Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Kings From Queens: The RUN DMC Story’ on Peacock, A ‘30 For 30’-Style Tell-All Docuseries About The Hip-Hop Pioneers 

Over three episodes, Kings From Queens: The RUN DMC Story (now streaming on Peacock) tracks the legendary hip-hop group From “Sucker M.C.’s (Krush-Groove 1)” in 1983 to “Down With The King” in 1993, and all of the triumph and tragedy in between. Directed by Kirk Fraser and featuring new interviews with Joseph “Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, plus a host of hip-hop and music luminaries, including Chuck D, Russell Simmons, Questlove, Eminem, Ice Cube, LL Cool J, Cheryl James of Salt-N-Pepa, Kurtis Blow, Rick Rubin, Ice-T, Doug E. Fresh, and Ad-Rock and Mike D of Beastie Boys, The RUN DMC Story builds from their early years in Hollis, through the heady days of platinum records and “Walk This Way,” and onward to tougher times and the tragic 2002 murder of Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell.

KINGS FROM QUEENS: THE RUN-DMC STORY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: “When I think about being onstage with D and performing,” says Joseph “Run” Simmons, “the first thing that comes to my mind is intensity.” Black-and-white still photos stack up on the screen, many featuring Run-DMC in their iconic look: black leather or striped Adidas track jackets, black fedoras, rope gold, and laceless shell toe Superstars.  

The Gist: In fact, that look was so iconic that by the mid-1980s, it helped resurrect Adidas as a lifestyle brand. The RUN DMC Story even interviews a former executive with the company. (“There was no money in the world that Adidas could give Run-DMC for the sales they generated,” Angelo Anastasio says.) But all of that came later. In the 1970s, Joseph Simmons and Darryl McDaniels were just two kids in Hollis, Queens, alternating their interest in sports and comic books with the fascinating sounds blasting out of block parties and park jams in the neighborhood. Hip-hop was spreading by word of mouth, and via the turntables, mixers, and flat Panasonic tape recorders that people created and played it on. J’s music promoter brother Russell Simmons got them into a studio, and when “It’s Like That” b/w “Sucker M.C.’s” appeared in 1983, it made the block partiers and 107.5 WBLS listeners in New York City go completely crazy.

“Nobody had ever heard a motherfucker rhyme about St. John’s University and collard greens,” McDaniels says in The RUN DMC Story. He and Simmons were inspired, prolific lyricists who could also finish each other’s sentences, and once they hired Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell as their full-time DJ, the trio brought its show to bigger and bigger venues. (Mizell is also credited with bringing “flavor” to the group, including their defining look.) Essentially, while Run-DMC had a knack for crafting elemental hip-hop singles, it was relentless authenticity that became their calling card. They showed how hip-hop could sound, how it could look, how it wasn’t just a fad. And soon enough, their skyrocketing popularity forced MTV to start programming Run-DMC and other Black artists.

The second episode of The RUN DMC Story will delve deeper into the stardom and the innovative rock-rap hybrid of their smash hit cover of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way,” plus the growing pains that came with that level of success, while episode three tracks the group’s later years and the murder of Jam Master Jay.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? As the trial for the two men charged with Jam Master Jay’s murder gets underway in New York federal court, a 2018 episode of the Netflix music documentary series ReMastered offers some background into the case. And the Chuck D-produced PBS docuseries Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World, which includes interviews with Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, applies the scope of history to rap music over four deeply-researched episodes.

Our Take: There’s a 30 for 30 quality to the interviews and story beats in The Run DMC Story – director Kirk Fraser is a veteran of that documentary film series – and those rhythms keep the docuseries moving along at a quick clip as it explores the group’s history. While Joseph “Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels guide us through each chapter in the group’s existence, notables from the world of hip-hop offer praise and context – “There would be no me without Run-DMC,” Eminem says, while LL Cool J stresses that three spots on Mount Rushmore are already taken – and the bits and pieces of archival footage that appear, combined with some incredibly vital sounding early recordings, are real highlights. Run-DMC’s towering hip-hop legacy is not in dispute. But this docuseries feels like the most complete way to establish it for posterity, with the group’s founders involved (they’re also producers) and an impressive slate of special guests commentary.

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode but New Yorkers in 1981 and ‘82 rocking tight athletic shorts while breakdancing, or young people in some outrageously fly eighties looks dancing on New York Hot Tracks, Graffiti Rock and national variety shows like American Bandstand.

Parting Shot: “It was so big, it overtook us…” The first episode of The RUN DMC Story culminates with the group selling more records than they ever dreamed of and playing huge arena shows. Which makes the next episode all about “Walk This Way” and what it meant to have a mainstream, crossover hip-hop hit in an era when those terms had barely been invented.  

Sleeper Star: There is a sharp, inviting visual aesthetic to this docuseries, with throwback-style animated graphics, interesting use of still photography, and music clips punctuated with an onscreen visualizer that help break up its standard patterns of interviews and testimonials. 

Most Pilot-y Line: “We would just go back and forth, me and D,” Joseph Simmons says of their earliest days, refining their rapping style. “We noticed we had something. Me and D just created a whole vibration, just rhymin’ and walkin’ and talkin’.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Whether you’re cold chillin’ at a party in a b-boy stance, or rocking the mic and making girls dance, Run-DMC will help you do it. Kings From Queens: The RUN DMC Story is an efficiently told, visually rich docuseries that provides a full history, but there’s insight into the group’s legacy here, too, as well as their tragedies.

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.