'Raising Hell'

At one point or another, hip-hop and rap artists were going to get paid. It was only a matter of time before white America got its talons into the genre and made it a multi-billion dollar industry.

It was going to happen eventually. But it happened with Run-DMC's "Raising Hell."

It's one of the few albums in history that's probably more regarded as being popular as much as it is a good album. There is a difference. A group's best work isn't always their most popular work. Leave it to white people to get really great hip-hop wrong. Still, without it going triple platinum and teaming up with supergroup Aerosmith put the entire genre on the map. It made it matter.

Jay-Z, Russell Simmons, Suge Knight and all the other moguls in the industry were going to exist anyway, but, as it stands, they can accredit all of their fame and fortune to three dudes where leather jackets, Adidas and dorky glasses.