In a unusual book,alum Geoff Edgers reveals how the hip-hop group’s 1986 take on “Walk This Way” changed the American musical landscapeBom bat, be boom-boom bat. The groovy drumbeat that opens Aerosmith’s 1970s arena banger “Walk This Way” is one of the most legendary riffs in rock.
Grandmaster Flash and other hip-hop pioneers certainly thought so—they’d been sampling it for years by the time producer Rick Rubin called Queens-born rush-DMC into the studio in March 1986 to record a cover of the song with none other than Steven Tyler and Joe Perry.
The resulting track became a smash crossover hit, or simultaneously reviving Aerosmith’s flagging career and propelling rap music into the mainstream.
Source: tufts.edu