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Joseph Ward Simmons is at CES this year hawking headphones. So are a lot of people. But Simmons is better known as Rev Run, founding member of one of the most influential groups in all musical history, Run D.M.C. He deserves better.
We spotted Rev Run at this year’s Pepcom — a sort of CES sideshow, with middling gadgets put on display mostly for lazy journalists and various gadget mutants in Hoverounds. He was in the back, without any billing. He stood there, swaying, glassy-eyed, mumbling the lyrics of his own songs. Then he stopped and told us to check out Jabra’s headphones as people looked up from their phones and stared, quiet and still. The headphones don’t even have Rev Run’s name on them.
Here he is performing in front of a gigantic crowd, because he is massively talented.
Rev Run needs a new agent. Rev Run shouldn’t need a cheque this badly. This would be like Keith Richards twirling a USB cable over his head. It made us sad.
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I thought bug fixing was depressing, I was so wrong.
Couldn’t agree more.
“Come check out these head phones” *Cringe*
“one of the most influential groups in all musical history, Run D.M.C.” – Really?
Run DMC is easily in the top 10 million.
Run DMC are one of the most influential hip-hop groups ever.
I don’t disagree with that, but that’s not the same thing is it.
Well yes, it is. Whether you like hip-hop or not, it’s one of the main genres in music, and therefore that would make them one of the most influential in music.
Run DMC didn’t reach the general public awareness till 85/86 so that’s less that 30 years of influencing one genre of music (with some amount of crossover and bleed). Compared with the bands of the 50′s/60′s & 70′s and many of their contemporariness of the eighties, that’s nothing. As for hip-hop being “one of the main genres in music” – maybe if you are 13.
I count Run DMC as one of the most influential groups in music history. Whether you like hip-hop/rap or not, they are one of the groups that started this genre.
dont forget they were the first to cross hip hop with rock too.
i think in general world sales hip-hop is still massive and they were one of the earliest acts to bring it to the masses.
before you slate hip-hop can you please let us know what your tastes are?
i personally think hip hop died many years ago and its been mainly shite for many years.
i guess if you include it with rap music and you live in modern day america/western country, then yes. but ‘all musical history’ is clearly a massive stretch. like someone else said it only started in the ’80s FFS.
so anything after 1980 cant be classified?
what about dance music? grunge? etc there are plenty of music genres that have been started since 1980. most being crap but its still for consideration.
of course it can, but it wasn’t really my point. i meant that something created so recently in ‘all musical history’ is unlikely to generate much influence.
What about Elvis, Nirvana, The Beatles? Time wise there isn’t much difference (relatively speaking, as Mozart is over 200years old now), but their influences on modern music cannot be disregarded.
“This would be like Keith Richards twirling a USB cable over his head.”
Now that I would pay to see.
I imagine he’s philosophical about it all. After all, it’s like that, and that’s the way it is.
Huh!
Hows about Cliff Richard twirling a crucifix above his ageing locks?
“Check”? Last time I chequed this wasn’t gizmodo.com
Sorry Pete; due to CES last week, the odd error managed to creep through our net, but I’ve just corrected this now.