"Got the right to vote and elect / And other rappers can't stand us, but give us respect"
1985 marked the first announcement of what would become the first class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but one group was able to see through the bullshit long before it revealed itself: Run-DMC.
By 1985, Run-DMC has already proven themselves to be one of the most important artists of their time, breaking down barriers that were keeping hip-hop from the mainstream; they were the rockstars of their day for their rejection of the status quo and never taking what was expected of them as the blueprint. They subverted the expectations of a hip-hop group, in turn creating the groundwork that so many would come in the following decades. Despite their proven importance to the growth of hip-hop, the group were not well respected in the grand scheme of the music world. Understandably, this struck a nerve, as no other artists had to declare thier importance so loud, or so consistently, to ask for an inkling of respect outside their respective genre. Their response to this fiasco was none other than the aptly titled King of Rock and it's accompanying video.
The Music Video for King of Rock
The video for the song places the group in a museum of rock and roll, initially rejected upon entering: ‘This is a rock and roll museum. You guys don’t belong here.’ This line could be taken a multitude of ways, one being that they weren’t respected as a rock group despite considering themselves one. The group was closer to rock and roll than not, later in the decade they would even revive a long-dead Aerosmith with a crossover hit of Walk This Way, but they were constantly fighting an uphill battle for recognition in the genre. While the Beastie Boys seemed to rather quickly get the stamp of ‘rock-adjacent’ work, it didn’t come to Run-DMC as easily. Even a band like Blondie - a band most would consider well within the greater rock world - when they rapped on their chart-topper Rapture, it didn't shake up their position as a rock band. To smash down the wall for Run-DMC was a much longer battle than it should've been. The line could also point towards hip-hop at large and how it was often kept out of more mainstream conversations of popular music despite its huge impact. People had, and still very much do, a sideways view of hip-hop and its place in popular culture - writing it off and disqualifying it from the discussion of popular music no
matter how impactful it is. Even as late as 2024, most people became incensed at the idea that Billboard could name Kendrick Lamar as the pop star of the year after the stellar year
he had (a weeks-long chart topper in Not
Like Us, a amazing debut for a surprise drop with GNX, and being announced as the headliner for the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime show). There was pushback as to whether he deserved the accolade, whether the music he made was to be considered pop music - all about 40 years after Run-DMC begged the same question, to the same public about the same respect for the same genre. While looking back at their legacy, it can be hard comprehend how Run-DMC was the first in so many avenues of breaking down barriers for so much of hip-hop in popular music: being the first group on the cover of Rolling Stone, first with a gold-certified album, first multi-platinum album, first to appear on MTV, first to be nominated for a Grammy. All of this, yet they were still viewed as “less-than” the more ‘rock-centric’ artists that came before. It’s this that makes the song become much more culturally significant than it may seem at first. It’s not Michael Jackson and This is not Thriller to There’s three of us but we’re not the Beatles mark the group's distinct separation from icons of the past and present while still putting themselves in the same conversation. They weren't anything like The Beatles and their impact on a post-war world, and they didn't have the same universal success that Michael Jackson found when breaking down a still very segregated pop music sphere in the early 1980s. Run-DMC was functioning as a bridge for not only what hip-hop could become, but to what popular music could become if they allowed the genre to flourish on a larger stage - just as important as the other two artists but also distinict within it's meaning for the group.
The video follows the group looking at artifacts of the past: Jackson’s sparkly glove, four bowl cut wigs, countless nondescript gold records and guitars. The museum shows multiple clips on various televisions, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, and then is unplugged when they get to Jerry Lee Lewis. When the next television is seen, it’s Run-DMC shown, with the guard who once laughed at their credentials nodding in agreement wearing a signature fedora hat. Towards the end there’s a scene where Run picks up a guitar, walking towards the camera as he swings it, matching the lyrics of the song: Now we crash through walls, cut through floors / Bust through ceilings and knock down doors. Very similar to the line in the beginning of the music video, this carries multiple different meanings. It could signify hip-hop taking over the mantle rock held for so long, becoming the voice of youth and the new, younger, controversial new genre that scares the elders for its lack of pandering towards them, or it could be viewed as the band taking an axe to what is to be considered rock music. The whole video takes place in this fictional yet seemingly exclusive museum of rock and roll music that seems to uphold only certain artists based on their commercial success and historical importance. There’s few references to more contemporary artists outside of Jackson, no nod towards Prince nor Madonna, who we would now look on as rock stars of their time, nor any of the more influential yet not successful artists of rock, only showing the old greats or The Beatles. The 1980s were a time where rock music was starting to shift from the default of popular music, rock music had become a parody of what originally made it so inventive as a genre, the “exclusivity” of the genre was long gone - it had become a mockery of itself. There was a discussion to be had about why Michael Jackson would become a rockstar immediately while Run-DMC would be barred from entering the genre. The song would also name drop Kool of Kool & The Gang, the influential funk group whose sounds are often sampled on countless hip-hop records, and yet another group whose success was often downplayed despite their impact of so many artists.
As stated, the song and video were a response to the announcement of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, commenting on the lack of respect that would be given to rap artists, and in some ways they were correct. While it wouldn't be until 2007, twenty years after the first induction, that the first hip-hop group, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, would be inducted for their influence on popular music. It would be another two years before Run-DMC would get the same recognition, become the second hip-hop artist to ever be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, over twenty years after first begging the question of why they wouldn’t be allowed in these spaces. They were inducted immediately upon eligibility [to get in there’s a requirement of a hit at least 20 years before induction so historical impact can be properly accounted for], something that they had critiqued with the release of King of Rock. Writer Alan Light touched upon this in his 2009 essay about the group for their induction, saying: “[Run-DMC] transformed the sound, the look, the audience, and the possibilities for hip-hop around the world. They were the pioneers creatively and commercially, simultaneously the Chuck Berry and the Elvis of their genre.” He goes on to say that no act from the 1980s had as much impact as the “Kings from Queens." Hip-Hop and rap are still mostly absent from the Rock Hall as of 2024, with only about ten artists from the genre inducted. The fact rap is represented at all in the Hall could find a home with Run-DMC and King of Rock, a track that boldly told everyone who wasn't prepared for the impact of such a band that they were stuck living with them loudly and produly declaring their rightful kingdom.
I'm the King of Rock, there is none higher
Sucker MCs should call me sire
To burn my kingdom, you must use fire
I won't stop rocking till I retire
King of Rock immediately opens with these lines, a sentiment that if you aren't to understand their impact, you must feel their influence. There was no getting rid of Run-DMC, and there was certainly no ignoring such a powerhouse of the genre, and in 1985 they simply silenced all those who thought that was ever to be an option.
Run-DMC giving their Acceptance Speech at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction:
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