Rhythmic pioneers

Run-D.M.C., Sir Mix-a-Lot and Tone Loc helped rap and hip-hop get heard over the airwaves.

By PHILIP BOOTH

This may be tough for the young fans of Puff Daddy and Limp Bizkit to believe, but it's true: There was a time not so long ago when rap was strictly segregated from pop, rock and metal.

Then came the likes of Run-D.M.C., Sir Mix-a-Lot and Tone Loc, all of whom helped lead the way in bringing hip-hop rhythms and rap lyrics to mainstream pop culture. Genres, radio formats and audiences began mixing it up. And the rest is practically history.

"Old-School Jam," an outgrowth of the "old-school lunch" show weekdays at noon on WLLD, 98.7 FM, brings together those three artists (and a fourth act TBA) Saturday night at the Ice Palace.

The concert is created in part due to listeners' requests for such a stage show, says Andrew Fleming, promotions director for the station, known as Wild 98.7.

"That show is one of our most popular features, and everyone who likes it has been calling in and saying, "I'd love to see Run-D.M.C.,' " Fleming says. "Our station is a Top 40 station with a rhythmic slant, and a lot of the artists you hear on our station today were influenced by this group of artists that we're bringing to the Ice Palace.

"They were part of the first stages of hip-hop. They're really major pioneers, especially Run-D.M.C. They kind of brought it into mainstream pop. These artists never tour much, and they don't have major albums that they're trying to promote now ... It isn't part of a tour. It's something special."

Run-D.M.C., the hard-core rap trio from Queens, N.Y., blasted onto the scene in the mid-'80s, with the stripped-down, abrasive sound of tracks Rock Box and It's Like That/Sucker M.C.s, from its 1984 debut disc.

Joseph Simmons (Run), Darryl McDaniels (D.M.C.) and Jason Mizell (Jam Master Jay) became the first rappers to go multiplatinum, with the 1986 album Raising Hell. The disc sold more than 3-million copies, thanks in part to a remake of Aerosmith's Walk This Way, featuring Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, and It's Tricky, which sampled the Knack's My Sharona.

The trio became the first rappers to gain MTV airplay, the first to appear on American Bandstand and Saturday Night Live, and the first to make the covers of Rolling Stone and Spin.

Down With the King, a comeback album released in 1993, had the members of Run-D.M.C. openly talking about their Christian faith. And last year's Crown Royal was released in two versions -- one "clean" and one equipped with a parental-advisory sticker.

"Run-D.M.C. is like a marriage," McDaniels told the New York Times, when asked about the secret of the group's durability. "You're not supposed to break up what God brings together. Run-D.M.C. is here to stay."

Also on the bill:

Tone Loc is the scratchy throated Los Angeles rapper (born Tony Smith) behind big hits Wild Thing and Funky Cold Medina, both included on the double-platinum Loc-ed After Dark album. The disc, released in 1989, became only the second rap album to top the pop charts. Loc, a former gang member, parlayed his recording-business success into an acting career, appearing on television's Roc and in the feature films The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, Surf Ninjas, Posse, Blank Check and Ace Ventura: Pet Dedicated.

Sir Mix-a-Lot, from Seattle, stirred up a bit of controversy with the chart-topping single Baby Got Back, from his 1991 Mack Daddy album. He failed to reprise that success with the evocatively titled Chief Boot Knocka (1994) or Return of the Bumpasaurus (1996). Beepers, Benzos and Booty: The Best of Sir Mix-a-Lot, was released earlier this year on Rhino.

At a glance

WHAT: Wild 98.7 Old-School Jam with Run-D.M.C., Sir Mix-A-Lot and Tone Loc
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
WHERE: Ice Palace, 401 Channelside Drive
COST: $19.87 and $49.87
INFORMATION: Call (813) 223-1000

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