Walk This Way – RUN DMC ft. Aerosmith

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Walk This Way – RUN DMC ft. Aerosmith

This was another turning point. Rap came into my life. Loved Aerosmith and then they ran into Run DMC, the iconic start to this tune changed our music landscape again. The scratching of the record was such a strange thing to hear, we had all been so careful not to scratch our vinyl all those years, now these dudes were making music doing it. The way the different elements and instruments get brought in then dropped makes this song so dramatic. It's so angry sounding but some how non threatening, the guitar riff keeps me going throughout. The beat is so constant, it's the start of songs being created over repetitive loops. The lyrics are very clever, pretty simple but perfect for what is basically a duet, all be it between two whole bands rather than the normal two singers. It's a song aimed at the teenage boy audience who is trying to be cool through school. Adopt a walk and be noticed. The whole new style of 'rapping' lyrics instead of singing them sounded so strange and new at the time.

The iconic video also shows the two worlds/cultures classing, the world of music keeps splitting into more and more sub genres, so I think it's great that songs like this prove music can sound great mixed in from loads of influences. Funny thing being currently these two worlds are now further apart than ever.

Aerosmith had this out as a single, but it only got to No.10 and quite honestly it's quite boring. Let Run DMC added their brilliance, the song goes to an entirely new level. I had this on another one of my NOW albums, it was also played on all those Saturday nights out. This banging out a night clubs sound system used to sound epic.

Favourite lyric : Singing hey diddle diddle with a kitty in the middle / I was swingin' like I didn't care

Location: Rayleigh, UK

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