Epic Run DMC Live-Post

12:15 – This is a big moment in live internet blogging. I am about to pop on Run DMC’s Tougher than Leather for the first time in a digital format. Until today (thanks, John), I’ve been stuck with a poorly dubbed cassette of the album, one that was brought aboard the tape decks of friends’ cars in high school like a weary traveller exchanging gold for passage through a stormy current.

12:20 – Insane. I feel like I’m riding around in a dumpy ’89 Volvo right now. I’m going to go get a Pepsi®.

12:28 – Some minutes passed. “Mary, Mary” was in there but, as many of you know, it defies the reach of my niggling words. I can’t really vouch for the accuracy of these time stamps!

Jesus, “Radio Station” is nuts. What if this came out right now? I wish more mainstream rappers would distort their samples and repeat the same words over and over again like “Radio Station – DEP Ra-Ra-Radio Statio -DEP DEP DEP.”

AM/FM MUSIC MODULATION.

12:31 – I’ll admit it, I’m waiting for “Papa Crazy” to come on with bated breath. That shit is bananas.

12:32 – PAPA… PAPA CRAZY. “Papa don’t give a damn, or say thank you ma’am!” I just want to transcribe all of the lyrics here. Screw it, here they are. No one raps like this any more! Stuff like this and school and hard tests that you get B’s on are things more rappers should come back to. Holla ’bout yo’ grades, son.

12:35 – Papa still crazy. I’d bet my month’s earnings (US$5) that the beat rolls on for at least a minute after the hook ends.

12: 36 – Yep.

12:39 – The title track is pretty good, but there are better songs here. While I think it’s funny, I was never a huge fan of the shreddin’ guitars/rap combo. I know that was a major Run DMC thing, but I like the beats that go *plink plink doop doop* better.

12:41 – “Out out out-out (like that, out like) out out-out (like that!)” I’m not that into this one. I keep thinking about my Pepsi®. It’s not very cold anymore. I should get a job.

12:45 – There is so much bell in “How’d Ya Do It Dee.”

Damn, 7 tracks after this one, and those are all loaded as hell (“Christmas in Hollis,” “Beats to the Rhyme,” etc.) and have a lot of lyrics about homework and stuff, so I might have to split this in half.

Look for the second half of this story on these very pages! To be continued…