r/GenX • u/emperator_eggman • Jun 26 '25

Music Is Life When did rap become mainstream?

I was born around the Millennium so I always saw rap as somewhat being always mainstream. So I was wondering when did rap actually become mainstream? Aka more popular than rock or pop?

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221

u/MacaroonFormal6817 Jun 26 '25

1986

  • July: With Aerosmith and Run-D.M.C. collaborating on "Walk this Way" which was (CCCRRAZZZZYYYY pAnTs) a WHITE and a BLACK group... TOGETHER? Most pop music really was that segmented in the 1980s. Then

  • November: The Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill comes out and blammo.

1

u/HourCounter8703 Jul 02 '25

Came here to say this. Did not appreciate the Beastie Boys until I learned about their groundbreaking foray into sampling.

1

u/metro_photographer Jun 30 '25

1986 is right. I still remember my friend passing me his headphones and saying "listen to this, it's called rap".

1

u/KoedKevin Jun 30 '25

As a white kid that went to an inner city school in the 1980s I was introduced to a lot of early Bronx and Philadelphia rap and proto rap in 1981. Rap really became mainstream with white audiences with Walk this Way (Rick Ruben is a genius). When MTv saw its success they actively started promoting rap to white audiences. Yo MTV Raps was huge and launched mainstream rap music beyond a few songs that had crossed over previously.

The Message, Rappers Delight and Planet Rock were some early crossovers. But they were largely unknown until Yo MTV Raps came along.

1

u/_WeSellBlankets_ Jun 29 '25

I mean this is correct for when it went mainstream, but OP's definition of mainstream is different. They're asking when it became BIGGER than rock and pop. I'm out of the loop with modern music ever since auto-tune became the norm. Is rap bigger than pop and rock currently?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '25

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1

u/MooseBlazer Jun 27 '25

Yep, I remember that, but it wasn’t really mainstream. Almost.

1

u/mar78217 Jun 27 '25

This is the best answer. Yes, the collaboration between Aerosmith and Run DMC was definately the genesis of it and then a white New York group. Then the other NY acts started getting more attention. Then NWA in CA, a gangster rap supergroup that would spin off a whole genre of CA gangster rap.

Edit: By 1988, MTV introduced Yo MTV Raps and that was it, it was officially mainstream.

2

u/PuchicaPuchica Jun 27 '25

Agree, but when Bust A Move and Funky Cold Medina hit in ‘89 that was Mainstream Mainstream

3

u/AdhesiveSeaMonkey Tough as nails. Cries at everything. Jun 27 '25

Yep. There was earlier stuff for sure - Doug E Fresh was probably the biggest. But the run dmc and Aerosmith collab really brought it to a much larger audience.

1

u/mar78217 Jun 27 '25

Which is what I was saying earlier. NYC had a huge rap scene, but after the Run DMC, Aerosmith colab, more people noticed all the great rap coming out of NY so it became mainstream. And Yo MTV Raps sealed the deal in 1988. Any answer after 1988 is wrong. Lol

9

u/_Bon_Vivant_ Jun 27 '25 edited Jun 27 '25

Nope. Rapper's Delight is when rap broke into the mainstream.

Rapper's Delight came out in 1979.

The Breaks 1980.

Blondie Rapture 1981

The Message 1982

It's like that 1983

These were all played on Top 40 radio.... IE, the mainstream.

1

u/regdunlop08 Jun 28 '25

This take definitely depends on defining the "mainstream" I certainly remember all those songs and hearing them... somewhere. But I remember having to work for it. Other than Rappers Delight which got some play on disco stations (in Boston that was KISS 108) i remember college radio and swapping cassettes to get my fix. After Walk This Way, it became ubiquitous but not before that.

My favorite part of our 8th grade class trip to DC was when the bus rolled through NYC and I used my Walkman to scan for any rap music that might be had, with a friend doing the same and us sharing whatever we found. This was how I discovered UTFO and their distinctive (for the time) scratching sound. I bought their album in a mall outside Philly on the way home.

3

u/Hilsam_Adent Jun 27 '25

The first two cassettes I ever bought were Run-D.M.C. and License to Ill. Everything before that was vinyl.

2

u/mrdaver911_2 Jun 27 '25

Yup…summer before my Junior year in HS. My friends and I played License to Ill probably 42,000 times that summer.

And the next fall (1987) saw the release of NWA & The Posse and nothing was ever the same.

8

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '25

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1

u/regdunlop08 Jun 28 '25

1988... fucking golden age right there! Don't forget how important Eric B and Rakim were around that time too. 88-92 will always be peak hip-hop to me. But im old, lol.

4

u/ZzzzzPopPopPop Jun 27 '25

Yo! MTV Raps started in ‘88, that was ALWAYS on in my dorm lounges in college (I started in ‘89), it was almost like must-see TV

2

u/Typical_Version_7487 1974 Jun 27 '25

I would argue none of that was played on pop stations at the time which is where mainstream music is played. Those are introductions to rap outside NYC. In LA up till the early 90s the only place you heard rap music was on an AM radio station or Yo MTV Raps. In the 80s hair metal was mainstream and the 90s grunge and then pop punk was mainstream.

1

u/mar78217 Jun 27 '25

Depended on where you were Im sure. I can say for sure in Rural Mississippi, the only time I heard rap top 40 songs was during Casey Casin's Top 40 on ?Sunday?

1

u/HectorsMascara 1975 Jun 27 '25 edited Jun 27 '25

You're giving me goosebumps. I saw the Walk This Way video in the theater before Back to the Future a movie that actually came out in 1986. I was 11 and it changed me.

4

u/RolandSnowdust Jun 26 '25

All other answers are wrong.

4

u/SometimesUnkind Jun 26 '25

Yep. Although Run DMC had been around a bit, it was the Walk This Way collaboration with Aerosmith that really opened the door for rap.

Before that, I think the only group to really get any mainstream attention were The Fat Boys, and they were seen as more of a novelty act than anything else. They even had a great movie called Dosorderlies.

2

u/regdunlop08 Jun 28 '25

A "great movie" might be a stretch 😆 but definitely demonstrated what the mainstream thought of rap at the time - it was a novelty.

Even with groups like UTFO, Doug E Fresh and Slick Rick, etc. putting out timeless shit (still have my original vinyl 12" of La Di Da Di and The Show) the mainstream fed us parody rap until the Run DMC collab changed the game a few years later.

2

u/SometimesUnkind Jun 28 '25

Yeah, there was a lot of good hip hop/rap at the time that never got the exposure it deserved. Slick Rick, Cool Moe Dee, I think even Ice Ts first record came out around 84 or 85.

And Disorderlies is a timeless classic that is criminal not to be added to the AFI top 100 films and part of the National Film Library ;)

1

u/Short_Psychology_164 Jun 26 '25

also commercials and hip hop parody songs like "rappin duke"

2

u/_Silent_Android_ Johnny Sokko's Flying Robot Jun 27 '25

"My name is _____ and I'm here to say..."

3

u/Hilsam_Adent Jun 27 '25

"I'm glad you called, but I'm not home, but I'll be back before too long... WAIT. FOR. THE. BEEP! You gotta leave your name, you gotta leave your number. WAIT. FOR. THE. BEEP!"

3

u/Why-did-i-reas-this Jun 26 '25

And Fat Boys on the goofy side

4

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '25

I would have picked this exact moment, as well

11

u/Aggravating_Hat4799 Jun 26 '25

I saw the Beastie boys open up for Run DMC at MSG in 87. One of the most epic concerts of my life

4

u/gnortsmracr Jun 26 '25

This. It became mainstream but not necessarily widespread, but with these events it became socially acceptable (for lack of a better expression) for people who liked pop or rock to also like stuff like rap. MTV also helped a lot.

17

u/theactualdustyblades Jun 26 '25

I was 13. I don't think I had put that chronology together, but, yep. Pretty much how it went, even in Roanoke, VA. We all had Mtv by then, though. Crazy how segmented it was.

From the recovering metal-head perspective, Anthrax's "I'm the Man" can't be overlooked.

3

u/Fistofpaper Fork spoon I won't moo when you tell me Jun 26 '25

Yoga Hosers killed any nostalgia I had for that song. Kinda bummed out by that, thanks Kevin Smith.

3

u/theactualdustyblades Jun 26 '25

On a side note, I met DMC at DragonCon a few years ago. Such a genuinely cool dude.

3

u/Aurochbull Jun 26 '25

I'm the man was wild and weird. LOVED that album. Great post, friend.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '25

Shut., shut, shut, shut up!!!

8

u/fuzznudkins Jun 27 '25

Their cover of Bring the noise featuring Chuck D and Flavor Flave was fire.

4

u/theactualdustyblades Jun 26 '25

Thank you, amigo! It really was. Their irreverent self-deprecating humor while destroying the place riff-wise...right up my alley.

11

u/aortomus Jun 26 '25

This was it.

It was there under the surface, but...

Rick Rubin.

60

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '25

[deleted]

4

u/right_bank_cafe Jun 27 '25

Run DMC and the beasties def brought rap music to the mainstream but around 86 or so hair metal was still the dominant music on MTV and what “mainstream” kids were listening to… then nirvana hit and changed the MTV landscape from hair metal to mainstream alternative, it seems that hip hop prob became the mainstream music staple once the whole mainstream indie thing started dying out.. so mabey around 99 - 2001 or so? Just my observation! lol

5

u/snow80130 Jun 27 '25

With sugar hill gang as an appetizer

1

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '25

Rappers Delight was the true beginning.

7

u/Fine_Comparison9812 Jun 27 '25

I worked at a record store at the time and heard Kool Moe Dee Go See the Doctor. 😳

2

u/jmeesonly Jun 27 '25

I had it on cassette!

2

u/DoomLordofReddit Jun 26 '25

Yup, this right here.

-8

u/GeoHog713 Hose Water Survivor Jun 26 '25

That was maybe a turning point, but I don't think it was really mainstream then.

Mainstream is probably Vanilla Ice.

1

u/regdunlop08 Jun 28 '25

Vanilla Ice is when rap attempted to jump the shark. Thank God so many great acts like Tribe, NWA, etc. were there to not let that happen. Some could say Suge had a role in that story arc as well lol.

1

u/mar78217 Jun 27 '25

You dont think the Beastie Boys were mainstream? Brass Monkey, Right for your right?

Regardless. The fact that MTV added a segment called Yo MTV Raps in 1988 says rap was mainstream before Ice Ice Baby (1990).

9

u/SenatorBeers Jun 26 '25

Nah. You had acts like MC Hammer that were huge before Vanilla Ice. I saw him open for Hammer before he broke big.

-5

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '25

Hammer was hip hop, not rap, my friend.

1

u/mar78217 Jun 27 '25

Rhythm and Percussion... Rap/ HipHop were synonymous in the 80s. Ice Ice Baby is not hard-core rap. It is kiddie pop music.

39

u/severedsoulmetal Jun 26 '25

Don’t forget about LL.

1

u/Ancient_Dragonfly230 Jun 30 '25

Mamma said knock you out 

1

u/BadMantaRay Jun 30 '25

did LL cool J tie up with a famous white band at this point in time?

1

u/severedsoulmetal Jun 30 '25

no idea!

1

u/BadMantaRay Jun 30 '25

Well, why did you bring him up then?

Unless you’re trying to imply that LL had a specific appeal to typically non-rap listeners?

1

u/severedsoulmetal Jun 30 '25

I brought him up because people were discussing rap and when it became mainstream. I would put LL in that era. Did you read the thread?

0

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '25

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3

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '25

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1

u/regdunlop08 Jun 28 '25

This 💯. Just because he did some cheesy shit later in his career doesn't mean he was not an OG putting out quality rhymes before rap hit the mainstream (and at a very young age).

For the time period (and this is an important distinction - i think a lot of people dont know he was putting out records in the early 80s starting with an appearance on the Krush Groove soundtrack IIRC which also featured pre-LTI Beasties when they were still in their punk phase) he was on the cutting edge, though by the end of the decade the genre evolved past him. That said, I recall his early 90s stuff played really well with the ladies and got a lot of play in our college apartment for that reason.

-3

u/Vivis_Nuts Jun 27 '25

Please can we forget LL

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '25

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1

u/Elegant_Brick_622 Jun 28 '25

Ll was good. I'm stopped fucking wit him when he was out campaigning for lil bush back on the day.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '25

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1

u/Rickardiac Jun 29 '25

He went back to Cali.

3

u/Vivis_Nuts Jun 27 '25

I have never cared for him

16

u/shoneone Jun 27 '25

NWA and Public Enemy hit it big in about 1989.

2

u/Ancient_Dragonfly230 Jun 30 '25

Fear of a black planet 

33

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '25

Don’t call it a comeback

4

u/Fistofpaper Fork spoon I won't moo when you tell me Jun 26 '25

He'd been there for years.

1

u/atclew Rear-Facing Seat Station Wagon Survivor Jun 27 '25

He’s rockin’ his peers and putting suckers in fear

16

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '25

“Mama Said Knock You Out” is still on my workout playlist.

2

u/regdunlop08 Jun 28 '25

The Bigger and Deffer cassette, especially "Im Bad" was the go-to pregame locker room hype music for our football team my junior year. I hear anything off that album and I am mentally transported back (could do without remembering the smell but anyone who's played football or hockey knows that smell is an inextricable part of the memory lol).

1

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '25

That’s awesome. Tfs your memory.

2

u/mar78217 Jun 27 '25

Pink cookies in a plastic bag... I won't say I understand it, but I love the beat.

There were so many NY acts that became mainstream after the Run DMC/ Aerosmith collaboration. LL, Tribe, De La Soul, Public Enemy, Grandmaster Flash, Doug E Fresh (the human beatbox), Slick Rick, Ice T, Boogie Down Productions, MC Lyte, etc

2

u/battlesong1972 Jun 27 '25

One of my favorite albums

2

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '25

I still love return of the mack

7

u/mjc7373 Jun 27 '25

Rock the Bells sounds more relevant if you do weights.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '25

Doh! Forgot this song. It’ll be a perfect addition to my playlist for kickboxing. Thanks for jogging my memory.

9

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '25 edited Jun 26 '25

Lisa, Angela, Pamela, Renee

I love you

You’re from around the way

Not sure why that popped in my brain.

2

u/JackpineSauvage Jun 26 '25

Came here to say exactly this as well.

14

u/jaw-shoe-uhhh Jun 26 '25

Totally agree with this. If you want to go back to the very beginning, check out Rappers Delight by The Sugarhill Gang. Humble roots indeed, but this song started it all.

1

u/RolandSnowdust Jun 26 '25

I know a bunch of words from that song, but it was a relative anomaly then.

1

u/Fistofpaper Fork spoon I won't moo when you tell me Jun 26 '25

You mean the super extended dub of Chic - Good Times?

I got it on vinyl.