Run DMC, ‘Rock Box’, and the marriage of rap and rock
On August 11th, 1973, Cindy Campbell wanted to buy more school clothes and had the idea to host a party where she and her brother charged for entry. Her brother, DJ Kool Herc, was a renowned DJ known for getting to what he called the ‘yolk’ of a record – a method that saw him play the same song on two turntables, have the break play on one, switch it to the other where he would play the same break again while rewinding the first turntable so that the break can be played again, and so on and so on. His mixing method would lay the foundation for rap beats and is also where the term ‘breakdancing’ came from. In other words, that party on August 11th was the birth of hip-hop.
Hip-hop celebrated its 50th year in 2023. 50 years. That might sound like a decent amount of time, but in terms of music, it is a blip. The fact that hip-hop has become one of the most popular genres in the world cannot be overlooked. Following that first DJ Kool Herc party, it wouldn’t be for years until a rap song was committed to wax. It was initially a live experience, specifically for people in Queens as a counter-culture to disco in Manhattan.
With that in mind, the fact a genre has gone from being utterly unknown to the biggest in the world in just over 40 years is a massive achievement, but why is it so popular? There are several reasons, such as innovation in the genre and the ability to say a lot in a little, which makes it an excellent art form to lead movements. Hip-hop is also home to some of the most creative minds in modern music. Those creative minds didn’t just develop a genre; they created one and then had it branch out into others.
Hip-hop’s versatility is undoubtedly one of the most significant contributing factors to its success and one of the first songs that ever highlighted that versatility was ‘Rock Box’ by Run DMC. It allowed the duo to rap in their undeniable style, which consisted of trading bars and layering lyrics on top of one another. It also had a heavy rock and roll influence that completely changed how people viewed hip-hop.
The drums were chopped from Bill Squier’s ‘The Big Beat’, which has since influenced artists in various rap sub-genres, including Dizzie Rascal’s ‘Fix Up, Look Sharp’. There is also a steady distorted guitar riff and an improvised solo playing in the background of the track throughout. The guitar riff that plays and turned heads was not sampled, it was originally written and recorded by session guitarist Eddie Martinez.
Larry Smith produced the song and received pushback from the rappers when he proposed the idea of a rock-infused rap song. The style went against what the group were familiar with and planted them in unknown territory, one where they didn’t know how they would be perceived. It turns out that the rock influence was a stroke of genius, as the first time ‘Rock Box’ was played on the radio, it was praised as a pioneering movement for both genres. “We didn’t want the guitar version playing in the hood,” said Darryl ‘D.M.C.’ McDaniels, “But when DJ Red Alert played it on his radio show, black people loved the guitar version.”
It wasn’t just black people either; the rock-rap song opened up the genre to a whiter audience, who initially might have shunned Hip-Hop. MTV also loved it; a music provider who had previously been criticised for a lack of diversity played ‘Rock Box’ during prime time, which was, in turn, the first rap song to ever feature on the music giant.
Having a rock song on every album became a tradition for Run DMC. Their debut self-titled album had ‘Rock Box’, and their second album, King Of Rock, used the title track. However, their third album, Raising Hell, is what really cemented the link between rap and rock, and that properly showed how much Hip-Hop could use other genres to expand within itself. One of the singles from Raising Hell was ‘Walk This Way’, which didn’t just use rock music but had one of the biggest rock bands in the world at the time play on it. Aerosmith helped provide the music for the band, and the chorus featured Steven Tyler’s screeching vocals. The track is still iconic, as few rooms aren’t lit up by the sound of that intro riff.
Hip-hop didn’t stop at rock music. Now, various sub-genres stem from it, which use soul music, dance, jazz and every other music style. Because of that, it is hard to find someone who can’t connect with at least one form of hip-hop, and that has propelled the genre in a way that those who came before it never benefited from. All of this started with Run DMC, which has since seen them crowned as royalty in rap and rock, earning them a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
As Eminem said during his speech inducting the trio, “Two turntables and a microphone, that’s all it took to change the world. Three Kings from Queens made rap music and the B Boy stance a global phenomenon. Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels and Jason Mizell dub themselves the kings of rock… better known as Run DMC.”
