It seems as though you can barely read a magazine or flip on the television without hearing about one of these new hip-hop/rock groups. Media outlets such as Rolling Stone and MTV treat these bands as though miraculously created this "new" genre of music. Acts such as Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock and Sugar Ray are treated though they are creative geniuses when in reality they are only doing things that have already been done before. True some of these new bands are very talented, but bands such Run DMC, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine, blended the seemingly mismatched flavors of rap and rock with brilliant results long before any of these bands had ever even seen a
             The earliest recorded example of this fusion of hip-hop and hard rock, came in 1985 with the release of Run DMC's "Rock Box". The song featured a beat which sounded more like an AC/DC instrumental than what your average hip-hop consumer had grown accustomed to, nevertheless underneath the vocals of Run DMC the song was their first bonafied crossover hit. The single even landed them onto heavy rotation on MTV, making Run DMC the first hip-hop group to ever have their video played with the station. The song was only the first of a long string of hits for the group to feature hard rock beats, of course with pumped up bass and the prerequisite turntable scratch. Their success carried over to their remake of Aerosmiths classic "Walk This Way", which too became an instant classic. The record also marked the first direct collaboration between a rap group and a rock band.
             However while Run DMC was a hip-hop group with heavy rock influence, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are a perfect example of the exact opposite, a rock band with distinct hip-hop overtones. From as early back to the mid-eighties the Chili Peppers were trendsetters, they were regularly sharing headline in Los A
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