Gather round kiddos, MUSICAL MEMORIES... ------------------------------ Happy birthday to: Run DMCs King Of Rock. It was released on 1/21/1985 via Profile/Arista Records, making it - 30 YEARS old today. King of Rock is the 2nd studio album by hip-hop trio Run DMC; their last before linking up with producer Rick Rubin. After the success of their 1st album, and having their Rock Box music video become the first-ever rap video shown on MTV, Run DMC branched out on their follow-up King Of Rock, seeing the group furthering their rap-rock fusion, with more heavy electric guitar riffs & samples. They kept the production in-house with Russell Simmons, Larry Smith, & Jam Master Jay handling all the music, with the exception of 1 song by dancehall deejay Yellowman. King of Rock churned out 4 singles - The title track King Of Rock (#108 US Pop Hit, #14 urban Hit), You Talk Too Much (#19 urban Hit), Can You Rock It Like This (#19 urban Hit), and Jam Master Jammin (#53 urban Hit); with the 2 first songs becoming moderate dance-club hits as well. Elsewhere, the non-single Darryl & Joe (Krush-Groove) gained minor radio airplay too, and Roots, Rap, Reggae became a cult classic being the 1st ever popular rap-reggae hybrid record. The album itself opened up #52 nationally on the Billboard charts and worked its way upwards. By 6 months later, the album had sold Gold, and before 1987, it achieved Platinum sales. While not quite their most successful album (Raising Hell in 1986) nor my favorite album from them (that would be Down With The King in 1993); King Of Rock is historically important for ultimately defining Run DMCs signature sound, and earning them a spot on the Live Aid Benefit concert to a crowd of 100,000+ in attendance (the 1st time a rap act was invited to a Rock-dominated event, especially of that magnitude). And... Being one of the 1st three rap albums EVER to go Platinum, there was definitely No sophomore jinx here! #MusicalMemories #RunDMC
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 16:15:23 +0000
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