The Album That Invented Hardcore Hip-Hop and Spread It's Gospel: Run-D.M.C. Changed the Sound of Music and Popular Culture, Includes 'Rock Box,' 'Sucker M.C.'s,' and 'Hard Times'

40th Anniversary Edition of Run-D.M.C.'s 1984 Debut Benefits from Definitive Restorative Treatment: Mobile Fidelity's Hybrid SACD Strictly Limited to 2,000 Numbered Copies The impact, influence, and importance of Run-D.M.C.'s self-titled debut - the album that invented hardcore hip-hop and bridged rap, rock, and funk in then-unparalleled ways - cannot be measured.

The first full-length record released by Profile Records, the 1984 set permanently changed the sound of music, broadcast streetwise wisdom to every corner of the country, and made the notion of a one-man band a distinct reality. Bolstered by an incendiary blend of staccato deliveries, stark beats, aggressive exchanges, evocative hooks, and socially conscious messages, Run-D.M.C. still hits listeners in the jaw with the same intensity it did nearly 40 years ago when it could be heard booming from ghetto blasters carried around city blocks nationwide.

Sourced from the original master tapes, housed in mini-LP-style packaging, and strictly limited to 2,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's hybrid SACD presents the groundbreaking work cited by Rolling Stone as the 378th Greatest Album of All Time in definitive sound.

This 40th anniversary reissue represents the first time this gold-certified effort has been presented in audiophile quality. Run-D.M.C. now plays with a clarity, immediacy, punchiness, and directness worthy of the artistry, urgency, and intellect of the trio's material. The brilliance of Russell Simmons and Larry Smith's production comes into view as if the music is being broadcast on a giant system in a small club - only more focused, lively, and unlimited.

Free of dynamic constraints and fatiguing harshness, this LP invites you to turn up the volume and experience the raw, rough, invigorating songs that changed the look, sound, and feel of hip-hop overnight. Think the trio's sparse framework of drum machines, tag-team rhymes, keyboard accents, and turntable scratches is stuck in the mid-80s? Spin MoFi's SACD and gain new appreciation for the music, messages, and production on display on Run-D.M.C. Recorded in the wake of two successful and pioneering singles, both included on the album, Run-D.M.C. effectively took a sheet of coarse-grit sandpaper to the Polish, sheen, and linear presentation of all the hip-hop that preceded it. Stripped to bare-bones foundations, the songs grab your attention and shake you by the collar with a combination of industrial-leaning rhythms, staggered deliveries, dance drama, and hard, minimalist percussion.