Chords for DMC: The Real Story of Aerosmith + Run-D.M.C.'s 'Walk This Way'

Yo, yo, what's up?
It's me, DMC, and the place to be, and the only place for you to ever be,
is right here, watching Loudwire.
None higher.
_ _ [N] We're doing this Raising Hell album.
Everybody's
loving us and this and that.
So we wanted to do a record that was going to just basically be,
because we always love to rap over Walk This Way at block parties and park parties.
Before
Rappers Delight, every MC rapped over Walk This Way.
We didn't know it was Walk This Way.
It was just, yo, Jay, get that Toys in the Attic album out and play number four.
I never knew.
And we had never heard the lyrics.
The DJs would never let it play that far.
It was,
kss, da, ba-doom-doom-da, da-na-na-na, na-na-na-na, na, ba-na-na-na, na-na-na-na,
va-ga-va-ga, back to the beginning.
We never got to hear the lyrics.
What was going to happen was, we was going to sample it, have the riff come in and out,
and it had been like, I'm DMC, and the place to be, the best MC in history.
There will never be
an MC better than me.
Been rhyming on the mic since 83, because it's 86 now.
And I'm DJ Ron,
and I'm number one.
I'm here to get it done and have some fun.
It was Rick Rubin walks into the
studio while we're coming up with the loop for the record.
And Rick goes, I know how Rick always go,
hey guys, you know when Rick talks, his head moves up and down.
And now he got the beard,
so it's even more.
If you look at back interviews with him in the beasties and see Rick in our
movie, Tougher Than Leather, his head always does this.
He was like, hey guys, you know who that is?
And we was like, no, he said, hey guys, you know what would be a great idea?
Y'all should do the
record over.
So me and Ron was thinking from our limited hip hop mind, what do you think we're
going to do?
We're going to sample the motherfucker and we're going to play?
He says, no, you should
do the record over the way those guys did it.
Jay, rest in peace, Jay was like, yo, that would be a
great idea.
So me and Ron was like, hold on, hold on, hold on, y'all taking this rock rap thing too far,
because we had made Rockbox and we made King of Rock.
We wanted the rhyme about us.
Rick took the
record off the turntable, gave us a yellow notepad that's still in existence, you know, the yellow
notepad and a pen.
Go sit over there and put the needle on the record, let the record play,
listen to the lyrics and write them down so y'all could do them over.
So me and Ron, we go down in
my basement, we put the needle on the record, we got the yellow notepad and a pen out and put the
needle on the record.
Because it's static and it's like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
And we waiting, and we waiting, _ _ and then Steven comes on, backstroke, rubber and the holly,
need to cover this is us on the floor.
Oh hell no!
We are not!
This is country
bumpkin, mountain climbing, hillbilly gibberish.
You guys are real, yo we
totally rebelled.
But we're fine for a little coaxing from Jam Master Jay and
Rick Rubin.
[E] We went and recorded the version that you're here today that
people say is so phenomenal but here's the killer thing.
Even after we finished
that, we hid out for a week and then Jay calls us, y'all gotta come to the studio
right now.
Rick then went to Boston and brought Steven Tyler and Joe Perry to
the studio.
So we get in the cars and leave Queens and we come in the studio
and we didn't know no better.
We walk in the studio and we see Steven Tyler and
Joe Perry.
Yeah.
But we didn't know no better.
We was like oh shit, Rick now went
and got the Rolling Stones.
And Steve was humble.
Steve was like, he laughed it off.
He said oh no no no guys, those are the other guys.
Steve was like we're
Aerosmiths.
So we recorded the record.
The version that you're here today is what
you're here but here's me and Run.
After that, we was leaving the studio, time for us to go
home because we [B] laid our vocals.
We looked at everybody in [N] that room and
said y'all can be happy as y'all want but y'all better not put this record out
as a single.
Wow.
Look at what it did now.
So now when I go to schools and I talk
to, you [Ab] know I go to a lot of high schools and middle schools and I talk to
the kids and I always say always be open to try something new because it might
not just only change your life, it could change the world.
Yeah.
But that was the
lesson in there.
It was Rick's brilliance to now put it like this, if Run-DMC
would have sampled it and did what we did, it wouldn't have [E] just been
like a good Run-DMC song.
And if Run-DMC, here's another [N] kicker, if Run-DMC would have
did it the way we did it with them, without them, it wouldn't.
But because we did it
with them, changed everything.
So me and Run learned to be more open about
things after that.
How long did it take you to really realize how great that song was?
Or to at least just like the song?
Really, because on Raisin' Hell we had
Ma Ditas and Peter Piper.
This kept happening to us.
I remember when the
Raisin' Hell album was out, we was on a Raisin' Hell tour and then we came home
for like a break.
And I remember Red Alert, big shout out to Red Alert.
I
remember DJ Red Alert on the radio, on the Red Alert show, goes, I'm about to
play the hottest rap song of the summer, hip-hop song of the summer.
Now me and
Run knew it was either Peter Piper.
Now Peter Piper picked peppers and Run-Rock
rhymes, Humpty Dumpty fell down.
And since that time we knew it was that or we knew,
because remember, we put out the first single was Ma Ditas, Peter Piper.
We
definitely knew it was gonna be Ma Ditas.
Walked through concert doors and roamed
all over town.
I stepped on stage, we knew it was that.
Red Alert says I'm about to
play the hottest hip-hop song of the year in summer.
Now this motherfucker
thought he was gonna walk this way.
Me and Run just looked at each other, what the hell?
And that
kept happening in the urban areas.
Because what they did behind our backs
was when they sent out Ma Ditas and Peter Piper to the urban stations they
white-labeled Aerosmith, the Walk This Way.
That went to all the black stations.
The Aerosmith record went to all the rock stations.
And when it got to the
rock stations, it was killing in the hood.
But when it got to the rock stations, I
remember in their hometown of Boston, the DJ goes, I know you heard of the guys
Run-DMC, you know they did the Rock Box thing and it was the first on MTV.
And then they did the King of Rock thing.
Well they have a new rock song.
They
actually did a remake of Aerosmith's Walk This Way.
Y'all remember that song, this
and that.
I'm a player right now and I want y'all to call in to give me a
response and what you think about it.
So they played the record.
The response was
80-20.
80% loved it.
Yo, play that again.
That's better than an original version.
I'm not sure if I really like it, could you play it again?
But 20% of the real
hardcore rock fans that wasn't open to it.
This is blasphemy!
Who do these Run-DMC
guys think they are?
This is disrespectful!
If we see, like it was
crazy but the overwhelming 80% made the rock stations play that
version.
And while that was happening, all the [Gb] DJs, you know they was playing
Peter Piper and Mah Adidas and all, but they also was playing the Aerosmith song.
So that's crazy, right?
[G] So what I was trying to say was Rick was brilliant to
see that don't sample it, don't do it yourselves.
We're gonna remake it and he
took it another level.
We're gonna do it with him.
_ [Bb] _ _ _ [C] _ _