10 Most Iconic Rock-Hip Hop Jams with Author Steven Blush
This week on Past Tens: A Top 10 Time Machine, Milt and Dave crank the amps, lace up the shell-tops, and dive headfirst into one of the great musical collisions of the last 50 years: when rock and hip hop stopped flirting… and started throwing punches together.
Our guest is Steven Blush — rock journalist, historian, and author of When Rock Met Hip Hop. The guy knows this terrain cold. We’re talking real-deal moments where guitars and 808s didn’t just coexist — they rewired the culture.
We start with Rapture by Blondie — because yes, Debbie Harry walked so a lot of crossovers could run. Then we move into Rock Box by Run-DMC, which basically kicked the studio door off its hinges.
From there? Chaos. Beautiful chaos.
We hit the Def Jam Recordings origin story. The Beastie Boys pivot from punk brats to rap juggernauts with No Sleep Till Brooklyn. Rick Rubin running dual sessions like a mad scientist. Guitars. Regrets. Comebacks.
We get into Walk This Way and how it resurrected Aerosmith. Then the volume somehow goes even higher with Anthrax and Public Enemy, Biohazard and Onyx, the rise of nu metal via Faith No More, and the politically explosive force of Rage Against the Machine.
And yes — we land the plane (or maybe stage-dive it) with Jump Around by House of Pain, a song that has probably caused more minor arena injuries than any other track of the ’90s.
Blush brings the receipts — stories, context, perspective — and we do what we always do: connect the dots, argue about legacy, and try not to blow out the speakers.
Because this wasn’t just a genre mashup.
It was a cultural jailbreak.
Plug in. Turn it up. And come time-travel with us.
Topics
00:44 Special Guest: Steven Blush
02:32 Steven Blush's Musical Journey
08:11 The Evolution of Rock and Hip Hop
29:56 The Birth of Def Jam
33:53 Beastie Boys' Breakthrough
38:02 Rick Rubin's Dual Studio Sessions
38:18 Guitar Contributions and Regrets
39:23 Beastie Boys' Rock Appeal
39:54 The Evolution of Beastie Boys
42:07 The Impact of 'Walk This Way'
43:40 Aerosmith's Comeback
50:43 Anthrax and Public Enemy Collaboration
55:10 Biohazard and Onyx Fusion
57:43 Faith No More and the Rise of Nu Metal
01:02:16 Rage Against the Machine's Influence
01:06:12 House of Pain's 'Jump Around'
01:10:48 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
