Critics had fun with Run’s “There’s three of us but we’re not the Beatles” line, even though he explained that John Lennon’s death had meant there weren’t four Fabs any more.
The laughs on the album’s title track haven’t always been considered intentional. The cover had Run and DMC only visible from the eyes up, a pair of homburg hats and D’s thick-rimmed glasses emphasising the playfulness of their greatest records. The classic Run-DMC look was established by the release of the trio’s second album. The group came in sounding like the future, but made it seem like it was a new world everyone could be a part of. But in the lyrics we hear affable autobiography turned into enthusiastic and friendly lyrical combat, where the brags are good-natured and the boasts gently comedic. It’s an odd observation to make of a record that seems so mechanical and remote. What was it that captivated everyone? Beyond the stripped back sound, the greatest takeaway from the record is its sense of its makers’ ebullient personalities. Lines from the song have been referenced down the years, and its 808/handclap pattern has become an aural signifier of an era untainted by commerciality or compromise. You can hear echoes of its sonic austerity in everything that followed, from friends and fellow travellers such as the Beastie Boys and LL Cool J to 21st-century rap titans such as Lil’ Wayne or Kendrick Lamar. Yet that simplicity is key to its success. To contemporary ears, its simplistic drum-machine programming and nursery rhyme rap cadences may sound too basic to appeal except at the level of historical curio. Take, for instance, their first release, which appeared on a 1983 cassette a year before it took its place at the heart of the band’s self-titled debut LP. The music they made had such a significant impact, not only on the nascent genre they were part of but on the whole of the culture, that the revolutionary nature of their records is often missed. Sometimes it feels as if we take Run-DMC for granted.
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