Raising Hell (album)

Raising Hell
Studio album by Run-D.M.C.
Released	May 15, 1986[1]
Recorded	1985–1986
Studio	Chung King, New York City
Genre	Hip hop rap rock
Length	39:46
Label	Profile
Producer	Russell Simmons Rick Rubin
Run-D.M.C. chronology
King of Rock (1985) Raising Hell (1986) Tougher Than Leather (1988)
Singles from Raising Hell
"My Adidas" Released: May 29, 1986 "Walk This Way" Released: July 4, 1986 "You Be Illin'" Released: October 21, 1986 "It's Tricky" Released: February 8, 1987

Raising Hell is the third studio album by American hip hop group Run-D.M.C., released on May 15, 1986, by Profile Records. The album was produced by Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin. Raising Hell is notable for being the first Platinum and multi-Platinum hip hop record.^[2][3] The album was first certified Platinum on July 15, 1986, before it was certified as 3× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on April 24, 1987.^[1] It is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most important albums in the history of hip hop music and culture.

Raising Hell peaked at number three on the Billboard 200, and number one on the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart, making it the first hip hop album to peak atop the latter. The album features four hit singles: "My Adidas", "Walk This Way" (a collaboration with Aerosmith), "You Be Illin'" and "It's Tricky".^[4] "Walk This Way" is the group's most famous single, being a groundbreaking rap rock version of Aerosmith's 1975 song "Walk This Way". It is considered to be the first rap rock collaboration that also brought hip hop into the mainstream^[5] and was the first song by a hip hop act to reach the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100.^[6]

Raising Hell has been ranked as one of the greatest albums of all time. In 1987, it was nominated for a Grammy Award, making Run-D.M.C. the first hip hop act to receive a nomination.^[7][8] In the same year, the album was nominated for Album of the Year and won Best Rap Album at the 1987 Soul Train Music Awards. In 2017, it was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".^[9] The album was reissued by Arista Records in 1999 and 2003. An expanded and remastered edition was released in 2005 and contained 5 previously unreleased songs.

Selling more than three million copies, Raising Hell is credited with heralding the golden age of hip hop as well as hip hop's album era, helping the genre achieve an unprecedented level of recognition among critics and mainstream audiences.^[10]