Run-D.M.C. - Rock Box (Lyrics)

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Artist/Group: Run–D.M.C.
Album: Run-D.M.C.
Released: 1984
Label: Profile/Arista

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"Rock Box" is a song by the American hip hop group Run-DMC. The song was produced by Larry Smith and Russell Simmons and released by Profile Records in March 1984. Following the popularity of their previous two singles "Hard Times" (1983) and "It's Like That" (1983), Profile Records head suggested to the producers and group that they should attempt to record an album as they already had four songs ready, and releasing a few more would not hurt them. Despite speculating low sales from the label and the group not feeling that hip hop was a genre appropriate for a full-length album, they were given an advance to start recording. This led to Run-DMC members Joseph "Run" Simmons and Darryl "DMC" McDaniels going through their rhyme book to develop new songs, one of which would become "Rock Box".

After having to wait for the heavy metal band Riot to finish their studio time so the group could record new tracks, the group and producers were influenced by their loud guitar sound and attempted to create a guitar based track. After McDaniels and Simmons recorded their rhymes, Smith developed the track, including inviting his friend Eddie Martinez to record layers of guitar solos to match the song. On its completion, McDaniels and Simmons were unhappy with the sound as they assumed it would not be as guitar heavy and Profile Records president Cory Robbins was also not confident with it, feeling that it was "weird". The group gave a version of the song without the rock backing to Kool DJ Red Alert to play on New York radio, but it was Smith's version with the guitar that became the more popular version. "Rock Box" also featured a music video that became the first hip hop song to get regular rotation on the music video channel MTV.

"Rock Box" was released in early March, three weeks prior to the release of the group's debut album Run-D.M.C.. The song was praised in contemporary reviews receiving praise in magazines such as Creem and Rolling Stone. In the 1984 Pazz & Jop critics poll released by The Village Voice, "Rock Box" tied with Afrika Bambaataa & James Brown's single "Unity" (1984) at seventh place as one of the top singles of the year. Run-DMC would continue their use of rock based tracks on many of the future songs, including "King of Rock" (1985), "Walk This Way" (1986) and "It's Tricky" (1986).

Prior to the release of "Rock Box", Run-D.M.C. released their first single "It's Like That" in March 1983. The song was released by Profile Records, a small New York-based independent music label known for dance music. Journalist and Run-D.M.C. biographer Bill Adler stated that "It's Like That" was a large step away from the previous three and a half years of hip hop which was known for polished and high spirited songs released by Sugar Hill record label. This was followed by a tour where the group opened for funk music bands on the bottom half of double bills. Profile released their second single "Hard Times" backed with "Jam Master Jay" in December 1983 which charted higher on Billboard's "Black Singles" chart than "It's Like That".

After the success of the two singles, Profile Records decided to have Run-D.M.C. make a full-length album for both the group and the label. Profile's president, Cory Robbins, recalled that after the success of "It's Like That" the group should record an album, feeling that it would be just a few songs, and Run-DMC already had four. McDaniels, Joseph and Russell Simmons were originally against recording an album. Robbins told them that they would be making these songs anyway and encouraged them to record, despite knowing that hip hop albums had not really sold well before. Profile gave them a $25,000 advance for the album with fifteen thousand going towards recording and the remaining 10,000 being split between Smith, McDaniels, Russell and Joseph Simmons. Whether Jay Mizell (Jam Master Jay) was paid for the record remains unknown.

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