At the Live Aid benefit concert in 1985, hip-hop group Run-D.M.C. played for over 2 billion viewers worldwide. On Sunday November 23, they played for about 800 people in Mary Washington College's Great Hall, and the trio managed to keep just as high an intensity level. In an interview just minutes before the show, Run promised "you're going to get mainly classic stuff, but we do a lot of routines that everybody will be real happy with." "We got a dynamic, energetic show," he added. "Yeah, right," I thought looking at the exhausted pair of individuals next to me. "These two played in Denver and Los Angeles the past two days and just flew in a couple of hours ago." Photo credit: Huyen Campbell But this high energy performance is what Run-D.M.C. has perfected after hundreds of such shows. Representing a decade of groundbreaking hip-hop music, the group peformed everything from 1983's "Here We Go" to 1993's "Oooh, What Ya Gonna' Do?", interspersing commentary and improvised tastes of their new material, due out next year. Despite having had a raspy voice during many performances in the last year, Run performed with a power in his voice that demanded attention. Rather, it was DMC who was pressing his vocal chords to the limit, squeaking as frequently as a mouse during puberty. In addition, many members of the crowd near the stage threw consideration into the wind, pushing and shoving so much that people had to move to the outside just to the enjoy the show. And somehow, some members of the audience thought that crowd-surfing was something to do during a hip-hop show. "It made me mad because I couldn't enjoy the concert because they were acting foolish," said sophomore Arquay Harris. Fortunately, Run and DMC's stage presence overshadowed any vocal or crowd problems that may have occured. The group showed that experience is vital for an attention-grabbing live performance, something missing in most modern hip-hop shows. Jam Master Jay, the group's DJ from the beginning, provided live beats with just two turntables and a mixer, the way hip-hop was performed fifteen years ago. While rappers from Chicago seem to have a knack for getting in the Guiness Book of World Records under "fastest rapper," Run had a couple moments where he flew through a set of lyrics like a whirlwind. Once was during their 1986 classic "Peter Piper" from the release RAISING HELL. The other was during a new piece of Run's, sounding like a mix between Chicago's Twista and Cleveland's Bone Thugs 'n' Harmony. This year has seen the return of many classic hip-hop artists like EPMD and Rakim. Run feels it's just what the doctor ordered for today's hip-hop fans. "People [like that] are always in popular demand: the Run-D.M.C., the EPMD, they want that," Run said. "Regardless of what's going on, they want that diversity." Some members of the audience thought that Run-D.M.C. had disappeared and was making a comeback, but the crew has been around touring quite a bit recently as well as working on a new project due out in 1998. The show ended with Cheryl Lynn's "Got to Be Real" and an old-school party-chant by Run-D.M.C. and the audience: a fitting end to a wonderful piece of music history. But, Run-D.M.C. wouldn't have it any other way. "We always do what we always did. We never had to sway this way or that way," said DMC. "We do what was done before rap records was made: Jay DJs and we rap. Regardless of whatever happens in the industry or whatever happens with videos, we always going to be here doing our thing." For more information, visit TJ Beatrice's Unofficial Run-D.M.C. home page at http://www.users.interport.net/~tjbeat/code/rdmain.html.

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