[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/4B_UYYPb-Gk]
It’s difficult to think of a more obvious metaphor for the divide between rock and hip-hop than the one in this video: literally a brick wall (one, by the way, that doesn’t appear to be very stable). In 1986, Run-DMC was an Adidas-rocking rap group on its way up, Aerosmith a quickly fading rock band that had achieved its peak in the mid-to-late ’70s (and whose members looked it — honestly, they still do). Originally recorded for 1975’s Toys in the Attic album, the song “Walk This Way” had a fantastic, jagged guitar lick. A little more than a decade later, Run-DMC blindly sampled it, discovered where it came from and got in touch with Aerosmith. A genre-smashing video was born. The concept is straightforward: The two bands practice in adjacent studios. Their music is different, but their servitude to the power of the beat is the same. Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler busts through that wall, and a new partnership is formed. What’s it matter the type of music as long as it thrills the ears and compels the hips? Yes, it’s literal, but everyone who watched this video got the message loud and clear.