Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

5. Run DMCRaising Hell

I have such good memories of listening to this album at school with my friends. For me it was the beginning of ‘oh I like sportswear – Adidas, ooh la la, so cool!’ It was not just ‘I love this song’ or ‘I love this album’, it was more than that, it was ‘I love this culture, hip-hop culture’ – very easy to play, very easy to listen to, cool attitude, super good style. I was so proud to come to school with this album like ‘you know what I have in my bag? I have Raising Hell by Run-DMC!’ I was like ‘I’m the king of the school.’ It has for me many very good memories.

I remember I discovered the drum machine through Run-DMC, because I asked a friend how the drummer played that way, and the guy told me ‘mais non, it’s not a drum, it’s a drum machine. It’s a box that you can create rhythm in it.’ I was like ‘wow’. So for me it means a lot because now I use a lot of drum machines in my music, Sexuality or the last one, there are a lot of drum machines, but it comes from Run-DMC.

And so Run-DMC was just a door on the hip-hop world, and I was full of dreams about the US – it was a long time ago, it was not the same country – I was like ‘wow, US, super cool guys making hip-hop!’ For me it was important, it was a dream, like some people far away from me are super cool and they are in US and I was like ‘I want to go to New York, I want to go to Los Angeles.’ It created in me a kind of fixation.

Selected in other Baker’s Dozens: Perc, Scott Ian of Anthrax, Jon Spencer
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