's career and is widely regarded as ushering in a new school of hip hop artists with a street image and an abrasive, minimalist sound that marked them out from their predecessors.

Despite protesting those social and political problems, the song takes on a hopeful message encouraging listeners to abandon prejudice and to believe in themselves.

He was aware of Run's prowess as a writer, having previously paid the teenager $100 for a set of lyrics with the intention of [Kurtis] Blow recording them.

One evening, in Smith's home studio in Queens, Run and D persuaded Larry and Russell [Simmons] to let them have a chance to make a demo.

'It's Like That' became the band's debut single, stridently announcing that a new era began.The song was mixed by Kurtis Blow and Elai Tubo.

Their rhymes are sewn into a forceful, house-inflected groove by underground club dynamo Nevins, who displays a palpable talent for combining hard-edged flavor with ear-grabbing hooks.

's old-school braggadocio and Nevins' new-school grooves demonstrates how club sounds constantly revitalize themselves, as well as displaying the historical links between seemingly disparate dance-music styles.

[10] James Hyman of Record Mirror wrote, "Reviving 'hip house' for the late Nineties with relentless pounding beats, scratchy squeaks and "check this out" punctuation over Run DMC's classic 1983 rap, NY DJ Jason Nevins has created a pan-European club smash which has already been Top 10 in almost the same number of national charts.