Run-DMC and LL Cool J Bring Rap to Mainstream Audiences

Run-DMC's Raising Hell (1986), featuring the crossover hit Walk This Way with Aerosmith, reaches No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and becomes the first rap album to be certified platinum. Alongside LL Cool J's Radio, the year marks hip-hop's breakthrough into mainstream commercial culture, giving Black youth in Hollis, Queens and across the country a voice and a platform.