Run-DMC - Raising Hell

Raising Hell was produced by Rick Rubin, who was then a young producer and co-founder of Def Jam Recordings alongside Russell Simmons. Rubin's production brought a harder, stripped-down sound that paired Run-DMC's rhymes with heavy drum beats and guitar riffs, most famously on the Aerosmith collaboration 'Walk This Way.'

Rick Rubin suggested that Run-DMC cover Aerosmith's 1975 rock song 'Walk This Way,' and the collaboration featured Aerosmith's Steven Tyler on vocals and Joe Perry on guitar alongside Run-DMC's rapping. The 1986 remake became a top-five hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and is widely credited with bringing hip-hop into the mainstream and revitalizing Aerosmith's career.

Raising Hell was released in 1986 on Profile Records in partnership with Def Jam Recordings. The album became a massive commercial success, eventually achieving multi-platinum certification and helping establish hip-hop as a commercially viable genre on mainstream radio and MTV.

The album includes 'My Adidas,' which famously led to the first endorsement deal between a musical group and a major athletic brand, and 'Peter Piper,' built around a sample of Bob James's 'Take Me to the Mardi Gras.' These tracks, along with 'It's Tricky,' became foundational songs in the Run-DMC catalog and helped define the sound of 1980s hip-hop.