Run-DMC Trivia
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47 free Run-DMC trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Run-DMC took hip-hop out of the park jam and into the stadium, wearing black fedoras, gold chains and unlaced Adidas. This quiz covers the whole run: three friends from Hollis, Queens, Russell Simmons and Profile Records, the stripped-down beats of Rock Box and Sucker M.C.s, the first gold and platinum rap records, King of Rock, and the Rick Rubin sessions that produced Raising Hell. It also covers the crossover and the tragedy: My Adidas and the million-dollar endorsement, the Walk This Way cover that revived Aerosmith and broke rap onto MTV and the pop charts, Live Aid and Krush Groove, Christmas in Hollis, DMC's adoption and Sarah McLachlan, Rev Run's ministry, Jam Master Jay's JMJ Records and 50 Cent, his 2002 murder and the convictions that finally came in 2024, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Easy questions ask where they were from and what shoes they wore; the expert tier asks for producers, chart positions and dates. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Run-DMC, Raising Hell, Walk This Way, Jam Master Jay and related pages, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question. If you like this, try our quizzes on hip-hop, Aerosmith and the 1980s.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which New York City neighbourhood was Run-DMC formed?
Hollis, Queens
Hollis, Queens. All three grew up in the middle-class neighbourhood, where Run and DMC first rapped for local DJ Jam Master Jay in a park.
Q 02Run-DMC's 1988 single 'Mary, Mary' reworked a 1960s song by which pop group?
The Monkees
The Monkees. Michael Nesmith wrote it before he joined the TV band, and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band recorded it before the Monkees released their own version.
Q 03Which member of Run-DMC handled the turntables?
Jason Mizell
Jason Mizell. Run had started out as a DJ himself, but the group's turntables went to Jam Master Jay, already the most popular DJ in their neighbourhood park.
Q 04Which promoter, the elder brother of one member, managed Run-DMC?
Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons. He co-founded Def Jam, yet the act he managed, his own brother's group, never recorded for the label.
Q 05As a teenager, the future Run worked the turntables onstage for which older rapper?
Kurtis Blow
Kurtis Blow. Blow's manager was Run's own elder brother, and the teenage DJ was billed as 'the Son of Kurtis Blow'.
Q 06Despite their close ties to Def Jam, Run-DMC recorded for which independent label?
Profile Records
Profile Records. One Def Jam founder managed the group and the other produced their biggest album, so fans often assume they were on the label, but they never signed to it.
Q 07What was the A-side of Run-DMC's debut single?
It's Like That
It's Like That. Backed with 'Sucker M.C.'s', the 1983 record swapped party rhymes for talk of unemployment over a spare, pounding drum-machine beat.
Q 08Run-DMC's 1984 debut was the first rap album to earn what?
A gold record
A gold record. Rap was then a singles business where albums rarely sold, so the label's co-founder asked only for a few more songs to round out the hits the trio already had.
Q 09Which 1984 Run-DMC single, driven by a blazing guitar solo, had the first rap video in regular rotation on MTV?
Rock Box
Rock Box. Run and DMC disliked the guitar-heavy mix and gave radio a version without it, but the take with Eddie Martinez's solo was the one that caught on.
Q 10Which double act play the three-card monte hustlers in Run-DMC's 'It's Tricky' video?
Penn & Teller
Penn & Teller. The rappers win every hand and shut the street scam down, and by the end of the clip the magicians are on stage in Japan passing themselves off as Run-DMC.
Q 11Which 1986 Run-DMC album, their third, reached number three on the Billboard 200?
Raising Hell
Raising Hell. Its remake of a 1970s rock hit won Top 40 radio play that rap had rarely been given, carrying the album to suburban rock fans new to the music.
Q 12Who produced Run-DMC's third album alongside their manager?
Rick Rubin
Rick Rubin. Feeling the nearly finished record needed something for rock fans, he pushed the reluctant trio into remaking a 1970s hard-rock song.
Q 13With which rock band did Run-DMC record their crossover hit 'Walk This Way'?
Aerosmith
Aerosmith. The remake reached number four, six places higher than the band's own 1970s original, and restarted their stalled career.
Q 21At which 1985 benefit concert did Run-DMC perform?
Live Aid
Live Aid. They went on in Philadelphia straight after Black Sabbath, a rap act on a rock bill, and played 'King of Rock'.
Q 22Which magazine put Run-DMC on its cover, a first for a hip-hop act?
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone. Its December 1986 story, 'Run-D.M.C. Is Beating the Rap', let the trio answer critics who blamed their music for gang fights at their arena shows.
Q 23Which Clarence Carter holiday song is sampled on Run-DMC's 1987 Christmas single?
Back Door Santa
Back Door Santa. The trio at first balked at making a Christmas record, and their publicist talked them round once Jam Master Jay had worked Carter's 1968 song into the track.
Q 14Run-DMC's biggest hit, 'Walk This Way', took its title from a gag in which Mel Brooks film?
Young Frankenstein
Young Frankenstein. Stuck for a title, members of the band that first recorded the song saw the film on a studio break and borrowed Marty Feldman's line to Gene Wilder.
Q 15What does the rock singer famously do in Run-DMC's 'Walk This Way' video?
Breaks through a wall between two studios
Breaks through a wall between two studios. The two acts begin as feuding neighbours drowning each other out, and the smashed wall leads to them sharing one stage.
Q 16What was Run-DMC's original plan for 'Walk This Way'?
Just rap over a sample of it
Just rap over a sample of it. Run and DMC knew only the opening beat they rhymed over at shows, and they gave the visiting rock stars a chilly welcome when a full remake was pressed on them.
Q 17Which Adidas shoe, nicknamed the shell toe, did Run-DMC celebrate in 'My Adidas'?
Superstar
Superstar. The 1969 basketball shoe had been overtaken on court by newer designs, and the song answered a rap that had mocked such footwear as 'felon sneakers'.
Q 18At which venue did Run-DMC fans hold their Adidas aloft, clinching the shoe deal?
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden. The group's management had invited an Adidas executive to the 1986 show, and the trio told the crowd to hold up their shoes during 'My Adidas'.
Q 19How did Run-DMC famously wear their Adidas sneakers?
Without laces
Without laces. Earlier rap stars had performed in spangled stage costumes, and Run-DMC's unlaced street shoes helped make everyday dress the uniform for rappers.
Q 20Which 1985 film, a fictionalised account of their manager's rise, featured Run-DMC?
Krush Groove
Krush Groove. Their manager co-produced the story of his own rise but handed his part to Blair Underwood, making his film debut, and took a cameo as a club owner.
Q 24Which cause did the 1987 charity album carrying Run-DMC's Christmas single support?
Special Olympics
Special Olympics. The album series it launched has raised many millions for the charity, and Run-DMC's track was the first record's only newly written song.
Q 25Which band sued Run-DMC two decades on for sampling 'My Sharona' on 'It's Tricky'?
The Knack
The Knack. Explaining the twenty-year wait, its songwriters said they had only recently learned that the 1986 hit was built on their riff.
Q 26Which act joined Run-DMC on the 1987 Together Forever Tour?
The Beastie Boys
The Beastie Boys. The acts were already studio neighbours: when the 'Walk This Way' session had no bass guitar, one of the Beasties went home and fetched his.
Q 27Which 1988 Run-DMC album shares its title with a crime film the trio starred in that year?
Tougher Than Leather
Tougher Than Leather. Unhappy with how tame their first film had been, the trio planned this one as a violent revenge story in which they hunt down a friend's killers.
Q 28Which Late Night with David Letterman regular plays the guard in Run-DMC's 'King of Rock' video?
Larry 'Bud' Melman
Larry 'Bud' Melman. Actor Calvert DeForest, in his Letterman guise, tells the trio 'you guys don't belong in here' at a rock museum, and they storm straight past him.
Q 29Which 1990 Run-DMC album dabbled in new jack swing?
Back from Hell
Back from Hell. Chasing a tougher, more current sound, the group saw the album stall at number 81 after two straight top-ten records.
Q 30Which 1993 Run-DMC comeback album, made with Pete Rock and Q-Tip, topped the R&B chart?
Down with the King
Down with the King. After a new jack swing misfire and three years away, rap's veterans hired the hottest producers of the day to catch up with a scene that had moved on without them.