"More than any other act, Run-D.M.C. took hip-hop from the streets of New York to the national stage. The group gets deserved credit for its combinations of rock and rap from their early use of guitars on tracks such as 'Rock Box' to their ground-breaking collaboration with Aerosmith on their 1986 cover of 'Walk this Way.'”
Plus they were a clean band, not this misogynist, criminal-glorifying crap that seems prevalent these days.
They also did free concerts for the troops overseas. That always gets a thumbs-up from me.