Raising Hell (album)

Background

Raising Hell features the well-known cover "Walk This Way" featuring Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith. While the song was not the group's first fusion of rock and hip hop (the group's earlier singles "Rock Box" and "King of Rock" were), it was the first such fusion to make a significant impact on the charts, becoming the first rap song to crack the top 5 of The Billboard Hot 100. Raising Hell peaked at No. 1 on Billboard's Top R&B Albums chart as the first hip hop/rap album to do so, and at No. 6 on the Billboard 200.

Reception

Raising Hell was voted the fifth best album of 1986 in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics nationwide, published by The Village Voice. Robert Christgau, the poll's creator, wrote in a contemporary review, "Without benefit of a 'Rock Box' or 'King of Rock,' this is [Run–D.M.C.'s] most uncompromising and compelling album, all hard beats and declaiming voices." Richard Cromelin was less enthusiastic in his review for the Los Angeles Times, writing that the group's style sounded somewhat repetitive and limited: "If the same old boasts are wearing thin and the misogyny gets grating, the beats are infectious and varied and the vocal trade-offs can be dazzling."

In 1987, Soul Train Music Award for Best Rap - Single for "Walk This Way" (jointly awarded to both Run-D.M.C. and Aerosmith).

In 1989, the Toronto Star music critics took to look over the albums they had reviewed in the past 10 years to include in a list based on "commercial impact to social import, to strictly musical merit." Raising Hell was placed at number four on the list, describing it as "the record to move rap from the ghetto to the suburbs. Blame it or celebrate it, you can't deny Raising Hell's impact.

In 1998, the album appeared in The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums. Q magazine (12/99, p. 162) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...the apex of pre-Public Enemy, beatbox-based hip hop, a monument of massive, crisp beats plus the genre-bending 'Walk This Way'." Vibe (12/99, p. 162) - Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century. Uncut (11/03, p. 130) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[An album] that forced the music biz to take rap seriously." Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p. 126) - "[T]he pioneering trio took hip-hop into the upper reaches of the pop charts, introducing mainstream to a new urban thunder: rap rock." AllMusic - 5 stars out of 5 - "...the music was fully realized and thoroughly invigorating, rocking harder and better than any of its rock or rap peers in 1986..."

In 2003, the album was ranked number 123 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It ranked fourth on Chris Rock's list of the Top 25 Hip-Hop Albums of all time, and the comedian called it "the first great rap album ever".

In 2006, the album was chosen by Time as one of the 100 greatest albums. Time named it No. 41 of the 100 best albums of the past fifty years and stated that the album was "rap's first masterpiece".

In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at No. 65 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s".

Public Enemy's Chuck D considers Raising Hell to be the greatest hip-hop album of all-time, and the reason he chose to sign with Def Jam Records.

Track listing

1. "Peter Piper" – 3:23
2. "It's Tricky" (Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, Doug Fieger, Berton Averre) – 3:03
3. "My Adidas" (McDaniels, Simmons) – 2:47
4. "Walk This Way" (Joe Perry, Steven Tyler) – 5:09
5. Features new vocal by Tyler and guitar Perry of Aerosmith based on their original 1975 recording, as well as a sample of the original drum intro which is used as the song's breakdown.
6. "Is It Live" – 3:07
7. "Perfection" – 2:52
8. "Hit It Run" – 3:10
9. "Raising Hell" – 5:32
10. "You Be Illin'" (Simmons, McDaniels, Jason Mizell, Raymond White) – 3:26
11. "Dumb Girl" – 3:31
12. "Son of Byford" – 0:27
13. "Proud to Be Black" – 3:15

13. "My Adidas" (a cappella) – 2:32
14. "Walk This Way" (demo) – 5:26
15. "Lord of Lyrics" (demo) – 4:30
16. "Raising Hell Radio Tour Spot" – 0:53
17. "Live at the Apollo Raw Vocal Commercial" – 3:28

Singles

Notes:

Vinyl sleeves and labeling