\n\tForty years ago, a trio from Queens catapulted hip-hop into the mainstream with Run-D.M.C.\u2019s third album,\u00a0Raising Hell. Rap had been raising a ruckus across the five boroughs starting in 1973, but the New York-born genre didn\u2019t become a pop culture force until September 1986, when\u00a0Raising Hell\u00a0and its second single, \u201cWalk This Way,\u201d put hip-hop into the top five of the Billboard 200 and the Billboard Hot 100, respectively, for the first time.<\/p>\n
\t\t\u2018Adidas\u2019 Is a Shoo-In\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cRun-D.M.C. previews the\u00a0Raising Hell\u00a0album with the go-go rap \u2018My Adidas\u2019 (Profile), and the flip, \u2018Peter Piper,\u2019 which confirms that their style is getting faster and more showy,\u201d reported the May 17, 1986, issue of\u00a0Billboard, calling the \u201cfast-moving\u201d single a \u201csingular tribute to sneakers\u201d when it debuted on Hot R&B\/Hip-Hop Songs. \u201cProfile is breaking initial sales records with the new Run-D.M.C. album,\u201d reported the May 31, 1986, issue. \u201cAccording to label chief Cory Robbins, the album\u2019s preorders exceeded 500,000 units.\u201d Raved the June 7, 1986,\u00a0Billboard: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t get any hotter than this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\tRaising Hellions\t<\/p>\n
\n\tBased on data from retail and Run-D.M.C.\u2019s\u00a0Raising Hell\u00a0tour, the June 21, 1986,\u00a0Billboard\u00a0reported the group\u2019s audience \u201cwas 2-1 male. This is similar to the gender ratio one would see at a metal concert. The age of the audience is young, starting with fans under 15 and going up to 23.\u201d A column in the July 26, 1986, issue, opined that while\u00a0Raising Hell\u00a0was \u201chelped by having [the \u2018Walk This Way\u2019] video on MTV with Aerosmith,\u201d it was still \u201cone of the most hardcore hip-hop albums ever made\u2026 The reason that people like Run-D.M.C. and Prince seem so radical is because everyone else sounds so tame.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\u2018Walk\u2019 of Fame\t<\/p>\n
\n\tBy the Aug. 2, 1986,\u00a0Billboard, \u201cWalk This Way\u201d was sprinting up the Hot 100: \u201cMuch to everyone\u2019s surprise, the rap record is receiving substantial airplay on top 40 radio.\u201d The next week,\u00a0Raising Hell\u00a0became \u201cthe first rap album to crack the top 10\u201d on the Billboard 200. \u201cThanks to the unprecedented 2 million-plus sales of Run-D.M.C.\u2019s\u00a0Raising Hell\u00a0LP, the 5-year-old independent Profile label is the toast of the indies,\u201d\u00a0Billboard\u00a0declared on Sept. 27, 1986, the week after the album hit No. 3. \u201cYou can beg or use all the gimmicks you want, but programmers play what they like,\u201d Robbins told\u00a0Billboard. \u201cWhen people hear something good, they buy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\tLicensed to Illin\u2019\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThree weeks after third single \u201cYou Be Illin\u2019 \u201d went top 30 on the Hot 100, the Jan. 10, 1987, issue hailed Run-D.M.C. for helping \u201cto create a new fusion sound in which rap\/street music meets heavy metal rock \u2014 the teen music of the inner city meeting the teen music of the suburbs \u2014 to the delight of everyone young.\u201d A piece on the ascendant Beastie Boys in the next issue noted the \u201cinvaluable exposure\u201d they got opening the\u00a0Raising Hell\u00a0tour. \u201cRun-D.M.C. helped us out a lot,\u201d Ad-Rock said in the Jan. 17, 1987,\u00a0Billboard. \u201cWhen \u2018Walk This Way\u2019 got on AOR, it made it that much easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThis story appears in the Aug. 22, 2026, issue of\u00a0Billboard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forty years ago, a trio from Queens catapulted hip-hop into the mainstream with Run-D.M.C.\u2019s third album,\u00a0Raising Hell. Rap…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,1805,61,60,278],"class_list":["post-606492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-genre-hiphop","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}