The electronic boom-and-clank that marked Run-D.M.C.'s 1983 debut single, "It's Like That," expanded to album length early the next year. Still one of the genre's most entertaining long-players--and undergoing something of a renaissance thanks to Jason Nevins's remix of "It's Like That"--Run-D.M.C. showcased two rambunctious voices working at the top of their game (and their lungs), finishing each other's sentences and laying waste to sucker MCs, all over a minimal pulse: the sound of the first new school of hip-hop. Some peaks: Rock Box, a fierce introduction to their rock/rap fusion, and "Wake Up," a fantasy in which Ronald Reagan is spotted at a concert by our heroes. It was a dream, they admitted. But Run, D.M.C., and turntable king Jam Master Jay took it to the world. --Rickey Wright