Run-DMC — Hollis, Queens, New York

Run-DMC — Joseph 'Run' Simmons, Darryl 'DMC' McDaniels, and Jason 'Jam Master Jay' Mizell — grew up in Hollis, Queens, a middle-class neighbourhood in southeastern Queens that became the cradle of golden age hip hop. Their self-titled debut album (1984) was the first hip hop album to be certified gold, and their collaboration with Aerosmith on 'Walk This Way' (1986) broke hip hop into the mainstream. Run-DMC's stripped-down aesthetic — Adidas sneakers with no laces, black hats, leather jackets, booming beats — was a deliberate rejection of the disco-influenced flash of early hip hop and set the visual template for the genre.

Hollis, Queens was also home to LL Cool J and the broader hip hop community that Russell Simmons (Run's older brother) would build into Def Jam Records. The neighbourhood's tree-lined streets and modest houses gave the lie to the idea that hip hop was exclusively the product of housing projects — Run-DMC came from working families and brought a confidence and professionalism to the genre that helped legitimise it in the eyes of a mainstream audience that had dismissed it as a fad.

Jam Master Jay was shot and killed at his 24/7 recording studio in Jamaica, Queens, on October 30, 2002. He was 37 years old. Two suspects were eventually convicted in 2024. A street in Hollis was renamed Run-DMC JMJ Way in 2016. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009, and their influence on the look, sound, and business of hip hop remains foundational.