This 1986 cut is the third album from the Hollis, New York Hip Hop trio, Run-D.M.C.. This is one of their most well-known albums as they broke boundaries with their collaboration alongside Aerosmith on this record to reinforce the fact that they were trailling the Rap Rock movement, which has reemmerged recently.

1. "Peter Piper"

I have to say that this is my favourite D.M.C. tracks, and not many old-school Hip Hop jams can live-up to the quality of this. The beats may be familiar as some of the music snippets can be heard elsewhere from tracks from Missy Elliot and a track which had Mr. Reds and DJ Skribble collaborate in "Everybody Come On". From the title you may be wndering what the track is actually about, but as sooon as you get into it, you hear that they are rapping to various nursery rhymes in a very effective form. The samples used makes this perfect for breaking and this is what gives the rap such an appeal to myself.

**Five Stars**

2. "It's Tricky"

From my favourite, to their most overrated, I absoluely hate this track by the group, and it is liked by so many (usually non-Hip Hoppers though), so I don't want to waste time on it.

**One Star**

3. "My Adidas"

From their beginnings the group have been known for rocking Adidas, and so finally they get a chance to dedicate a work to this brand and do it in a big way as they come with funky beats and talk about all the journies they have made with these kicks on their feet. many tracks have been influenced by this from "Nelly's "Air Force Ones" to Soulja Boy's "I Got Me Some Bapes".

**Five Stars**

4. "Walk This Way" (feat. Aerosmith)

You must know this track from them as it is probably their most famous work ever, it is also known for how it broke boundaries in music as Hip Hop was fianlly noticed as Run-D.M.C. perfrm an updated version of the Aerosmith classic "Walk This Way", with the actual members of the Rock band.

**Five Stars**

5. "Is It Live"

If you like the material from the singles on this one, then you are very likely to feel the same towards this one as this one has them get into some hard Hip Hop as D.M.C. flows with the mic(rophone) on some groovey beats by Jam Master Jay.

**Four Stars**

6. "Perfection"

Here you have DJ Run and D.M.C. rapping on some live instrumentals, all in the form of some heavy drum work. It seems as though they are perfectly adapted to this sort of thing as it is basically how they have always done things, but just with live stuff instead of from an electronic beat maker.

**Five Stars**

7. "Hit It Run"

DJ Run (who know goes by the name of Rev Run) is the focus of this one as he shows us what he is able to do as a beatboxer, but to be honest, he's not too good at it, but this is all covered by Jam Master Jay, who displays great levels of strength in his ability to scratch in the mix.

**Four Stars**

8. "Raising Hell"

On this one the get into some more Rap Rock as they MC on some Hard Rock guitar work. I found that it was highly effective as they made sure that they stuck more to the Hip Hop side of things, and only had one aspect of the tne showing this rock side, as even some DJing work as used for the production.

9. "You Be Illin'"

To me, this sounded like a diffenrt version of "It's Tricky" as it was all very simailr in the line delivery, and the beats, due to tese factors I can't say that I enjoyed the time sepnd listening to this one, but it is an improvement on "It's Tricky".

**Two Stars**

10. "Dumb Girl"

I picked the perfect time to review this alum as Jay-Z recently came up with a new track "Jockin'", which features the opening lines of this track and has Kanye manipullate the "Jockin' Jay C" to make it sound like the modern rappers name. This has be sampled many times in Hyphy tracks too do to the repetition of the word "Dumb" On this one, we have them rap in a patronizing way towards a "Dumb Girl".

**Four Stars**

11. "Son Of Byford" (Skit)

12. "Proud To Be Black"

To end things off you get the trio come up with a heavy track in which they show some Black pride, to fit in with the cultural movement which were in effect around this time in the mid-eighties. Jam Master Jay does an aweful lot to ensure that this one is impactful as they beats are in-your-face and force you to take notice.

**Four Stars**

I was happy to see an improvement from "King of Rock" (which has to be their worse album). There is something on here for everyone, and this one shows that they were able to advance both their work in Hip Hop and Rock, without overpowering either one of them, unlike on "King of Rock", which was rather one-sided.