More than any other hip-hop group, Run-D.M.C. is responsible for the sound and style of the music. As the first hardcore rap outfit, the trio set the sound and style for the next decade of rap. With its spare beats and excursions into heavy metal samples, the trio was tougher and more menacing than its predecessors Grandmaster Flash and Whodini. In the process, it opened the door for both the politicized rap of Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions, as well as the hedonistic gangsta fantasies of N.W.A. At the same time, Run-D.M.C. helped move rap from a singles-oriented genre to an album-oriented one they were the first hip-hop artist to construct full-fledged albums, not just a collection with two singles and a bunch of filler. By the end of the '80s, Run-D.M.C. had been overtaken by the groups they had spawned, but they continued to perform to a dedicated following well into the '90s.
All three members of Run-D.M.C. were natives of the middle-class New York borough, Hollis, Queens. Run (born Joseph Simmons, November 24, 1966) was the brother of Russell Simmons, who formed the hip-hop management company Rush Productions in the early '80s; by the mid-'80s, Russell had formed the pioneering record label Def Jam with Rick Rubin. Russell encouraged his brother Joey and his friend, Darryl McDaniel (b. May 31, 1964) to form a rap duo. The pair of friends did just that, adopting the names Run and D.M.C. respectively. After they graduated from high school in 1982, the pair enlisted their friend, Jason Mizell (b. January 21, 1965) , to scratch turntables; Mizell adopted the stage name Jam Master Jay.