Beats to the Rhyme

Recorded for Tougher Than Leather during Run-D.M.C.’s 1987–1988 New York sessions. The track was engineered by Steve Ett and produced and mixed by Davy D with Run-D.M.C.; the album was cut across Chung King House of Metal, Unique Recording Studios, Electric Lady Studios, Ian London Studios, and Greene Street Recording. It was one of the defining album cuts from Tougher Than Leather, arriving as the B-side to the single "Run's House." The song helped frame the album’s harder, more self-assured return after Run-D.M.C.’s breakout era. The track remains a staple deep cut in the group’s catalog and appears on later Run-D.M.C. compilations and reissues. It is remembered as part of the Tougher Than Leather era that kept the group central to late-1980s hip-hop.