Rap Rock Phenomenon

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<BR> You can barely read a magazine or flip on the television without hearing about one of these new hip-hop/rock groups. Media such as Rolling Stone and MTV treat these bands like miraculously they created this "new" genre of music. Bands such as Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, and Sugar Ray are treated as creative geniuses when they are only doing things that have already been done before. Some of these new bands are very talented, but bands such Run DMC, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Rage Against the Machine, blended the seemingly mismatched flavors of rap and rock with brilliant results long before any of these bands had ever even seen a turntable. <br> The earliest example of this mix of hip-hop and hard rock, came in 1985 with the release of Run DMC's "Rock Box". The song featured a beat which sounded more like an AC/DC instrumental than what your average hip-hop listener was used to. Nevertheless, Run DMC rapped to this song and it was their first crossover hit. The single even landed them onto heavy rotation on MTV, making Run DMC the first hip-hop group to ever have their video played with the station. <br> The song was only the first of a long string of hits for the group to feature hard rock beats, of course with pumped up bass and the scratching of a turntable. Their success carried over to their remake of Aerosmith's classic "Walk This Way", which too became an instant classic. The record also marked the first direct collaboration between a rap group and a rock band. However, while Run DMC was a hip-hop group with heavy rock influence, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are a perfect example of the exact opposite, a rock band with distinct hip-hop overtones. <br> From as early back to the mid-eighties the Chili Peppers were trendsetters. They were regularly sharing headline in Los Angeles clubs with hip-hop acts, which one must remember was at a

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