Run-DMC reflects on 'Raising Hell' 40 years later

When Run-DMC released Raising Hell 40 years ago, they set out to shake up the world of hip-hop. In an interview with Billboard, DMC said that's part of what made the album a classic.

“Raising Hell was special because we wasn’t trying to make a music industry album; we was trying to make a hip-hop album,” he said.

He called the project "the prototype, the blueprint," adding, "It’s the Sgt. Peppers of hip-hop."

DMC continued, "It made everybody after us, if you want to do an album, you got to do it on that level."

Released in May 1986, Raising Hell featured Run-DMC's cover of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way." The album peaked at #3 on the Billboard 200, making Run-DMC the first hip-hop group to earn a Platinum rap album and receive a Grammy nomination.

"Walk This Way" reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Reverend Run credited much of the album's success to the late Jam Master Jay.

“[Forty] years, I pray it lives up to how me and D felt in ’87 going on tour,” he said of the album's milestone anniversary. “[Producer] Jam Master Jay was everything to Raising Hell… He was like the one-man-band making Raising Hell."

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