Run-D.M.C.’s ‘Raising Hell’ at 40: How Billboard Tracked the Rise of Rap’s First Blockbuster Album

Forty years ago, a trio from Queens catapulted hip-hop into the mainstream with Run-D.M.C.’s third album, Raising Hell. Rap had been raising a ruckus across the five boroughs starting in 1973, but the New York-born genre didn’t become a pop culture force until September 1986, when Raising Hell and its second single, “Walk This Way,” put hip-hop into the top five of the Billboard 200 and the Billboard Hot 100, respectively, for the first time.

‘Adidas’ Is a Shoo-In

“Run-D.M.C. previews the Raising Hell album with the go-go rap ‘My Adidas’ (Profile), and the flip, ‘Peter Piper,’ which confirms that their style is getting faster and more showy,” reported the May 17, 1986, issue of Billboard, calling the “fast-moving” single a “singular tribute to sneakers” when it debuted on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. “Profile is breaking initial sales records with the new Run-D.M.C. album,” reported the May 31, 1986, issue. “According to label chief Cory Robbins, the album’s preorders exceeded 500,000 units.” Raved the June 7, 1986, Billboard: “It doesn’t get any hotter than this.”

Raising Hellions

Based on data from retail and Run-D.M.C.’s Raising Hell tour, the June 21, 1986, Billboard reported the group’s audience “was 2-1 male. This is similar to the gender ratio one would see at a metal concert. The age of the audience is young, starting with fans under 15 and going up to 23.” A column in the July 26, 1986, issue, opined that while Raising Hell was “helped by having [the ‘Walk This Way’] video on MTV with Aerosmith,” it was still “one of the most hardcore hip-hop albums ever made… The reason that people like Run-D.M.C. and Prince seem so radical is because everyone else sounds so tame.”

‘Walk’ of Fame

By the Aug. 2, 1986, Billboard, “Walk This Way” was sprinting up the Hot 100: “Much to everyone’s surprise, the rap record is receiving substantial airplay on top 40 radio.” The next week, Raising Hell became “the first rap album to crack the top 10” on the Billboard 200. “Thanks to the unprecedented 2 million-plus sales of Run-D.M.C.’s Raising Hell LP, the 5-year-old independent Profile label is the toast of the indies,” Billboard declared on Sept. 27, 1986, the week after the album hit No. 3. “You can beg or use all the gimmicks you want, but programmers play what they like,” Robbins told Billboard. “When people hear something good, they buy it.”

Licensed to Illin’

Three weeks after third single “You Be Illin’ ” went top 30 on the Hot 100, the Jan. 10, 1987, issue hailed Run-D.M.C. for helping “to create a new fusion sound in which rap/street music meets heavy metal rock — the teen music of the inner city meeting the teen music of the suburbs — to the delight of everyone young.” A piece on the ascendant Beastie Boys in the next issue noted the “invaluable exposure” they got opening the Raising Hell tour. “Run-D.M.C. helped us out a lot,” Ad-Rock said in the Jan. 17, 1987, Billboard. “When ‘Walk This Way’ got on AOR, it made it that much easier.”

This story appears in the Aug. 22, 2026, issue of Billboard.