Run DMC should have just kept running, hip hop & rap are just covers by people who cannot sing, I would rather listen to Millican & Nesbitt than any rap or hip hop.
Not all of it is covers but they do use the backdrop music of other songs and add their own vocals/lyrics. A classic example, and one of my favourites, is Puff Daddy’s Come With Me which is over the top of Zeppelin’s Kashmir. I stand to be corrected here, but I have it in me edd that Jimmy Page relaid the guitar score for him. This is why a lot of them have a DJ on stage. Run-DMC was made up of three men but the name only covers two of them, Joseph ‘Run’ Simmons and Darryl ‘DMC’ McDaniels. The third was their DJ, Jason ‘Jam Master Jay’ Mizell (RIP).
Another example is Eminem using Aerosmith’s Dream On score for his Sing for the Moment.
A lot of hip-hop these days isn’t to my taste and borders on shite. I prefer old school stuff, which is basically anything before 1990. Run-DMC were brilliant, not only for their music but because of the way they fused music styles together. I love the Ramones for the same reasons in that they bridged a gap between punk and metal (although they’re referred to as a punk band).
Open yer edd, Dezza