December 17: This next song brings us straight into Queens – Coming from the same album that brought us U2’s Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), A Very Special Christmas was the first album in a series to benefit the Special Olympics. Released in 1987, this album has, as of November 2014, become the nineteenth best-selling Christmas Album of all time. Although this series produced many additional versions, it was the first Very Special Christmas that introduced us to RUN-DMC’s Christmas in Hollis. Run-DMC formed around 1981 when Joseph “Run” Simmons was recruited to lay down some hip-hop tracks for his older brother Russell. Run appeared on stage as DL for rapper Kurtis Blow, and his name began to spread within the early circles. Darryl “DMC” McDaniels was always more interested in sports, but when he began to DJ with Run, he fell in love with writing lyrics and rapping. The two began performing around Two-Fifths park in Hollis when they met Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell. Mizell was a b-boy and this led to a little bit of legal issues. To shake this trouble, Jay decided to try his luck with Run and DMC. After much pleading, Russell agreed to help the three boys record a record, but only if they changed their name to Run-DMC. All three of them hated it, but had no choice. Thus, Run-DMC was born. After signing with Profile Records, Run-DMC released their first single and it was well received. They then released their album, Run-DMC and began paving the way to rap music in the 1990s. But before they hit the road with acts like Beastie Boys, Aerosmith, New Edition and LL Cool Jay; before Jam Master Jay decides to take in a protégé named 50 cent; before collaborations with artists like Notorious BIG, A Tribe Called Quest and Moby; Run-DMC recorded Christmas in Hollis. Sampling our December 2nd song, Jay took his recording of Backdoor Santa, mixed it up and created a silly little ditty about Santa losing his wallet. But I must agree with DMC where he very humbly states that he does not want to blow his own horn, but the secret to the song’s success is that his verse is real. While that may come off as a little cocky, I think it is the verse about food that pulls in the listeners. The holidays a focused on food, and DMC delivers that universal theme perfectly when he cooks up lines of his mother chicken, collard greens, rice, stuffing and macaroni and cheese. Prior to my 24th birthday, I would have felt appreciation for the reference and nothing more. But having tasted Robin Wainwright’s Chicken, Mac N Cheese and Collard Greens, I completely understand why DMC added his mother Bannah’s cooking to song. While I am sure Bannah could cook up some good food, I have yet to find anyone cook mac and cheese and collard greens better than Robin Wainwright. It is interesting to note that Bannah is actually the lady in the video cooking all the food. So it is now time to bust out your Kangol hat and unlaced Adidas while we jam out to Christmas in Hollis by Run-DMC: https://youtube/watch?v=OR07r0ZMFb8
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 06:42:38 +0000
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