Customer Reviews

Down With the King

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

By 1993, a lot of people had counted Run-DMC out. Their last album, Back from Hell, failed to have much commercial impact. It seemed like the rappers they helped to inspire had bypassed them, just as they had bypassed genre-birthing rap acts like Kurtis Blow and Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. Fortunately, the `Kings from Queens' still carried respect among those who followed in their wake; under the auspices of Profile Records, they set about recording a comeback album.
For Down with the King, Run-DMC made use of a then-unprecedented laundry list of then-contemporary beatmakers in hip-hop production. Since the release of this album, it has become a common (and some would say, tedious) trend to make use of several "star" producers on hip-hop albums. Here, at least, the tactic works.
Among the big names here are Pete Rock, who collaborated on several album cuts, including the gold-selling title track. Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest gets behind the boards on "Come on Everybody", and EPMD pump up the bass on "Can I Get it, Yo!"
Naughty By Nature's Kay Gee threw in his group's trademark piano-riffs for "Hit `em Hard", and Public Enemy's Bomb Squad contributed "3 in the Head" and "Ooh, Whatcha Gonna Do". Fresh of the success of Kriss Kross, Jermaine Dupri helmed "Can I Get a Witness". A then-unknown Tom Morello (Audioslave, R.A.T.M.) added guitar work to "Big Willie", the only nod to rock-rap fusion here.
The album sold over 500,000 copies, enough to go gold, and the group toured with Naughty By Nature and several acts from Death Row Records (for a time, they were briefly courted by the label). This would be Run-DMC's last studio album before the release of Crown Royal in 2001.
Arista Records bought the Profile catalog in the late 90's and re-released the standard versions of Run DMC's studio LPs. However, Down with the King was not included in the 2004 expanded versions of the group's albums. Period interviews confirmed that there were sessions with Bay Area-rappers N2Deep, but they didn't make the final cut. That makes for at least one potential bonus cut that could be included for a proper re-release.

Down with the king
Come on everybody
Can I get it, yo
Hit `em hard
To the maker
3 in the head
ooh, whatcha gonna do
big willie
three little Indians
in the house
can I get a witness
get open
what's next
wreck shop
for 10 years

This album is great. It's one of my favorite CD's. There is plenty of jazz sampling, rock sampling, and scratching. There are hardcore rap songs such as Ooh, Watcha Gonna Do and Can I Get It, Yo. There are some pure hip hop songs such as Hit 'Em Hard and Down With the King. I lilke the bass lines on this CD because they're so unique. You even have a reggae/rap fusion, What's Next. What could I say, another masterpiece by the Kings of Rap. Their new CD is set to come out in September. Don't miss it. It'll be a classic!

Coming off the awful "Back From Hell" album, Run-DMC went back to their older, harder roots while also trying to fit the needs of the new hip hop audience. The result is refreshing, there are some great tracks that sound different but still ring with the style of Run-DMC, and the production is amazing on all of the tracks. It's pretty much a beginning to end listen. I sort of feel bad, because Jam Master Jay (RIP) was kind of left in the dust here because they didn't let him produce as many tracks, but they do lend him a verse here and there. This album is great, and it brought the Hollis Crew back for a while.

"Down With The King" was a great track, the best on the album, and it turned out being one of their greatest hits. There is great production by Pete Rock and he and CL Smooth are featured on the track. The raps are hard and so are the beats. "Come on Everybody" is okay, and the production is good and most of the raps are okay, but I didn't like Run saying all the "stiggitys" in his raps like he was trying to be Das Efx. "Can I Get it, Yo" and "Hit 'Em Hard" are both good tracks, they sound like the Run-DMC of old. The second best song is "Big Willie", produced by Tom Morello, it has a great guitar line, the raps are tough, it really sounds hard. "Wreck Shop" is the third best song, produced by Pete Rock, the trumpet line kind of sounds like "T.R.O.Y", but the rest of the song doesn't. Pete Rock also produced "In The House", which is okay but nothing special. "Ooh, Whatcha Gonna Do", "3 Little Indians", and "3 In the Head", are also good songs to listen to. "What's Next" is a song where the Hollis crew gives in to their reggae indulgence, as they did on "Roots, Rap, Reggae", and the result is similar. This is a good album, and it's one of the best of 1993.

Some Run-DMC fans didn't like this because they felt it was too far from the formula, but I think it's a great album and it has a lot of the flavor that the classics like "Run-DMC", "Raising Hell", "King of Rock", and "Tougher than Leather" had. There is great production here, by Pete Rock, KayGee of Naughty by Nature, Onyx, Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest, and EPMD. I recommend this album to old school fans who like both Run-DMC and the rap of the early 90s, because it fits the bill as a great mix of both.

If you own Run DMC's self titled debut album and love it like I do, then you may feel disappointed when you hear "Down with the King". Run DMC's last original and worthy record was "Tougher than leather". The creativity, original rhymes, and hip hop spunk of Run DMC ended there. Why in the world would arguably the most influential hip hop band need famous and less skilled rappers to guest appear on their records? To get the MTV crowd listening. You know who I'm talkin' about. The same crowd who thinks ODB has skills and Fred Durst can rock the mic. Both of these "artists" are scheduled to appear on Run DMC's upcoming album, "Crown Royal", by the way. Hip Hop has definitely changed from when it began in the early 80s. It used to be about skills, now it's mostly about fake a$$ personalities and gettin' paid. Run DMC doesn't need anybody's help in the rap game. If they did, why would they say this "When asked who's best, y'all should say, Run DMC and Jam Master Jay!" Did you hear anybody else's name in that? I would'nt mind if the guest appearances were by real rappers like LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, KRS-ONE, Chuck D, Rakim, etc. - Y'all get my point? It's a shame to see Run DMC cuttin' tracks with the "Sucker MCs who did not learn". All in all it should go back to being "Run's House" and stop leasing it out to all these suckers. Peace.

This album is by far one of the better hip-hop albums to come out in the past 10 years. Run DMC commands respect on this one, and lets hope they do the same with their new one, "Crown Royal" coming out later this summer.

This album is great. It's one of my favorite CD's. There is plenty of jazz sampling, rock sampling, and scratching. There are hardcore rap songs such as Ooh, Watcha Gonna Do and Can I Get It, Yo. There are some pure hip hop songs such as Hit 'Em Hard and Down With the King. I lilke the bass lines on this CD because they're so unique. You even have a reggae/rap fusion, What's Next. What could I say, another masterpiece by the Kings of Rap. Their new CD is set to come out in September. Don't miss it. It'll be a classic!

After 1990's lackluster Back From Hell, most hip-hop fans thought that Run-D.M.C. were no longer capable of delivering a solid record. Down With the King proved those doubters wrong. Although it didn't burn up the charts like Raising Hell and wasn't as innovative as their first album, Down With the King showed that they remained strong and talented; it also didn't hurt that the production was provided by several of the 1990s' most talented artists, including Public Enemy, Pete Rock, Naughty by Nature, and Q-Tip.

Supposedly it was their comeback, and featured their biggest hit since "Mary Mary". This was still RUN DMC trying to be someone else (this time more like ONYX or Naughty By Nature) and fails on some levels, but far better than "Back From Hell".

I have been waiting for them to Re release all of there music..I'm so siked...This cd really is great ..