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* AudienceAlienatingEra:
** ''Back From Hell'', where they attempt to keep up with the times and emulate the production style of Music/PublicEnemy. It ''really'' didn't pan out. They found a much more effective sound again with ''Down with the King''.
** 2001's ''Crown Royal'' was critically panned for similar reasons: nearly every track was a collaboration with current rappers and RapRock or AlternativeRock acts, which was perceived as a desperate move to crossover to contemporary pop and alternative audiences. To wit: while some acts were at least RapRock acts who credited Run-D.M.C. as an influence ([[Music/LimpBizkit Fred Durst]], Music/KidRock), other collaborators included Stephan Jenkins of Music/ThirdEyeBlind, Music/SugarRay and [[Music/HouseOfPain Everlast]], acts that were widely agreed to have ''no business'' around Run-D.M.C. [[note]]of the latter three, only Everlast had a notable history with hip hop... but even then his most commercially successful solo work combined hip hop with acoustic folk rock, and his contribution to the album was singing the hook to "Take The Money And Run" rather than rapping[[/note]]
* AwesomeEgo: {{Badass Boast}}s all over the place, and they've made millions of old school fans hang on every word.
* CommonKnowledge: Everyone knows their cover of "Walk This Way" features the original's band Aerosmith... Except not really. The only members of Aerosmith that feature on the cover version are Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. This was because Run-D.M.C. could not afford to use the entire band (though the album version does use a sample of the original's drums played by Joey Kramer).
* CoveredUp: "Walk This Way" is more famous as the rap/rock hybrid than as Music/{{Aerosmith}}'s original.
* EpicRiff: "Rock Box", "Walk This Way", "King Of Rock"
* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments:
** The random, but well-placed, Creator/SamKinison sample in "Beats To The Rhyme". Particularly funny because when it appears in the middle of the song, you might expect it's only going to be used once... Then in the last few seconds of the song, it repeats it three times in a row for a near ClusterFBomb effect.
** "You Be Illin'" is a series of anecdotes about people who are "illin'," including a man who [[WrongRestaurant orders a Big Mac in KFC]], [[GretzkyHasTheBall a basketball fan who shouts "Touchdown!" after an impressive shot]] and a person who [[EatingPetFood unwittingly eats a can of dog food for dinner]].
* GenreTurningPoint: As the first HipHop act to break into the mainstream in a major way, it wouldn't be unfair to collectively call them the Music/ElvisPresley of rap, especially with how they codified many of the aesthetic and stylistic markers of the genre (the "street" fashion, the aggressive sound, Music/RickRubin's minimalistic rock-inspired production) that would still be common fixtures decades later.
* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: The first verse of "Christmas in Hollis" where Run explains that he found Santa's wallet in Central Park. He says that the wallet is absolutely bursting with cash, but instead of keeping it for himself, he sends it back to Santa with all the cash still in it.
* OlderThanTheyThink: Amazingly, the group predated their own groundbreaking song's gimmick with "Rock Box." Not only was it the first known {{rap rock}} song, but it was even the first rap video aired on MTV.
* PosthumousPopularityPotential: Although Jam-Master Jay always was well respected when he was alive, it was only after he died that people started to realize how important he was to the band. Important to the point of the band splitting up instead of getting another DJ.
* SeasonalRot: Most agree this happened by the end of the '80s, although it's up for debate whether this includes ''Tougher Than Leather''.
* SignatureSong: "Walk This Way", their Aerosmith collaboration, and "It's Tricky" from ''Music/RaisingHell'', as well as "It's Like That" from ''[[Music/RunDMCAlbum Run-D.M.C.]]'' (more so due to the Jason Nevins remix) and "King of Rock" from ''Music/KingOfRock''.
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