Run-DMC Tops VH1’s Greatest Hip-Hop Acts
NEW YORK – The pioneering rap group Run-DMC tops VH1’s list of the 50 greatest hip-hop acts, which includes Tupac Shakur, Nelly, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs and MC Hammer.
Run-DMC’s Darryl McDaniels told The Associated Press he’s humbled by the music channel’s choice. The complete list will be revealed Friday during a “50 Greatest Hip-Hop Artists” special.
“What Run-DMC always wanted to do,” McDaniels said Wednesday, “was represent hip-hop the way it should be represented.”
Rounding out the top 10 is Public Enemy, Shakur, the Notorious B.I.G., LL Cool J, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Grandmaster Flash, Salt-N-Pepa and Jay-Z.
McDaniels said if he were compiling the list, Public Enemy would be No.1 because the politically charged group “said something with (rap). A lot of these cats now coming into the business, they are about show business.”
He said he also would have put fellow old-school rappers Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh near the top; they didn’t make the list at all.
Run-DMC — McDaniels, Joseph “Run” Simmons and DJ Jam Master Jay, or Jason Mizell — helped take rap mainstream with multiplatinum records and hits including “It’s Tricky,” and “Walk This Way” with Aerosmith in the 1980s.
Mizell, 36, was shot to death in his Queens, N.Y., recording studio in October. His killing remains unsolved. McDaniels said: “We’ll try to, in the remembrance of Jam Master Jay and everybody before us … keep it real.”
Other acts who made the list include The Roots, Lil’ Kim, the Beastie Boys, Ja Rule, Afrika Bambaattaa, De La Soul, Missy Elliott and Queen Latifah.
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