Run-D.M.C. was hesitant about recording their Aerosmith collaboration ‘Walk This Way’ as they feared it would “ruin” their career, according to Daryl ‘DMC’ McDaniels. The 1986 single, which was an adaptation of Aerosmith’s original track of the same name, released in 1975, was a landmark recording in establishing a connection between hip-hop and rock music. Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith contributed to the new version. It became the group’s biggest hit to date, reaching the top ten in both the US and UK charts.
Producer Rick Rubin suggested the collaboration as a way of bridging the gap between different genres of music. At that time, everyone was sticking to their respective lanes and Run-D.M.C. was worried about how the new song would be perceived because people were scared to do something out of the ordinary. DMC said, “We thought it was going to ruin our careers. All the people that like hip-hop is going to be mad at us. We had no idea that everybody from Red Alert to Grandmaster Flash would say, ‘Yo, that’s the coolest thing’. We didn’t know that the Black people were going to love it.”
DMC wants young kids to learn to try new things and be open to learning because, as he stated, “not only will it change your life, but it could change the world.” He believes that’s exactly what happened when they released the “Walk This Way” record.
In other news, the murder trial for Jam Master Jay, real name Jason Mizell, began this week in New York. The court heard that the rapper’s killing was motivated by greed and revenge related to a drug deal disagreement. Jay was shot in the head and killed at his New York recording studio in 2002. An eyewitness who was present at the time of the shooting, Uriel ‘Tony’ Rincoln, has identified Karl Jordan Jr., Mizell’s godson, as a suspect. Jordan and Ronald Washington were charged with murder in 2020. If convicted, they could face at least 20 years in prison. In addition, a judge has ruled that lyrics written by the accused cannot be used in the murder trial
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