It's Like That
By March of 1983, rap music was in need of something new. Although it was a mere eight months after the release of "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5, and less than a year after Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force's smash hit "Planet Rock," the relatively new genre of music needed to be refreshed.
Run-D.M.C. provided that refreshment when their debut single "It's Like That"/"Sucker MCs" was released on Profile Records. What was remarkable about the single was the fact that there were no instruments other than an Oberheim DMX drum machine in the songs. The previous three years of rap records had been recorded by full bands, namely Sugar Hill and Enjoy Records house bands, who replayed familiar disco, funk and breakbeats complete with horns, guitars, pianos and kazoos.
Lyrically, "It's Like That" was an examination of urban America and the world, picking up where Kurtis Blow's "Hard Times" (which Run-D.M.C. would remake in 1983) and "The Message" left off. Sonically, "Its Like That" only contained an occasional horn hit and a few background sound effects. The rhymes were slowed down to half time to accommodate the uptempo beat, much like "Planet Rock" did a year before.