Run-DMC: Tougher Than Leather Vinyl LP

Why you'll love it

This Legacy edition keeps the original 12-track running order. The album went platinum, reached No. 9 on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on the R&B/Hip Hop chart, and "Run's House" and "Mary, Mary" both crossed over to the UK singles chart.

This edition

Legacy Recordings edition
Original 1988 track sequence

About the album

Following Raising Hell is a tall order, so Run-DMC didn't try to make it again. With rap moving fast around them (Eric B. & Rakim, Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions had all raised the bar), they sharpened everything: Run and DMC picked up internal rhymes and alliteration, and Jam Master Jay dug much deeper into samples.

The group produced it with Davy D and Rick Rubin across five New York studios, including Chung King and Electric Lady. "Run's House" is a bulldozer, "Mary, Mary" turns the Monkees into a rap-rock romp, "Papa Crazy" builds on the Temptations' "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone," and "Ragtime" shows off their storytelling. The rock guitars still crunch on "Miss Elaine" and "Soul to Rock and Roll." Jam Master Jay's cuts stay front and centre throughout.

The album came with its own feature film, directed by Rubin and starring the trio, which pitted them against a crooked record executive and found room for a Beastie Boys cameo. Not many rap groups had their own feature film in 1988, and fewer still had the good sense to cast the Beastie Boys.

Also at Kops: more Run-DMC on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B