Run-D.M.C.

One of the most important and influential hip-hop LPs ever recorded, Run-D.M.C.'s classic 1984 debut helped spread rap music around the globe and inspired a whole new generation of artists. The reissue includes a pair of live cuts ("Sucker M.C.s," "Here We Go"), an alternate mix of "Rock Box," and "Russell and Larry Running at the Mouth."

Though a bit upwardly mobile for the highbrow-lowbrows who regard money lust and the death throes of capitalism as two sides of rap's only fit subject--D.J. Run boasted about attending St. John's, of all things--the competitive fatalism of the spare, brutal "It's Like That"/"Sucker M.C.'s" was unforced and dead on, and Eddie Martinez's Hendrix-Funkadelic metal on the expansive "Rock Box" proves that even street minimalists can love guitars. But this does more than fill in around two of the finest singles of the past couple of years. It's easily the canniest and most formally sustained rap album ever, a tour de force I trust will be studied by all manner of creative downtowners and racially enlightened Englishmen. While their heavy staccato and proud disdain for melody may prove too avant-garde for some, the style has been in the New York air long enough that you may understand it better than you think. Do you have zero tolerance for namby-pamby bullsh*t? Do you believe in yourself above all? Then chances are you share Run-D.M.C.'s values. (Grade - A-)