Run-D.M.C. Album: “Raising Hell [Deluxe Edition]”

Before the days of the internet, I had to fly down to New York to pick up the latest 12" singles. When the Peter Piper/My Adidas single was released, it was blowing up parties everywhere, and I can remember the anticipation waiting for the new album. By chance I was in NYC the day that Raising Hell was released, and I remember seeing it/hearing it in a record store in Manhattan, and I just flipped. Everything about it was awesome. Finally a rap group that was doing it big!!! Raising Hell was so different, so tight, and it had such a live feel to it!!!

It was comparable to when the first Run DMC album came out, and me and the crew were like "What the heck is that?" If the first album said "New school is here," this album said "we're staying!!!"

Definitely an album that no hip hopper should be without. I'm finally buying the CD because all my vinyl copies have finally worn out, and this copy is for the archives.

In my opinion, this is easliy the best album ever. I bought it when it came out in 1986, and it is even better now. After listening to "Raising Hell" all the way through changed the way I listened to music. A perfect blend of rap and hard rock, the way rap is supposed to be. Run and DMC are the best MC's out there, and no one scratches vinyl like Jam Master Jay. You cannot call yourself a fan of rap if you have never heard this album--or if you don't like this album. Every rapper of today owes it to Run-DMC for making rap mainstream. So do yourself a favor and listen to this and I'll promise to shut up!

And another huge step beyond their previous album. This would soon become the blueprint for all rap albums made after it. If you're a rap fan and don't own this album, you're just fronting.

This is where Run DMC reached their peak. At the University of South Carolina at the time, this album and the beastie Boys "License to Ill" were heard everywhere. Rap was still fun and rappers were still not taking themselves too seriously.

Now for the songs. I DEFY anyone to sit still while listening to "Peter Piper" or "My Adidas." "Proud To Be Black" is a bit more tounge-in-cheek than the "afrocentric" rappers of a few years later. Yes, there is "Walk This Way" (sorry, I prefer the original), but most people don't know that rappers had been sampling this beat before rap was recorded. "Perfection" is wonderful in that it has our heroes doing a relaxed rap with a live 16-year old drummer named Stix in the background, with an interesting effect.

But enough of this. Get this and Run DM's self-titled debut to hear how much fun rap was in the pre-gangsta era.

This was the first rap tape I got when I was about ten and unlike most hip hop records that go out of style in a few years, i find myself coming back to this time and time again. This album was definitely way before it's time. It was great then, it's great now and it will be bumping into the new millenium!