The King of Rock?

Track-by-Track Analysis- Raising Hell- Run-D.M.C.

This album was a pioneer for rap music and took the genre to new heights, featuring the first hip hop song to make it into the Billboard Top 5, and one of the biggest rap/rock crossovers with Aerosmith. With fun songs like "You Be Illin'" to cultural anthems like "Proud to be Black", this album is a must for anyone that calls themselves a fan of rap. It brought rap to the forefront of American culture, and it hasn't looked back sense.

Peter Piper- A very freestyle oriented song with killer rap. One of the most popular songs on the album, and with due cause, because of how ahead of its time it is. It is very similar to modern rap in both a lyrical sense and with the driving instrumental influences that push the song forward. This song, along with “Walk This Way”, have changed the game more than any other song on this album.

It’s Tricky- One of most withstanding songs on the album, still garnering attention today. It’s just a fun song, with fun lyrics and a catchy beat that gets stuck in your head all day. The premise of the song is that it’s hard to live the life that they are living. The tone and everything else going on here are very solid.

My Adidas- One of the more popular songs on the album, and for good reason. This is a solid song from start to finish, with a nice mix of all instruments involved. It was also one of the first uses of a commercial brand so heavily in a song, penetrating even the title of the song. It also gave listeners the sense that DMC’s shoes had their own personality and image, which was then expected to be delivered in music videos and concerts.

Walk This Way- Hell yes. Perfect song. This is the first hip-hop song that broke into Billboard’s Top 5…. ever. This was such a game changing song, as it brought rap to levels of success it had never seen before, while simultaneously saving Aerosmith’s careers. This launched both artists into careers so huge that they are still household names almost 40 years later. The song is a perfect mix of Rap with just enough Rock to appeal to more white listeners, which also changed the way rappers look at things, considering whether or not to whiten the music and become a brand like Bruno Mars. This is an instrumental song in gauging where rap went after this.

Is It Live- There is more of an African real to this song, with bongo sounds replacing the normal snares and nontraditional cymbals replacing the hi-hat. The rap is much more structured when you compare it to other songs in the album, as each line is smoothly rapped instead of being broken up with interjections from the group or pauses. One of the better songs on the album

Perfection – A nice change of pace within the album, with a much jazzier beat and real drums instead of the same fucking drum machine that DMC overuses in this album. While I greatly enjoy the laid-back vibe of this song, I have absolutely no clue what this song is about. Like the lyrics don’t even come close to creating any kind of logical story or thought progression. It the lyrics sound like two friends got together and tried to freestyle verses together and change off almost every line, and sounds just as jumbled as I’d imagine.

Hit it Run- Has a clever swing-y drum set beat supplemented by some beatboxing. While being one of the least popular songs on the album, its quickly becoming one of my favorites, mainly because it breaks up the monotony of the lower tear songs of this album. Also, the entirety of the song “Son of Byford” is at the end of this song, which doesn’t make sense to me.

Raising Hell- Being the album’s namesake, I can’t say that it lives up to the name. There is a heavy rock influence, with electric guitar taking the forefront for most of this song. It sounds like a pseudo-reincarnation of “King of Rock” from their last album, but without the arena rocking baseline. Just like most DMC songs, almost every line rhymes.

You be Illin’-  The beginning of this song starts like the theme song to and 80’s sitcom. It is a light-hearted song about people doing stupid stuff, like ordering a Big Mac at Kentucky Fried Chicken. It’s so elementary I don’t Know what more to say. It sounds a song they wrote after sippin’ too much henny one night.

Dumb Girl- This song starts off very similar to a modern electronic song, with a looped lyric and an electronically syncopated hi-hat. The message that this song conveys is consistent with Kanye’s “Gold Digger”, in that it’s about a girl who sleeps around with rich guys for the financial benefits that come with it. The last verse is DMC’s advice for getting her out of the situation, in a surprisingly fatherly tone. As the song progresses, it starts to sound more like typical 80’s DMC.

Son of Byford- a 25-second song displaying DMC’s beatboxing. Seems to be a song about Darryl McDaniel’s (headman of the group) genealogy, but in only 25 seconds, who really knows?

Proud to be Black- A tone setting anthem about being black. With multiple references to major components in the civil rights movement and black history as a whole. Heavy baseline, along with the drum set/ drum machine dominating the instrumental side of things.  This song sounds just like stereotypical old school rap, with drums and heavy DJ-ing with disk scratches.