Editing New-school hip-hop (section)

==Advent==
{{Listen
| filename     = I Can't Live Without My Radio sample.ogg
| title        = "I Can't Live Without My Radio"
| description  = LL Cool J's second single for the Def Jam label, features heavy beats and boasting raps, reflective of new school and [[ghetto-blaster]] culture.
}}

{{quote|One time, in probably 1983, I was in the park in Brooklyn. I was getting beat up by about eight kids, I don't even remember why. But as it was happening, this dude was walkin' by with one of those ''big'' [[boom box]]es. And as he's walking by, we hear [imitates the unmistakable intro drum pattern from Run-D.M.C.'s 'Sucker MCs', loudly]. They all stopped beating me, and we all just stood there, listening to this phenomenon. I could have run, but I didn't, I was just so entranced by what I heard. Then the dude with the box passed by and the kids continued to beat me up. But it didn't matter. I felt good. I knew right then that I ''had'' to get into this hip hop shit.|[[Pras]] of the [[Fugees]], 2003, as told to Brian Coleman|''[[Check The Technique]]'' 2nd. ed., New York: [[Villard (imprint)|Villard]], 2007}}

[[David Toop]] writes of 1984 that "pundits were writing obituaries for hip hop, a passing fad" which "Hollywood had mutated into an all-singing, all-dancing romance" in movies like ''[[Flashdance]]'' and ''[[Breakin']]''. Against this, Run-D.M.C., The [[Beastie Boys]] and the label Def Jam were "consciously hardcore", "a reaction against the populist trend in hip hop at the time", and "an explosive emergence of an underground alternative".<ref>Toop, p. xi</ref>  For [[Peter Shapiro (journalist)|Peter Shapiro]],  Run-D.M.C.'s 1983 two-song release "[[It's Like That (Run-D.M.C. song)|It's Like That]]"/"[[Sucker M.C.'s]]" "completely changed hip-hop" "rendering everything that preceded it distinctly old school with one fell swoop."<ref name="Shapiro, p.327">Shapiro, p.327</ref><ref name="Shapiro401">Shapiro, p. 401</ref> In a 47-point timeline of hip hop and its antecedents spanning 64 years, Shapiro lists this release as his 43rd point.<ref name="Shapiro401" /> Reviewing Toop's book in the LA Weekly, Oliver Wang of [[Soul Sides]] concurs, hailing Run-D.M.C. as inaugurating the new school of rap.<ref>Wang, Oliver. [https://archive.today/20120903153405/http://www.laweekly.com/music/music/between-the-lines/5930/ "Between the Lines"], ''LA Weekly'', March 8, 2000. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.</ref>

===Run-D.M.C.===
Run-D.M.C. rapped over the most sparse of musical backing tracks. In the case of "Sucker M.C.'s", there was a loud, [[Oberheim DMX]] [[drum machine]], a few scratches and nothing else, while the rhymes harangued weak rappers and contrasted them to the group's success. "It's like That" was an aggressively delivered message rap whose social commentary has been defined variously as "objective fatalism",<ref name="christgau">Christgau, Robert. [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=run+dmc Consumer Guide], ''Village Voice'', 1984. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.</ref> "frustrated and renunciatory",<ref>Rose, Tricia. "'Fear of a Black Planet': Rap Music and Black Cultural Politics in the 1990s", ''The Journal of Negro Education'', Summer 1991.</ref> and just plain "reportage".<ref>Breihan, Tom. [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/21440-run-dmc-king-of-rock-raising-hell-tougher-than-leather "Run-DMC / King of Rock / Raising Hell / Tougher Than Leather"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080228053354/http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/21440-run-dmc-king-of-rock-raising-hell-tougher-than-leather |date=2008-02-28 }}, ''Pitchfork'', September 23, 2005. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.</ref> Run-D.M.C. wore street clothes, tracksuits, sneakers, one even wore glasses. Their only possible concession to an image extraneous to that of kids on the street was the stylistic flourish of black fedoras atop their heads. This stood in sharp contrast to the popular artists of the time, who had variously bedecked themselves with feathers, suede boots, jerri curls, and red or even pink leather suits.<ref>Dennis, Reginald C. "Born Again", ''The Source'', February 1993.</ref>

The group's early singles are collected on their [[Run-D.M.C. (album)|eponymous debut]] ([[Profile Records|Profile]], 1984), introducing rock references in "Rock Box", and recognized then and now as the best album of hip hop's early years.<ref name="christgau" /><ref>Shapiro, p. 327</ref> The next year, they appeared at [[Live Aid]] and released ''[[King of Rock]]'' (Profile, 1985), on which they asserted  that they were "never ever old school". ''[[Raising Hell (album)|Raising Hell]]'' (Profile, 1986) was a landmark, containing quintessentially hip hop tracks like "Peter Piper", "Perfection" and "[[It's Tricky]]", and going platinum in the year of its release on the back of the huge crossover hit "[[Walk This Way]]".<ref>Shapiro, p. 327. Shapiro has ''Raising Hell'' as the first platinum hip hop album, while Dennis and Coleman ascribe that distinction to ''King of Rock''. RIAA's certification dates [https://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?resultpage=1&table=SEARCH_RESULTS&action=&title=king%20of%20rock&artist=RUN-D.M.C.&format=ALBUM&debutLP=&category=GROUP&sex=&releaseDate=&requestNo=&type=ST&level=&label=&company=&certificationDate=&awardDescription=Platinum&catalogNo=&aSex=&rec_id=&charField=&gold=&platinum=&multiPlat=&level2=&certDate=&album=&id=&after=&before=&startMonth=1&endMonth=1&startYear=1958&endYear=2008&sort=Artist&perPage=25] [https://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?resultpage=1&table=SEARCH_RESULTS&action=&title=raising%20hell&artist=RUN-D.M.C.&format=&debutLP=&category=&sex=&releaseDate=&requestNo=&type=&level=&label=&company=&certificationDate=&awardDescription=Platinum&catalogNo=&aSex=&rec_id=&charField=&gold=&platinum=&multiPlat=&level2=&certDate=&album=&id=&after=&before=&startMonth=1&endMonth=1&startYear=1958&endYear=2008&sort=Artist&perPage=25] (retrieved on July 4, 2008) bear out Shapiro's statement. Though ''King of Rock'' may be the earliest release to receive platinum status, it did so after ''Raising Hell'' did.</ref> The group had rapped over the beat from the 1975 original in their early days, without so much as knowing the name of the band.  When ''Raising Hell''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s producer [[Rick Rubin]] heard them playing around with it in the studio, he suggested using the [[Aerosmith]] lyrics, and the collaboration between the two groups came about.<ref>Coleman, p. 401</ref> The album's last track was "Proud To Be Black", written under the influence of Chuck D of the as-yet unrecorded Public Enemy.<ref>Coleman, p. 404</ref> On "My Adidas" the band rapped that they "took the beat from the street and put it on TV".

Comments from [[Darryl McDaniels]], AKA DMC of Run-D.M.C., make this connection to the underground explicit: "[T]hat's exactly what we did. We didn't really think it was pioneering, we just did what rappers did before us was doing on tapes. When a lot of the old guys, like Kool Moe Dee, [[the Treacherous Three]], and Grandmaster Flash, got in the studio, they never put their greatness on records. Me and [[Joseph Simmons|Run]] and [[Jam Master Jay|Jay]] would listen ... and we'd say, 'They didn't do that shit last night in [[the Bronx]]!' ... So we said that we weren't going to be fake. We ain't gonna wear no costumes. We're gonna keep it real."<ref>Coleman, p. 395.</ref>

=== Whodini ===

Coming out of the fertile New York rap scene of the early 1980s, Whodini was one of the first rap groups to add a [[Contemporary R&B|R&B]] twist to their music, thus laying the foundation for a new genre, [[new jack swing]]. The group made its name with good-humored songs such as "Magic's Wand" (the first rap song accompanied by a video), "The Haunted House of Rock", "[[Friends (Whodini song)|Friends]]", "Five Minutes of Funk", and "Freaks Come Out at Night". Live performances of the group were the first rap concerts with the participation of [[Breakdancing|breakdance]] dancers from the group [[UTFO]]. [[Russell Simmons]] was the manager of the group in the 1980s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Def Jam at 30: The Declarations of an Independent – 1984–1985 |url=https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/defjam/exhibition/simmonsrush/index.html |access-date=2023-03-26 |website=rmc.library.cornell.edu}}</ref>

The group released six studio albums. Fourteen of the group's singles hit the ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' charts. Four of the group's albums were [[Platinum certification|certified Platinum]] by the [[RIAA]].

In 1984, the group released the second album ''[[Escape (Whodini album)|Escape]]''. The entire album was fully produced by [[Larry Smith (producer)|Larry Smith]]. From the laid back groove titled "Five Minutes of Funk" to "Friends", a cynical story of betrayal sampled everywhere from [[Nas]]' "[[If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)]]" to [[Tupac Shakur|2Pac]]'s "Troublesome '96", to harder edged singles "Freaks Come Out at Nite" and "Big Mouth".<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Best Rap Albums of the '80s |url=https://www.complex.com/music/50-greatest-rap-albums-1980s |access-date=2023-03-26 |website=Complex |language=en |archive-date=2023-03-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326210733/https://www.complex.com/music/50-greatest-rap-albums-1980s |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1986, the group released a third album ''[[Back in Black (Whodini album)|Back in Black]]'', fully produced by Smith. A number of songs from the album received heavy local New York airplay, such as "Funky Beat" and the controversial "I'm a Ho". "Fugitive" was guitar-driven [[funk]] and "Last Night (I Had a Long Talk With...)" was introspective. Paul Kodish, the drummer of Pendulum, was featured on the album.

===Def Jam===
The other production credit on ''Raising Hell'' went to Run's brother, [[Russell Simmons]]; he ran Rush Artist Management, now [[Rush Communications]], which as well as handling Run-D.M.C., managed the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, [[Whodini]] and Public Enemy. Simmons also co-owned  Def Jam Recordings, an important new-school label, with Rubin.<ref>"Def Jam Music Group 10th Anniversary Box Set", ''Spin'' magazine, December 1995. Quoted by [https://archive.today/20120914134758/http://www.tower.com/details/details.cfm?wapi=105798314 tower.com].</ref> Simmons rose with Def Jam to become one of the biggest moguls in rap, while Rubin claimed credit for introducing radio-friendly brevity and song structure to hip hop.<ref>Hirschberg, Lynn. "[https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/magazine/02rubin.t.html The Music Man"], ''New York Times Magazine'', September 2, 2007. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.</ref> Def Jam's first 12-inch release was the minimalist drum machine breakdown "I Need A Beat" by LL Cool J (1984). This was followed by "I Can't Live Without My Radio" (Def Jam, 1985), a loud, defiant declaration of public loyalty to his boom box which the ''New York Times'' in 1987 called "quintessential rap in its directness, immediacy and assertion of self".<ref>Holden, Stephen. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE2DF1E31F935A15757C0A961948260 "From Rock To Rap"], ''New York Times'', April 26, 1987. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.</ref> Both were on his debut album for Def Jam, 1985's ''[[Radio (LL Cool J album)|Radio]]'' (described as "Reduced by Rick Rubin" in its liner notes), which also contained the minimalist and rock-influenced track "[[Rock the Bells]]".<ref>Shapiro, p. 228</ref><ref>Bull, Debby. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20071115231922/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/llcoolj/albums/album/124627/review/5943756/radio Radio"], ''Rolling Stone'', April 10, 1986. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.</ref> Rubin also produced music for Beastie Boys, who sampled [[AC/DC]] on their ''Rock Hard'' EP on Def Jam in 1984 and recorded a Run-D.M.C. outtake and a heavy metal parody on their hugely commercially successful debut album ''[[Licensed To Ill]]'' (Def Jam, 1986). In 1987, ''Raising Hell'' surpassed three million units sold, and ''Licensed to Ill'' five million.<ref>Holden, Stephen. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEFDE173AF933A05751C1A961948260 "Bon Jovi and Bonbons"], Pop Life, ''New York Times'', December 30, 1987. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.</ref> Faced with figures like these, major labels finally began buying into independent New York hip hop imprints.<ref>Holden, Stephen. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE7D8123AF933A15757C0A96E948260 "Rap is on a Roll"], The Pop Life, ''New York Times'', April 20, 1988. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.</ref>