Live At Montreux 2001

Performer: Run-D.M.C.
Distributor: Fontana Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Run-D.M.C. (rap vocals). If you could pick any year from which you'd want to pull a Run-D.M.C. show, it wouldn't be 2001. The group's least interesting album (Crown Royal) had been released two years before, nothing had appeared since, and a year later it would all be over after DJ Jam Master Jay was senselessly murdered. It's surprising then that Live at Montreux 2001 is an exciting and generally satisfying release, filled with life, energy, and inspiration. Golden-age material is the name of the game, and when the drama-building intro stretches past the four-minute mark without trying the patience, it's like 1985 all over again. Jay's great scratching was always a bigger feature live, and in-between song banter plus call-and-response play time with the crowd is an important part of the full Run-D.M.C. experience that you just can't get on their studio albums. While the large amount of time spent talking up the crowd makes this a less desirable listen on return visits, hardcore fans will appreciate the experience, even more so on the companion DVD that shares this archival release's title. ~ David Jeffries

Until Run-DMC came along in the early 1980s, most hip-hop music wasn't much more than nursery rhymes over disco loops. They popularized the idea of rap as a new kind of rock & roll--the voice of the streets set to the raw sounds of a turntablist one-man-band. The group even managed to pioneer the collision of rock and rap with a groundbreaking take on Aerosmith's "Walk This Way." Run-DMC is now viewed as the avatar of old-school hip-hop, almost quaint by 21st-century gangsta standards, but undeniably influential. Sadly, Run-DMC disbanded in 2002, after the tragic murder of Jam Master Jay, the group's groundbreaking DJ.

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