Run-D.M.C.的音乐正式为主流乐坛所承认是在他们的第三张专辑《Raising Hell》发行之后。该专辑中的单曲《My Adidas》进入了R&B单曲榜前十名。接着，乐队最受欢迎的单曲《Walk This Way》面世，在流行音乐金曲榜上排到了第四名。这支单曲是第一支为摇滚歌迷和说唱歌迷广泛接受的Hip-hop歌曲。《Raising Hell》成为第一张成为R&B金曲排行榜冠军的Rap专辑，在流行音乐榜上它进入了前十名，达到了白金唱片销量。Run-D.M.C.也成为第一支登上MTV电视台的Rap乐队。 这张专辑在滚石杂志选出的500张历代最强专辑中排名第120位。 By their third album, Run-D.M.C. were primed for a breakthrough into the mainstream, but nobody was prepared for a blockbuster on the level of Raising Hell. Run-D.M.C. and King of Rock had established the crew's fusion of hip-hop and hard rock, but that sound didn't blossom until Raising Hell, partially due to the presence of Rick Rubin as producer. Rubin loved metal and rap in equal measures and he knew how to play to the strengths of both, while slipping in commercial concessions that seemed sly even when they borrowed from songs as familiar as "My Sharona" (heard on "It's Tricky"). Along with longtime Run-D.M.C. producer Russell Simmons, Rubin blew down the doors of what hip-hop could do with Raising Hell because it reached beyond rap-rock and found all sorts of sounds outside of it. Sonically, there is simply more going on in this album than any previous rap record -- more hooks, more drum loops (courtesy of ace drum programmer Sam Sever), more scratching, more riffs, more of everything. Where other rap records, including Run-D.M.C.'s, were all about the rhythm, this is layered with sounds and ideas, giving the music a tangible flow. But the brilliance of this record is that even with this increased musical depth, it still rocks as hard as hell, and in a manner that brought in a new audience. Of course, the cover of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way," complete with that band's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, helped matters considerably, since it gave an audience unfamiliar with rap an entry point, but if it were just a novelty record, a one-shot fusion of rap and rock, Raising Hell would never have sold three million copies. No, the music was fully realized and thoroughly invigorating, rocking harder and better than any of its rock or rap peers in 1986, and years later, that sense of excitement is still palpable on this towering success story for rap in general and Run-D.M.C. in specific.