Walk This Way: Run-DMC, Aerosmith, and the Song that Changed American Music Forever Audiobook (Free)

Washington Post national arts reporter Geoff Edgers takes a deep dive in to the story behind “Walk IN THIS MANNER,” Aerosmith and Run-DMC’s legendary, groundbreaking mashup that forever changed music.

The first 1980s were a thrilling time for music. Hair metal bands were selling out stadiums, while night clubs and house parties in New York City had spawned a new genre of music. At that time, though, hip hop’s reach was limited, an art largely ignored by mainstream radio deejays and the rock-obsessed about Walk This Way: Run-DMC, Aerosmith, and the Song that Transformed American Music Forever MTV network.

However in 1986, the music world was irrevocably changed when Run-DMC covered Aerosmith’s strike “Walk This Method” in the first rock-hip hop collaboration. Others had attempted melding styles. This was different, as a set of iconic industry rockers as well as the youthful kings of hiphop shared a studio and began a revolution. The result: Something completely new and instantly popular. Most importantly, ‘Walk This Way’ will be the first rap song to become played on mainstream rock radio.

In Walk This Way, Geoff Edgers models the scene for this unlikely union of rockers and MCs, a mashup that both revived Aerosmith and catapulted hip hop into the mainstream. He paths the pathways of the main performers—Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Joseph “Run” Simmons, and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels—and also other main players within the picture across their lives and careers, illustrating the long road to the revolutionary marriage of rock and hip hop. Deeply investigated and written in cinematic style, this music history is usually a must-read for supporters of hip hop, rock and roll, and everything among.