Run-DMC

American hip-hop group from Hollis, Queens who became the first hip-hop artists to achieve mainstream crossover success — their collaboration with Aerosmith on Walk This Way (1986) being the moment hip-hop entered mainstream rock radio — and who wore Adidas as a cultural statement that became the first hip-hop brand deal.

Created hip-hop's first mainstream crossover moment — the Walk This Way collaboration with Aerosmith showed white rock radio audiences that hip-hop was legitimate popular music — and their Adidas affiliation established the template for hip-hop artist brand partnerships.