Name: Rick Rubin on How Walk This Way Brought Hip-Hop Into the Mainstream
Uploaded: 2022-10-12T17:39:45.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Rick Rubin on How Walk This Way Brought Hip-Hop Into the Mainstream' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-10-12. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Rick Rubin on How Walk This Way Brought Hip-Hop Into the Mainstream' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-10-12. Transcript available.

I can remember being in, um, once Def Jam happened and we started having a lot
of success putting out music, and I'm still probably at NYU, um, labels would
come around and want to be involved in one way or another, and one label asks,
like, what do you attribute the success of this to? After all, it's not music.
Now, these are people in the music business who are wooing us, wanting to work
with us, and they're telling us they don't hear it as music.
That doesn't even make sense today, right?
No, no, no. Now, it's, it's, the world has changed. The world has changed.
Wow.
But it was a completely alien underground form of music, and because people
were rapping instead of singing, that was one piece that didn't, wasn't
understandable.
And then because the music was like, it's yours, where it's, it's a drum
machine, there's no melody, there's no, it's, it was too foreign at that point
in time for people to understand it as songs.
Wow.
It's hard to, it's, you know.
Yeah, it's shocking.
Yeah.
It's ridiculous.
And, and in, in some ways, like, there's a song I produced with, um, Run DMC
and Aerosmith, Walk This Way.
Yeah.
And the whole purpose of doing that was to demonstrate, this is music.
This is music.
And this is, not only is it music, it's familiar music.
You're just not, you're not seeing it, like you're, you're somehow removed from
what's happening, but it's easy to see if you, so again, if you create a
demonstration.
So that's what Walk This Way was, was I looked for a song that was familiar.
And that the way it was written in the original version, Aerosmith version, the
phrasing of it was essentially a rap record.
The verses are, ba-ba-ba-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
It's not melodic.
It's all about the phrasing.
That's how rap works.
And the beat, you know, the intro, psst, dat, ba-bum-bum, dat, was already a
known breakbeat in the hip-hop world.
They, they had never heard, in hip-hop club, no one had heard of Aerosmith.
No one had heard of, um, Walk This Way, but they knew the Toys in the Attic
break, which was just that beat, not the song.
Wow.
Yeah.
Let's listen to that.
Can we play the intro, the intro to Aerosmith's Walk This Way?
I remember when you did that.
I remember that being a very polarizing song.
Absolutely.
Because people didn't know what to think.
It's like some people thought you were ruining Walk This Way by adding Run DMC.
And some people were like, why do you have Run DMC with rock and roll?
It doesn't make any sense.
Stop the song.
Just that long.
That's it.
That piece is the Toys in the Attic break.
Because it says Toys in the Attic on the record.
Yeah.
Just that.
So that would, that was, and so if you went to a hip hop club, you might hear
that.
Wow.
But I grew up on Aerosmith, and I grew up on ACDC, and I grew up on Ted Nugent.
You know, I grew up on rock and roll music.
And when I saw this disconnect, this was the way to like bridge the gap.
Just to explain what was happening.
Wow.
How was it received in the music business when you did that?
I guess the first thing was radio.
Like, I remember, I guess it was WBCN in Boston.
Played it once.
Mark Parenteau?
I can't remember if it was Mark Parenteau, or who else was there?
Charles Laquadera.
No, tell me another name.
God, that's hard to remember.
Like DJs.
The Morning Mattress was Charles Laquadera, and Afternoons was Mark Parenteau.
Yeah, I don't think, I don't know that it was either of them.
But it might have been.
Again, I don't remember.
I just remember that BCN played the song, and it was a big deal.
Also, because it was a rock station playing a hip-hop record.
Yeah.
And I remember that there was this outrage from the audience, you know, take
that garbage off.
And then within a few days, it was the most requested song on the station.
Wow.
Yeah, so it was like, it definitely divided the audience.
Yeah.
But the best things do.
That's what's really exciting.
When you hear something new, and you don't have a reference for it,
your first reaction might be to push it away.
You know, I remember the first time I heard the Ramones when I was in probably
junior high school.
And I heard the Ramones, and that was the first really punk rock fast music I
ever heard.
I don't think there was any before the Ramones.
So if you're used to hearing normal tempo rock and roll, and then you hear the
Ramones, I just laughed.
It just seemed like a joke.
You know, it just seemed ridiculous.
And then eventually it became my favorite thing.
How did Aerosmith react?
Did you come to Aerosmith and try to bring it to them?
Did the label come to them?
I just had the idea of doing the song and recording the song with Run DMC.
And then the label said, why don't we reach out to Aerosmith and ask if they
would participate?
And I was like, that sounds crazy to me.
But if they'll do it, obviously I'd love it.
You know, I loved that band growing up.
They were one of my favorite bands growing up.
So that seemed like a dream.
And then they came and we did it.
Wow.
That was a groundbreaking moment in music.
It really was.
If you really stop and think about all the ripples that came out of that
particular song,
that song introduced so many people to hip-hop,
and I'm sure so many hip-hop fans to rock and roll and Run DMC.
Absolutely.
You know, combining with Aerosmith is like the perfect combination.
Two iconic bands.
But also at that point in time, Aerosmith had fallen on hard times.
I remember I saw Aerosmith play at Nassau Coliseum, sold out, incredible show.
And then six months later, Aerosmith were playing at a club on Long Island
called Speaks,
which was like where the cover bands would play.
Six months?
Six months.
What happened?
I don't know.
I don't really know.
I think maybe Joe Perry left the band, which was part of it.
But I don't know how you can go from that popular to in this new condition that
quickly.
But it happened.
That's wild.
Yeah.
I wasn't aware that that had happened.
That doesn't even make sense that something like that can happen in six months.
Nassau Coliseum, which is like, what is that?
Sold out.
$20,000, $18,000, something.
Jesus Christ.
To a club.
Yeah.
Maybe a 600-person club.
Like a big club, but still a club.
A big fall.
A big fall.
Wow.
Yeah.
In six months.
Yeah, really quick.
So was it a scandal when Joe Perry left?
Is that what it was?
Was it like everyone was upset?
I don't know.
I really don't know.
So they did that, and then did that song bring them back?
That song brought them back.
Wow.
Yeah.
Holy shit.
They had actually put out an album called Done With Mirrors, which was like
their comeback album before Walk This Way, and that was not well received.
And then Walk This Way came out, and then it both broke Run DMC in a mainstream
way and re-broke Aerosmith as a mainstream group.