The true story behind Run-DMC’s ‘Sucker MCs’
In 1983, Run-DMC released their debut single ‘It’s Like That,’ which was a hugely significant moment in the history of hip-hop. Widely credited with changing the course of hip-hop forever, it wasn’t actually just that song that proved so consequential. Its B-side, ‘Sucker MCs,’ was also hugely important.
The two songs are together understood to have sparked a new wave of hip-hop, pushing it from the old school right into the new. Musically the songs were minimalist and hard-hitting, while lyrically they touched on street culture. ‘Sucker MCs’ can even be understood as a very early example of a diss track.
The song takes aim at rappers that Run-DMC understood to be lacking in the skills that they had. “You’s a sucker MC and you’re my fan,” runs the third verse. “You try to bite lines, but rhymes are mine.”
Continuing to needle these “sucker MCs,” the rhyme continues, “Tryin’ to rap up, but you can’t get down / You don’t even know your English, your verb, or noun / You’re just a sucker MC, you sad-faced clown.”
Aside from the competitive dissing, which itself would prove to be a hugely significant part of the hip-hop that was to come, group member DMC also mentions a university. “I’m DMC in the place to be,” he raps. “I go to St John’s University / And since kindergarten, I acquired the knowledge / And after 12th grade, I went straight to college.”
This rhyme, DMC once explained on the LosLos401 media channel, was inspired by his real-life circumstances. As a young man, he was actually accepted into New York’s St John’s University—and the excitement of it drove him to write a verse.
“I said, ‘Oh, shit, I’ve been accepted into St John’s University,’” he recalled of his reaction to receiving his acceptance letter. “I run past my mother and father with the letter, down into the basement to my turntables… and I write my rhyme.”
This real-life event inspired DMC’s verse, and, ultimately, it helped to make history. This song and Run-DMC’s work more broadly changed rap music forever. Alongside other pioneers like Beastie Boys, LL Cool J and Public Enemy, the group ushered in the form’s golden age.
Both ‘Sucker MCs’ and the A-side ‘It’s Like That’ were included on Run-DMC’s self-titled debut album, which was released in 1984. The record cemented this new, harder form of hip-hop that the group had helped to pioneer.