The success propelled Run-DMC into mainstream popularity (the album Raising Hell with the track on it went three times platinum) and gave Aerosmith the boost they needed to jumpstart their career (their 1987 album Permanent Vacation sold 10 times as many copies as its predecessor). It became so popular on MTV that it was shown twice an hour. In a literal shattering of the wall between the two genres, the accompanying music video starts out showing the two bands on opposite sides of a wall before Tyler punches a hole to break down the barrier - and ends with the bands united on stage. But the lyrics did cause some fundamental issues, with Run calling them “hillbilly gibberish … Country bumpkin b***s**t!”īut the song got recorded and a new version of “Walk This Way” made its way as the track onto Run-DMC’s 1986 album and became the No. The iconic beats of the song were familiar to everyone involved (although the members of Aerosmith still argue about who came up with it).

So he called up Tim Sommer who used to be a NYU radio jockey with a very specific request: “I need a white rock song that can be turned into a rap song.” And that’s when the idea of “Walk This Way” came up. “I was looking for a way to bridge that gap in the story of finding a piece of music that was familiar and already hip-hop friendly so that on the hip-hop side it would make sense and on the non-hip-hop side you’d see it wasn’t so far away,” Rubin said. He felt he needed a tool - a secret weapon of sorts - to take the rap group out of its underground scene and propel them to mainstream success so that others could understand how nuanced and intelligent the genre is.

He had already sampled AC/DC’s riff from “Back in Black” for the Beastie Boys’ Def Jam debut “Rock Hard.” Even though he was technically finished with Run-DMC’s Raising Hell album in 1986, he still felt like it was missing something, according to Geoff Edgers’ 2019 book Walk This Way: Run-DMC, Aerosmith and the Song that Changed America Forever. Mixing up genres wasn’t a new concept for Rubin. But it was the genius move to combine the two disparate groups that created one of the greatest genre-crossing hits - and arguably changed the face of American music forever.

Run dmc aerosmith