About The Song
“Rock Box” is a song by the American hip hop group Run-DMC. The song was produced by Larry Smith and Russell Simmons and released by Profile Records in March 1984. Following the popularity of their previous two singles “Hard Times” (1983) and “It’s Like That” (1983), Profile Records head suggested to the producers and group that they should attempt to record an album as they already had four songs ready, and releasing a few more would not hurt them. Despite speculating low sales from the label and the group not feeling that hip hop was a genre appropriate for a full-length album, they were given an advance to start recording. This led to Run-DMC members Joseph “Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels going through their rhyme book to develop new songs, one of which would become “Rock Box”.
After having to wait for the heavy metal band Riot to finish their studio time so the group could record new tracks, the group and producers were influenced by their loud guitar sound and attempted to create a guitar based track. After McDaniels and Simmons recorded their rhymes, Smith developed the track, including inviting his friend Eddie Martinez to record layers of guitar solos to match the song. On its completion, McDaniels and Simmons were unhappy with the sound as they assumed it would not be as guitar heavy and Profile Records president Cory Robbins was also not confident with it, feeling that it was “weird”. The group gave a version of the song without the rock backing to Kool DJ Red Alert to play on New York radio, but it was Smith’s version with the guitar that became the more popular version. “Rock Box” also featured a music video that became the first hip hop song to get regular rotation on the music video channel MTV.
“Rock Box” was released in early March, three weeks prior to the release of the group’s debut album Run-D.M.C.. The song was praised in contemporary reviews receiving praise in magazines such as Creem and Rolling Stone. In the 1984 Pazz & Jop critics poll released by The Village Voice, “Rock Box” tied with Afrika Bambaataa & James Brown’s single “Unity” (1984) at seventh place as one of the top singles of the year. Run-DMC would continue their use of rock based tracks on many of the future songs, including “King of Rock” (1985), “Walk This Way” (1986) and “It’s Tricky” (1986).
Video
Lyrics
Run-DMC
Rock
For you
Fresh (fresh shit)
For all you sucker MC’s perpetratin’ a fraud
Your rhymes are cold wack and keep the crowd cold lost
You’re the kind of guy that girl ignored
I’m drivin’ Caddy, you fixin’ a Ford
My name is Joseph Simmons but my middle name’s Lord
And when I’m rockin’ on the mic, you should all applaud
Because we’re wheelin’, dealin’, we got a funny feelin’
We rock from the floor up to the ceilin’
We groove it, you move it, it has been proven
We calmed the seven seas because our music is soothin’
We create it, relate it and often demonstrate it
We’ll diss a sucker MC, make the other suckers hate it
We’re rising, surprising and often hypnotizing
We always tell the truth, and then we never slip no lies in
No curls, no braids peasy-head and still get paid
Jam Master cut the record up and down and cross-fade
Because the rhymes I say, sharp as a nail
Witty as can be and not for sale
Always funky fresh, could never be stale
Took a test to become an MC and didn’t fail
I couldn’t wait to demonstrate all the super def rhymes that I create
I’m a wizard of a word, that’s what you heard
And anything else is quite absurd
I’m the master of a mic, that’s what I say
And if I didn’t say that, you’d say it anyway
Bust into the party, come in the place
See the first things come, the music in your face
The girls on the walls, some on the floor
With the DJ named Jay with the cuts galore
So listen to this because it can’t be missed
And you can’t leave ’til you’re dismissed
You can do anything that you want to
But you can’t leave until we’re through
So relax your body and your mind
And listen to us say this rhyme, hey
You might think that you have waited
Long enough ’til the rhyme was stated
But if it were a test, it would be graded
With a grade that’s not debated
Nothing too deep and nothing dense
And all our rhymes make a lot of sense
So move your butt, to the cut, run amuk, you’re not in a rut
Each and everybody out there, we got the notion
We want to see y’all all in motion
Just shake, wiggle jump up and down
Move your body to the funky sound, side to side, back and forth
We’re the two MC’s and we’re gonna go off
Stand in place, walk or run, tap your feet, you’ll be on the one
Just snap your fingers and clap your hands
Our DJ’s better than all these bands, huh!
We got all the lines and all the rhymes
We don’t drop dimes, and we don’t do crimes
We bake a little cake with Duncan Hines
And never wear the vest they call the Calvin Klein
‘Cause Calvin Klein’s no friend of mine
Don’t want nobody’s name on my behind
Lee on my legs, sneakers on my feet
D by my side and Jay with the beat
Jay, Jay, Jay, Jay, Jay, Jay
We don’t stop
Don’t, don’t stop (Jay)
One two three, three
Hollis Crew, Crew
For, for, for, for the love now
Cool T now
Hah
My, my man Jam Master
Is in his place to be (Jay, Jay, Jay, Jay)
The big beat blaster
(Wailin’) straight up rap
Countin’ green all the way live
Re-remember you don’t stop
And, and, and, and you don’t stop
Rock, d-dot, d-dot, rock the spot (stick ’em)
Stick ’em and you don’t stop, hah (stick ’em)
Run rocks it well, well, well
A-with the clientele
young ladies in the place
We, we, we’re, we we’re we’re (bass), we we’re we’re
We, we’re in the hottest space
(Hah) Cold Crush, so Larry
(Homeboys) now we’re talkin’ autographs
Talkin’ autographs and autographs
(Fly girls) in the place
(Homeboys) Hollis Crew, get back, get back
Tick two, tick two and get back (fuck) (base)
Say that, all the beautiful ladies