2. Run DMCRaising Hell
This is a great pop album and they had huge hits in America off that record. For me, I don’t have a problem as a guy who was a punk rocker and at the time I was really getting into 60s punk, I also got turned on to some of the old skool rap. Well, they call it ‘old skool’ now but that was what was happening back then. I remember when Raising Hell came out and thinking that from start to finish this is such a great album. Some people called it unlistenable but to me, this is great music. I suppose some credit should go to the record’s producer, Rick Rubin.
I never really made the connection between rock and rap. I didn’t grow up listening to rock’n’roll; I didn’t start listening to music till I was about 16 or something and the stuff I was listening to was very anti- rock’n’roll. Heavy metal’s never really been a favourite of mine and that’s what Rick Rubin always falls back on, especially with the rap stuff. That was my least favourite part of whatever Rick Rubin did with LL Cool J or the Beastie Boys; that really cheesy heavy metal sound. I was never a fan of AC/DC or Led Zeppelin or even Slayer. That kind of heavy Marshall sound just didn’t do it for me. But if anything, records like Raising Hell or any of those Rick Rubin productions made that a little more palatable for me; I could handle it in small doses if there were some good rhymes and beats going over it. But that kinda heavy metal is just not my bag.
