Great Songs from My Favorite Year in Music: 1985, Part 37

Run-D.M.C. - "King of Rock"



(Single Release: January 1985)
There are certain recognized years as being important for hip-hop. 1994 is certainly one of them, with that zeitgeist well captured in the film, The Wackness. 1979 could certainly be one of those years, after Kool Herc's block parties had become legendary and Sugarhill Gang released their single, "Rapper's Delight." However, I'd say that 1985 deserves to be recognized as a watershed year in hip-hop. I've already mentioned LL Cool J. But Doug E. Fresh, Schooly D, Kurtis Blow, and Whodini also featured in what was then considered the New School. The leaders of that school had to be Run-D.M.C. With one album already under their belts, this trio (with Jam-Master Jay, R.I.P.) inserted themselves into popular consciousness with their album and single, King of Rock. It both typified the direction that hip-hop was going and defied convention by spitting in the face of those who said that rap wasn't rock. Everything about this track is a bold statement, a thesis paper, if you will, asserting that rap was just another version of rock and roll and should be respected as such. Even the video supports this thesis, with the group taking over a rock and roll museum and rapping while being surrounded by artifacts that recall the Sex Pistols, Elvis, Elton John, and the Beatles. The heavy metal guitar of Eddie Martinez was a radical departure to the traditional sound of hip-hop's simple breakbeats. That sound would later lead to the mash-up hit, "Walk This Way," and the Rick Rubin / Beastie Boys style of sampling Zeppelin tracks on Licensed to Ill. But more than that, "King of Rock" is heralded as the first ever hip-hop video aired on MTV (yeah, we're not counting Blondie's "Rapture," or the local TV show rip of "Rapper's Delight."). There is no doubt in my mind that this was no small feat in bringing hip-hop to the masses. Without it, Beastie Boys might never have achieved the first #1 record in hip-hop a short time later. I think eventually all of this could have happened without "King of Rock." You can't curb or harness such a powerful genre. Run-D.M.C. proved, more than anything, that hip-hop was versatile, firing the first salvo into the theory that it was merely a fad. "King of Rock" and certainly their album from the next year, Raising Hell, proved that rap could be rock, that it could be enjoyed and taken seriously at the same time, and that the mainstream could "get it." Yes, yes y'all.