Raising Hell (album)

Raising Hell is the third album by hip hop group Run-D.M.C. released on May 15, 1986 by Profile Records. The album was produced by Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin. Raising Hell became the first Platinum and multi-Platinum hip hop record.[2][3] The album was first certified as Platinum on July 15, 1986, before it was certified as 3x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on April 24, 1987.[1]

Raising Hell
Studio album by Run–D.M.C.
Released	May 15, 1986[1]
Recorded	1985-1986
Studio	Chung King Studios
Genre	Hip hop rap rock
Length	39:46
Label	Profile, Arista
Producer	Russell Simmons, Rick Rubin
Run–D.M.C. chronology
King of Rock (1985) Raising Hell (1986) Tougher Than Leather (1988)
Singles from Raising Hell
"My Adidas" Released: May 29, 1986 "Walk This Way" Released: July 4, 1986 "You Be Illin'" Released: October 21, 1986 "It's Tricky" Released: February 8, 1987

Raising Hell peaked at number three on the Billboard 200, and number one on the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart making it the first hip hop record reach atop the latter. The album features four hit singles: "My Adidas", "Walk This Way", "You Be Illin'" and "It's Tricky".[4] "Walk This Way" is the group's most famous single, being a groundbreaking rap rock version of Aerosmith's 1975 song "Walk This Way". It is considered to be the first rap rock collaboration that also brought hip-hop into the mainstream[5] and was the first song by a hip hop act to reach the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100.[6]

Raising Hell has been ranked as one of the greatest albums of all time. In 1987, it was nominated for a Grammy Award.[7] In the same year for this album Run-D.M.C. was nominated for Album of the Year and won Best Rap Album at the 1987 Soul Train Music Awards. In 2018, it was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant".[8] The album was reissued by Arista Records in 1999 and 2003. An expanded and remastered edition was released in 2005 and contained 5 previously unreleased songs.

Background

Returning home to Queens in late 1985 after their extensive touring, they soon put themselves on lockdown at Chung King studios in Manhattan for three months. In place of producer Smith, a cocky new maverick was brought in: Rick Rubin. Even though Rubin's and Russell's names were on the production marquee, the two non-group members oversaw and added to the music on Raising Hell more than create it. "Rick and Russell got production credit, but we [the group members] really did everything", DMC states. "We did that album in like three months. It was so quick because every rhyme was written on the road and had been practiced and polished. We knew what we wanted to do. Rick was all music and instruments. Jay was music and DJing. And me and Run was lyrics. We definitely had a game plan."[9]

Raising Hell features the well-known cover "Walk This Way" featuring Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith. While the song was not the group's first fusion of rock and hip hop (the group's earlier singles "Rock Box" and "King of Rock" were), it was the first such fusion significantly impacting the charts, becoming the first rap song to crack the top 5 of The Billboard Hot 100. Raising Hell peaked at No. 1 on Billboard's Top R&B Albums chart as the first hip hop/rap album to do so, and at No. 6 on the Billboard 200.[6]

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[10]
Chicago Tribune	[11]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[12]
Pitchfork	7.7/10[13]
Q	[14]
Rolling Stone	[15]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[16]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	10/10[17]
Uncut	[18]
The Village Voice	A−[19]

Raising Hell was voted fifth best album of 1986 in the Pazz & Jop poll of American critics nationwide, published by The Village Voice.[20] Robert Christgau, the poll's creator, wrote in a contemporary review: "Without benefit of a 'Rock Box' or 'King of Rock,' this is [Run–D.M.C.'s] most uncompromising and compelling album, all hard beats and declaiming voices."[19]

In the Los Angeles Times, Richard Cromelin wrote: "If the same old boasts are wearing thin and the misogyny gets grating, the beats are infectious and varied and the vocal trade-offs can be dazzling."[21]

It ranked number 8 among the "Albums of the Year" in NME.[22]

In 1987, the Soul Train Music Award for Best Rap - Single was jointly awarded to Run-D.M.C. and Aerosmith for "Walk This Way".[23]

In 1989, the Toronto Star music critics took to look over the albums they had reviewed in the past 10 years to include in a list based on "commercial impact to social import, to strictly musical merit."[24] Raising Hell was placed at number four on the list, describing it as "the record to move rap from the ghetto to the suburbs. Blame it or celebrate it, you can't deny Raising Hell's impact.[24]

In 1998, the album appeared in The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums. Q magazine (12/99, p. 162) – 5 stars out of 5 – "... the apex of pre-Public Enemy, beatbox-based hip hop, a monument of massive, crisp beats plus the genre-bending 'Walk This Way'." Vibe (12/99, p. 162) – Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century.[25] Uncut (11/03, p. 130) – 4 stars out of 5 – "[An album] that forced the music biz to take rap seriously." Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p. 126) – "[T]he pioneering trio took hip-hop into the upper reaches of the pop charts, introducing mainstream to a new urban thunder: rap rock." AllMusic – 5 stars out of 5 – "... the music was fully realized and thoroughly invigorating, rocking harder and better than any of its rock or rap peers in 1986 ..."

In 2003, the album was ranked number 123 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time,[26] maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list.[27]It ranked fourth on Chris Rock's list of the Top 25 Hip-Hop Albums of all time, and the comedian called it "the first great rap album ever".[28]

In 2006, the album was chosen by Time as one of the 100 greatest albums.[29] Time named it No. 41 of the 100 best albums of the past fifty years and stated that the album was "rap's first masterpiece".[30]

In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at No. 65 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s".[31]

Public Enemy's Chuck D considers Raising Hell to be the greatest hip-hop album of all-time, and the reason he chose to sign with Def Jam Records.[32] In Hip Hop Connection, he ranked the album at number one in his top ten (which also included Tougher Than Leather) and said: "It was the first record that made me realise this was an album-oriented genre."[33]

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Peter Piper"		3:25
2.	"It's Tricky"		3:03
3.	"My Adidas"		2:47
4.	"Walk This Way" (featuring Steven Tyler and Joe Perry)	Steven Tyler, Joe Perry	5:11
5.	"Is It Live"		3:07
6.	"Perfection"		2:52
7.	"Hit It Run"		3:10
8.	"Raising Hell"		5:32
9.	"You Be Illin'"	Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, Jason Mizell, Raymond White	3:26
10.	"Dumb Girl"		3:31
11.	"Son of Byford"		0:27
12.	"Proud to Be Black"		3:15

Deluxe edition bonus tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13.	"My Adidas" (a cappella)		2:31
14.	"Walk This Way" (demo)	Steven Tyler, Joe Perry	5:25
15.	"Lord of Lyrics"		4:30
16.	"Raising Hell Radio Tour Spot"		0:52
17.	"Live at the Apollo Raw Vocal Commercial"		3:28

Accolades

Publication	Country	Accolade	Year	Rank
The Guardian	United Kingdom	100 Albums that Don't Appear in All Other Top 100 Album Lists[34]	1999	45
Record Collector		Hip Hop: the American Urban Ghetto Finally Finds its Voice[35]	2005	-
The New Nation		Top 100 Albums by Black Artists[36]	2005	96
The Guardian		1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die[37]	2007	-
Q		Ultimate Music Collection[38]	2016	-
Q		The Greatest Albums Of The Last 30 Years... 476 Modern Classics[39]	2016	-
Rickey Vincent	United States	Five Star Albums from "FUNK: The MUSIC, the PEOPLE, and the RHY[40]	1996	-
Rolling Stone		The Essential 200 Rock Records[41]	1997	-
The Source		100 Best Rap Albums[42]	1998	-
Ego Trip		Hip-Hop's Greatest Albums By Year 1979-85[43]	1999	8
Gear		The 100 Greatest Albums of the Century	1999	80
Blender		The 100 Greatest American Albums of All time[44]	2002	46
Pitchfork		The Top 100 Albums of the 1980s[45]	2002	43
Rolling Stone		500 Greatest Albums of All Time[46]	2003	123
Spin		Top 100 (+5) Albums of the Last 20 Years[47]	2005	40
Time		Top 100 Albums of All Time[48]	2006	-
Treble		The Best Albums of the 80s, by Year[49]	2006	9
Entertainment Weekly		The 100 Best Albums from 1983 to 2008[50]	2008	38
Tom Moon		1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die[51]	2008	-
Chris Smith		101 Albums that Changed Popular Music[52]	2009	-
Spin		The 125 Best Albums of the Past 25 Years[53]	2010	38
Robert Dimery		1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (Updated 2013)[54]	2012	-
bLisTerd		The Top 100 Albums Of The 1980s[55]	2012	14
Paste		The 80 Best Albums of the 1980s[56]	2012	-
Slant		The 100 Best Albums of the 1980s[57]	2012	65
XXL		40 Years of Hip-Hop: Top 5 Albums by Year[58]	2014	-
Spin		The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985-2014)[59]	2015	166
The Village Voice		Pazz & Jop: Top 10 Albums By Year, 1971-2017[60]	2018	5
Pause & Play		Albums Inducted into a Time Capsule, One Album per Week[61]		204

Chart positions

Album

Chart (1986)	Peak position
US Billboard 200[62]	3
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[63]	1
Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart[64]	50
Canadian RPM Albums Chart[65]	32
New Zealand RIANZ Album Chart[66]	8
UK Albums Chart[67]	41

Singles

Year	Single	Chart positions
		US [68]	US R&B [69]	US Rap [70]	US Dance [71]	US Dance Sales [72]	AUS [64]	CAN [73]	NZ [66]	UK [4]
1986	"My Adidas"	–	5	33	–	10	–	–	–	62
	"Walk This Way"	4	8	–	6	13	9	6	1	8
	"You Be Illin'"	29	12	–	44	–	–	–	–	42
1987	"It's Tricky"	57	21	–	30	47	–	–	–	16

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United States (RIAA)[74]	3x Platinum	3,000,000^^
^*sales figures based on certification alone ^^shipments figures based on certification alone

See also

• List of hip hop albums considered to be influential

References

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External links

• Raising Hell at Discogs
• Raising Hell at RapGenius
• Raising Hell (Adobe Flash) at Radio3Net (streamed copy where licensed)