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“As it’s plain to see,” DMC explained to an audience of tens of thousands in 1985, “we have no band, just Jam Master Jay.”
Broadcast to a potential audience of nearly two billion people the world over, Run-D.M.C.‘s performance at the 1985 Live Aid concerts was probably hip-hop‘s most-witnessed seven minutes in the years before the genre had a single platinum record.
“For us it was a lot of pressure ’cause [concert promoter] Bill Graham personally requested that we be there,” DMC told Rolling Stone in 2016. “At first, from what I hear, when Bill Graham brought our names up, people was like, ‘What? Why would you want them here? They’re not even gonna be around in three or four years.’But Bill Graham — rest in peace — personally said, “I will not participate if you don’t have Run-D.M.C. here.”
Although they were America’s most famous rap group at the time, they were still an anomaly on bill off mostly rock bands, including Mick Jagger teaming with Tina Turner, a reunion of Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Duran Duran and more playing to an estimated 100,000 people at Philadelphia’s JFK Stadium. Their set was around 10:12 a.m., playing between a reunited Black Sabbath and Rick Springfield. DMC reckons that 70 percent of the crowd was into the still-emerging music, while 30 percent responded with boos
“We reluctantly went [to Live Aid] ’cause we kinda thought it was like a setup,” said DMC. “Y’all settin’ us up so we can get mocked and teased. We got there, and then the only thing that we knew was that old block party confidence. … You know, when they say our names, let’s just go out there and do what we do. When you hear the boos, you got two options: You either keep going or you curse the crowd off and walk off stage. We decided to keep going.”
