biz coming together to save the eroding career of rap's first superheroes. And this mish-mosh of styles threatens to overwhelm of the album. Although "Can I Get It, Yo," the EPMD cut, sounds incredibly dope, the Pete Rock cuts have the same horn stuff he's been doing to death, the Q-Tip track sounds like "Scenario" and the Naughty and Hank Shocklee tracks sound like, well, Naughty and Hank Shocklee tracks. Which is all cool, except this is supposed to be a Run-DMC record and not some kind of movie soundtrack. In some ways, this makes sense. Since they started it all, King could be their way of coming back to stake their claim on every new hip-hop outpost, like "we started everything, so we're gonna put brothas in their place by freaking that shit on our record." And, to their credit, Run and DMC (and Jay, when he hits the mic) still possess the skills to be memorable, placing the group firmly back in the game. And while the producers make the album solid - there are no clunkers here - these master musical chefs don't do the trick of bringing Run-DMC back. Run-DMC do that on their own." - The Source (June, 1993). Revisit Down With The King below...

Save a copy of the Down With The King LP review in The Source (6/93)...