Run-DMC

• 1. Introduction

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  Run-DMC formed in 1983 in Hollis, Queens, New York City, and by 1986 had achieved something no hip-hop act had done before: a multi-platinum record. Three teenagers from the same neighborhood would go on to earn a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a landmark endorsement deal that rewired the relationship between street fashion and global commerce. How did Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell pull off that run? And what does it mean that the group's anti-drug legacy became complicated by revelations tied to the very murder trial that finally brought Jam Master Jay's killers to justice?

• 2. Three Kids from Hollis

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  Two-Fifths Park in Hollis was where it all clicked into place. In the late 1970s, Simmons and McDaniels began hanging around the park hoping to rap for the local DJs who performed and competed there. The most popular DJ at the park was Jason Mizell, then known as "Jazzy Jase," whose flashy wardrobe and b-boy attitude had already earned him minor legal troubles. McDaniels had initially focused on athletics rather than music, only picking up DJing after buying his own set of turntables. Simmons then pushed him toward rapping, and McDaniels began writing rhymes under the name "Easy D," refusing at first to perform publicly.

  Simmons himself had been pulled into hip-hop by his older brother Russell, an up-and-coming promoter who had positioned Joseph onstage as a DJ for solo rapper Kurtis Blow. Known as "DJ Run, Son of Kurtis Blow," Simmons built his early experience performing alongside Blow. After Simmons and McDaniels graduated from high school and started college in 1982, they finally persuaded Russell to let them record as a duo. They recruited Mizell, now going by Jam Master Jay, as their official DJ.

  In 1983, Russell agreed to help them land a record deal and marketed the group as "Run-D.M.C.," a name the members initially despised. DMC recalled: "We wanted to be the Dynamic Two, the Treacherous Two -- when we heard that shit we was like, 'We're gonna be ruined!'" The name combined Simmons's DJ moniker with letters from McDaniels's name. DMC later rapped in "King of Rock": "People always ask, 'DMC, what does it mean?' D's for never dirty, MC for mostly clean."

• 3. Firsts and Fashion

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  After signing with Profile Records, Run-DMC released their debut single "It's Like That/Sucker MCs" in late 1983, peaking at number 15 on the R&B charts. Their 1984 debut album made them the first hip-hop group to earn a Gold record. The 1985 follow-up King of Rock became the first certified platinum hip-hop album. Run-DMC was also the first hip-hop act to have a music video broadcast on MTV, appear on American Bandstand, land on the cover of Rolling Stone, perform at Live Aid, and receive a Grammy nomination.

  Just as striking as those commercial records was what the group chose to wear. Old-school rappers like Afrika Bambaataa and Melle Mel of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five had dressed in glam-rock-influenced attire: tight leather, rhinestones, spikes, and boots. Run-DMC stripped all of that away. Kangol hats, Cazal glasses, leather jackets, and unlaced Adidas sneakers replaced the sequins. Run later explained where the lace-free look came from: "They couldn't wear shoelaces in jail and we took it as a fashion statement. The reason they couldn't have shoelaces in jail was that they might hang themselves."

  The group's look owed a great deal to Jam Master Jay's personal style. Russell Simmons had seen Jay's street b-boy aesthetic and insisted the whole group follow suit. Within what the source describes as seemingly overnight, rappers across hip-hop were trading rhinestones and leather outfits for jeans and sneakers. That shift endured, running from Adidas tracksuits and rope chains through baggy jeans and Timberland footwear for the next two and a half decades.

• 4. Raising Hell

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  Producer Rick Rubin, who had just completed LL Cool J's debut album Radio, joined Run-DMC in the studio for their third album. When the sessions were nearly finished, Rubin felt the record needed something that would reach rock audiences. The solution was a complete cover of "Walk This Way," a hard rock song Aerosmith had originally released on their album Toys in the Attic. The original plan was simply to rap over a sample, but Rubin and Jay pushed for a full cover. Steven Tyler and Joe Perry came into the studio to contribute vocals and guitars.

  The resulting single peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100, charting higher than Aerosmith's original version had. It also revived Aerosmith's then-flagging career. The album Raising Hell became the first multi-platinum hip-hop record, peaking at number three on the charts.

  The single "My Adidas" produced a different kind of landmark. It led directly to a $1,600,000 endorsement deal with Adidas, described by observers as the "beginning of what we have come to know as hip-hop fashion." The Raising Hell Tour that followed was marred by violence, including fights between rival street gangs in Los Angeles. Though Run-DMC's lyrics had typically denounced crime and ignorance, the media blamed the group for the incidents. In response, Run-DMC called for a day of peace between the gangs. In 1987 they embarked on the Together Forever Tour with the Beastie Boys.

• 5. Decline and Fractures

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  Tougher Than Leather in 1988 moved away from rap rock toward a grittier, sample-heavy sound. Chuck D of Public Enemy, writing liner notes for the album's 2000 re-release, called it "a spectacular performance against all odds and expectations." That same year, the group appeared in the crime caper film Tougher Than Leather, directed by Rick Rubin, which failed at the box office.

  Back from Hell in 1990 was the worst-reviewed album of their career, as the group experimented with new jack swing -- a production style merging hip-hop and contemporary R&B -- to poor reception. Around the same time, the personal lives of all three members grew turbulent. McDaniels was losing control to alcoholism. Jay survived a life-threatening car accident and two gunshot wounds from an incident in 1990. In 1991, Simmons was charged with raping a college student in Ohio; the charges were later dropped. Both Simmons and McDaniels turned to faith. Simmons became especially devoted following his legal troubles, and would later adopt the name Rev Run.

  The group returned in 1993 with Down with the King, featuring production by Pete Rock and CL Smooth and Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest. The title track entered the charts at number one on the R&B side and number seven on the pop charts. Despite going platinum, it was their last major hit. That same year, Jam Master Jay founded JMJ Records and signed the group Onyx, whose single "Slam" became a hit. Run became an ordained minister in 1993.

• 6. Crown Royal and Collapse

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  By the late 1990s, McDaniels had grown creatively at odds with Simmons. While on tour in Europe in 1997, McDaniels's battle with substance abuse produced severe depression and an addiction to prescription drugs. He contemplated suicide. Meanwhile Simmons wanted to recapture the aggressive rock-tinged sound that had made them famous, drawing in the wave of rap-rock artists then dominating charts, including Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Kid Rock. McDaniels, who had become a fan of singer-songwriters like John Lennon, Harry Chapin, and Sarah McLachlan, wanted a more introspective direction.

  McDaniels sat out most of the recording sessions in protest. Simmons recorded anyway, inviting guests including Kid Rock, Nas, Method Man, Jermaine Dupri, Prodigy of Mobb Deep, and Stephan Jenkins and Tony Fredianelli of Third Eye Blind. When Crown Royal was released in 2001, it featured only three appearances by DMC. Entertainment Weekly noted that Nas and Fat Joe "pay their respects with sparkling grooves" and that "Run's rhymes are still limber."

  The group toured with Aerosmith after the album's release, celebrating their collaboration 15 years after "Walk This Way." During that tour, McDaniels revealed he had been suffering from an inoperable vocal disorder that had reduced his voice to a strained mumble. Performing helped pull him out of his depression. Simmons, however, announced he was quitting, despite Aerosmith's interest in extending the tour.

• 7. Murder and Aftermath

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  On the 30th of October 2002, Jason Mizell was shot and killed at his recording studio in Queens. Fans and friends left a memorial outside the studio piled with Adidas sneakers, albums, and flowers. Simmons and McDaniels announced the official disbanding of Run-DMC.

  The murder remained unsolved for nearly two decades. In August 2020, Ronald Washington and Karl Jordan Jr. were arrested. They were convicted in February 2024. A third suspect, Jay Bryant, was charged in May 2023 and arranged for a separate trial. A neutral witness, Yarrah Concepcion, testified about a fight before the shooting, and a hat bearing Bryant's DNA was found next to Mizell's body.

  The trial proceedings also raised questions about the group's staunchly anti-drug image. Prosecutors revealed that Mizell had secretly become a high-kilo cocaine dealer in 1996 and that his murder was connected to those dealings. His family maintained that he did not use drugs and that the business had been used to pay expenses.

  In the years after the disbanding, Simmons and McDaniels made sporadic joint appearances, including at Jay-Z's Made in America Festival in September 2012 and Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, Texas in November 2012. On the 11th of August 2023, they gave what they called their final performance as Run-DMC at a "Hip Hop 50" celebration at Yankee Stadium in New York City.

• 8. Legacy

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  Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that "more than any other hip hop group, Run-D.M.C. are responsible for the sound and style of hip-hop music." Their sparse, hard-hitting beats, heard on tracks like "It's Like That" and "Peter Piper," formed the foundation of hardcore hip-hop. That sound ran forward through Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, the early Wu-Tang Clan, and Nas on the East Coast, and influenced N.W.A's 1989 album Straight Outta Compton and Cypress Hill on the West Coast.

  Run-DMC were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2009 as the second hip-hop act so honored, following Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, who were inducted in 2007. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked them number 48 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. MTV named them the Greatest Hip-Hop Group of All Time in 2007, and VH1 gave them the Greatest Hip-Hop Artist of All Time designation that same year. In 2016 they received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2018, Raising Hell was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

  The Jam Master Jay Awards, launched in 2007 by Mizell's wife Terry alongside Simmons and McDaniels, carry forward what the source describes as Jay's vision for social Justice, Arts and Music. Artists including Snoop Dogg, LL Cool J, De La Soul, and Mobb Deep have supported the initiative, keeping the memory of the group's third member connected to the hip-hop community he helped build.