Day After Day #34: It's Tricky

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

It's Tricky (1986)

When it comes to influential hip hop acts, you can't get more influential than Run-DMC. Sure, there were other artists who broke ground before them, but the trio from Hollis, Queens broke down all sorts of barriers: they were the first group to have a gold record, the first to go platinum, the first to go multi-platinum. They were the first to get aired on MTV, be on the cover of Rolling Stone, play Live Aid, get nominated for a Grammy. 

With the release of their third album, Raising Hell, in May 1986, Run-DMC made more history. They covered Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" by teaming up with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry and the resulting video was a monster hit. The summer of '86 was all about "Walk This Way": the song was everywhere and it opened the door for rap to cross over to a mass audience. Not only did the song turn Run-DMC into superstars, it resurrected the flagging career of Aerosmith (we can debate elsewhere whether that was a good thing). 

I was familiar with Run-DMC thanks to "King of Rock" from the 1985 album of the same name; the video featuring Larry "Bud" Melman of Late Night with David Letterman fame used to play on V66, a Boston area video channel that I was able to get a fuzzy signal of up in southern New Hampshire. The song featured the rappers backed up by a full band, including the great Eddie Martinez on lead guitar. 

By late '86, Run-DMC and a new act called the Beastie Boys were all over the radio and MTV with rap-rock bangers. I was a sophomore at UNH and we were blasting both acts in our dorm rooms. A particular favorite was Run-DMC's "It's Tricky," which was the fourth single on Raising Hell. 

The song wasn't a huge hit (#57 on the Billboard 100) but it was amazing, featuring rappers Run and DMC trading verses and generally just kicking ass. The song sampled the riff from the Knack's "My Sharona" and copied the vocal structure of Toni Basil's "Mickey" and turned it all into a thunderous anthem. The video featured Penn and Teller as street hustlers ripping off people with three-card Monte games before Run-DMC swoops in to the save the day, sort of.

The song talks about the challenges of fame and staying on top of the rap game. "In New York the people talk and try to make us rhyme/They really (hawk) but we just (walk) because we have no time/And in the city it's a pity cause we just can't hide/Tinted windows don't mean nothing, they know who's inside."

Producer Rick Rubin was a big rock and metal fan and he was able to skillfully combine heavier guitar-oriented parts into rap songs to appeal to wider audiences. This was when the rules about sampling weren't set in stone yet and rap acts just cavalierly sampled whatever they felt like without paying. The Knack sued the band two decades later and the case was settled; now the writing credits include Doug Fieger and Berton Averre of the Knack as well.

"It's Tricky" has since been used in countless movies, TV shows and videogames. In 1998, producer Jason Nevins remixed the song and the song went to #1 on the UK Singles Chart.

Even now, nearly 40 years later, "It's Tricky" resonates and reverberates to a time when a bunch of 19-year-olds had nothing better to do on a Friday night but blast it at ear-splitting volume and recite every line.