{"id":356,"date":"2017-12-30T01:14:15","date_gmt":"2017-12-30T06:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/f18-engl117-02\/?p=356"},"modified":"2018-03-13T23:43:37","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T03:43:37","slug":"how-run-d-m-c-saved-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/f18-engl117-02\/uncategorized\/how-run-d-m-c-saved-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"How Run-D.M.C. Saved Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s that time of the year. Or, should I say, it\u2019s well into that time of the year, and there\u2019s no better way to end the holiday season and simultaneously pass my first semester of college than by writing about Christmas anthems. That\u2019s right — it may be below freezing outside, but I am still in hot water academically. And that\u2019s right — Christmas anthems. Not carols. Not the sickeningly repetitive and seemingly endless tunes that made up my elementary school winter concerts. Not even Mariah Carey\u2019s \u201cAll I Want For Christmas Is You\u201d (oh yeah, I went there). If you want to talk about real working-class holiday spirit<\/em>, real POC cheer<\/em>, you need look no further than Run-D.M.C.\u2019s \u201cChristmas in Hollis.\u201d<\/p>\n

We should start with why I have good reason to be a grinch when it comes to Christmas carols. I had a very stressful relationship with holiday music between what was being taught to me in school and my life at home. At the root of it, Christmas carols, such as \u201cWhite Christmas,\u201d were just that — too white American. I would hear about the classic holiday singers in school: Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin\u2026 there was a trend. And while Sinatra and Martin had Italian heritage, I couldn\u2019t see myself sitting next to any of them at the dinner table. If Dave Marsh asserted that \u201crock-as-rebellion is a story compiled almost exclusively by white men,\u201d then rock-as-festive was no different.[1]<\/sup><\/a> I didn\u2019t hear enough about The Supremes or Ella Fitzgerald (or Run-D.M.C.!), so I was left in the classroom with tunes that were too plain, and where the voices I heard came from the throats of white men. My family didn\u2019t buy into sleigh rides, nor did we get a Christmas tree every year, nor could we afford to shop down 5th Avenue in NYC. It was all too stereotypical of the 50s, nuclear, rich white American experience for me to relate to.<\/p>\n

Other Christmas carols I sang in school were also naive and one-dimensional in such a way that it grew increasingly hard to tolerate them as each New Year passed. Specifically, I was introduced to a cast of fictional characters and yearly traditions that had no relevance to me outside of the holiday season. Classic Christmas carols tied well into Bakhtin\u2019s analysis of the carnival of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, for the Russian philosopher noted that \u201cthe symbols of the carnival idiom are filled with\u2026 a \u2018world inside out.\u2019\u201d[2]<\/sup><\/a> I didn\u2019t want to keep singing about red-nosed reindeer or frosty snowmen or Santa Claus, because it all seemed like one giant party whose admissions ticket I could never afford. I wasn\u2019t comfortable being annually reminded of a magical winter wonderland, when I had no representation of the utopia that could exist in Queens, New York City.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say that I\u2019m writing a Christmas carol about my neighborhood. If we had reindeer, they\u2019d be sporting Timberlands. If we had talking snowmen, they\u2019d be wearing snapbacks and smoking vape pens. Santa would have to ring my apartment bell in order to enter. And our snow would glisten for one day before it looked like a misshapen 7-Eleven Coca-Cola slushie. But no songs of that sort were taught to me in class, and the ones I did learn, I couldn\u2019t even dance to. There was no pulsing beat, no groovy melody, no soul<\/em> in any of those carols. If I had to listen about Santa flying around in a sleigh, shouldn\u2019t I have also been taught a line dance? So not only was the content of the Christmas classics too frivolous, but they were beyond being simply \u201cinside out\u201d — they existed in a boring, alternate dimension. For that, they couldn\u2019t provide a mode of escape from a boring reality. I honestly appreciated my family\u2019s socioeconomic reality, and only wanted music\u2019s positive reinforcement.<\/p>\n

And so I grew up being fed a utopia that was too bland and too far out of my reach; I never learned how to swallow all of it, nor did I ever really want to. Instead, all of my family\u2019s energies were directed towards gathering around Christmas dinner. I wanted to hear songs that were reflective of my own background — songs about the happiness that is found within the working-class, within my Honduran mother and Italian father. I longed for music that was just as kick-ass as it was familial, just as spicy as it was sparkly. So while my parents made mashed potatoes, rice and beans, and lasagna, they also kept it real; they played jazz while we sat and ate, then put on salsa for some dancing afterwards. Helps with digestion\u2026 but I was always wanting more.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to pinpoint exactly when \u201cChristmas in Hollis\u201d appeared within my family\u2019s musical repertoire. Apparently, my dad used to play it when I was a toddler, but had forgotten about it until last Christmas, when I added the song to our Spotify playlist. \u201cOh, I used to play this when you were little!\u201d he said as the intro\u2019s trumpets blared through our living room speakers. I\u2019m sure a big part of the reason why I stopped hearing \u201cChristmas in Hollis\u201d was that my parents didn\u2019t generally enjoy listening to hip-hop. It breaks my heart that my mom will talk about how she witnessed hip-hop\u2019s inception while growing up in the South Bronx, but today she\u2019ll change the radio station when a rap song comes on. Too vulgar. Too sexual. Too gangster. Essentially, everything that \u201cChristmas in Hollis\u201d isn\u2019t. But how so?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get into the knitty-gritty. \u201cChristmas in Hollis\u201d samples Clarence Carter\u2019s 1969 \u201cBack Door Santa,\u201d and it\u2019s tempting to shift this paper\u2019s entire focus onto that song, but I\u2019ll provide a sneak peak.[3]<\/sup><\/a> Its trumpets blare the kind of funk that\u2019ll make you squeeze your eyes shut and scrunch up your eyebrows. Its baseline runs as if there\u2019s no tomorrow. And Carter\u2019s lyrics are so cheeky that I can understand why I never heard this song when I was younger (I highly recommend giving it a listen). In fact, this blues track had so much groove that its remix by Jam Master Jay was what convinced \u201cRun\u201d Joseph Simmons and \u201cD.M.C.\u201d Darryl McDaniels to rap over it for a Special Olympics Christmas benefit album.[4]<\/sup><\/a> So the backtrack for \u201cChristmas in Hollis\u201d is already like no other Christmas carol: being topped off with the sounds of turntable scratching, pounding base drums, and tolerable jingle bells, the track is effortlessly danceable and revolutionary. The song begins with the opening notes of \u201cJingle Bells\u201d being scratched\u00a0over as the drums furiously bang for the arrival of \u201cBack Door Santa.\u201d The records of Christmas Past, with their oversaturated and rich white American content, are literally<\/em> being scratched over by the African American artists of Christmas Future. It\u2019s as if Jam Master Jay is yelling: \u201cForget what you knew about Christmas carols! This is hip-holiday, baby!\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The first verse of \u201cChristmas in Hollis\u201d places distance between the audience and Santa Claus, depicting him as a fleeting figure whose world we are not meant to escape to. Run raps about spotting a man with\u00a0his reindeer in a park on Hollis Avenue, only to find out that the man was Santa Claus after he takes to the air, dropping his wallet and license at Run\u2019s feet (good to know that Santa has a license to ride his sleigh). And instead of stealing the million dollars in cash, Run ultimately decides to mail the wallet back to Santa Claus that same night<\/em>. This rap isn\u2019t afraid to talk about morality in true holiday fashion: \u201cI\u2019d never steal from Santa, cause that ain\u2019t right.\u201d[5]<\/sup><\/a> In the act of returning the wallet back to Santa — which contained material wealth and the only proof of Father Christmas\u2019s existence — Run also expresses how he has no need to connect himself to Santa\u2019s world. Joseph Simmons is content enough with his life in Hollis to return a million dollars and a license to the<\/em> Santa. Not only that, but he is rewarded for sticking to his morals by receiving a note from Santa that tells him to keep the money. If Run is willing to disconnect himself from Santa, and is rewarded for doing so, then maybe the North Pole, and the fictional characters I was forced to sing about, aren\u2019t all they\u2019re cracked up to be.<\/p>\n

D.M.C\u2019s second verse pays tribute to the middle\/working-class, describing his home in Hollis and the various foods that bring him and his family together. Darryl comes out the gate announcing, \u201cIt\u2019s Christmas time in Hollis, Queens \/ Mom\u2019s cooking chicken and collard greens,\u201d showing how an African American family can enjoy the holiday season in middle-class Queens without the sleigh rides or shopping sprees afforded to wealthier families.[6]<\/sup><\/a> It\u2019s not the gifts that tie D.M.C\u2019s household together — it\u2019s the food that his mom prepares throughout the verse, moving on to rice and stuffing, macaroni and cheese, and eggnog. No caviar or champagne. And maybe it\u2019s because Hollis is only a fifteen minute drive from my home, but it\u2019s comforting to know that \u201cChristmas in Hollis\u201d can be hip-hop outside of the context of being in the hood. As Dave Marsh says, \u201c\u2018there’s no gangster in these guys,\u2019\u201d because Run-D.M.C. embraces their humble utopia, and it\u2019s expressed from their rhymes to their Adidas track suits.[7]<\/sup><\/a> It even gets to the point where Darryl ends his verse with a mashup of different Christmas melodies. \u201cAh, yes. I always hated that part,\u201d my dad said when we gave it another listen. It was a bit confusing; weren\u2019t these the tunes working-class listeners were supposed to be forgetting about? But Run-D.M.C. doesn\u2019t play <\/em>Christmas carols — they \u201cbust\u201d them out of existence, giving listeners one last sour taste of the mediocre tunes before the banging drums prompt the last verse.<\/p>\n

\u201cRhymes so loud and proud you hear it \/ It\u2019s Christmas time and we got the spirit.\u201d[8]<\/sup><\/a> The delivery of Run-D.M.C.\u2019s rhymes is what keeps listeners grounded in reality, forcing them to rejoice in the festivities that their life at home presents to them. The third verse comes in hard and carefully articulated as Run and D.M.C. rap in unison. Lines like \u201cThe time is now \/ The place is here \/ And the whole wide world is filled with cheer\u2026 So open your eyes, lend us an ear \/ We want to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year\u201d tells listeners to stay present, whatever the socioeconomic class, so that the holidays become adaptable to anyone\u2019s current living conditions. \u201cRun-DMC comes at you without excess. When they trade verses, it is more like a dialogue than a jumbled conversation.\u201d[9]<\/sup><\/a> Indeed, their raps manage to get all up in your grill while also inviting you to taste what they\u2019re cooking.<\/p>\n

But, it\u2019s tricky (\u201ctricky, tricky\u2026\u201d). Darryl McDaniels admitted that \u201cChristmas Rappin\u201d by Kurtis Blow was a hip-holiday anthem before \u201cChristmas in Hollis\u201d was released in 1988.[10]<\/sup><\/a> However, this comparison can be knocked out in several respects. For starters, \u201cChristmas Rappin\u201d is over eight minutes long. Eight minutes. Versus just under three? With my attention span? \u2026 I\u2019m leaving that there. And while Kurtis Blow did us the favor of calling out \u201cThe Night Before Christmas\u201d as it begins to be recited at the top of his song — \u201cHold it now! Wait, hold it. That’s played out.\u201d — the music and lyrics of his 1979 single are still within the elementary stages of hip-hop.[11]<\/sup><\/a> Curtis keeps the same rhyming pattern as he raps about getting jiggy with Santa Claus over a track that sounds too close to \u201cGood Times,\u201d so that the song\u2019s lyrics are the only indicator of it being about the holiday season. Instead, Run-D.M.C. sampled a holiday song from a black blues artist, and \u201csparked a sort of hip-hop revolution, breaking down conventions in lyricism by abandoning the melodic rhyming made popular by such artists as\u2026 Kurtis Blow.\u201d[12]<\/sup><\/a> They managed to integrate hip-hop, and the marginalized communities behind it, into the holiday season while hailing the working\/middle-class life in Queens and splicing out conventional Christmas music. \u201c\u2018They dug each other so much and they the world so much that you know, the most ferocious thing they ever did was just utterly charming.\u2019”[13]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This essay was read by Alejandro Zuleta. It is not a first draft.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/sup><\/a> Dave Marsh, The Heart of Rock & Soul: 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made, <\/em>(New York: Da Capo Press, 1999),<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. xxxiv.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    [2]<\/sup><\/a> Mikhail Bakhtin, \u201cRabelais and His World,\u201d Cultural Resistance Reader<\/em> (London: Verso, 2002), p. 88.<\/p>\n

    [3]<\/sup><\/a> Evan Rytlewski, \u201cWe Talk Run-DMC\u2019s \u2018Christmas in Hollis\u2019 with DMC Himself,\u201d AVclub<\/em>, 3 Dec. 2013, 12:00am, https:\/\/music.avclub.com\/we-talk-run-dmc-s-christmas-in-hollis-with-dmc-himsel-1798242786<\/p>\n

    [4]<\/sup><\/a> Evan Rytlewski, \u201cWe Talk Run-DMC\u2019s \u2018Christmas in Hollis\u2019 with DMC Himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

    [5]<\/sup><\/a> Run-D.M.C., \u201cChristmas in Hollis,\u201d in Tougher Than Leather<\/em>, Def Jam Records, 1988, http:\/\/spotify.com.<\/p>\n

    [6]<\/sup><\/a> Run-D.M.C., Christmas in Hollis.<\/em><\/p>\n

    [7]<\/sup><\/a> Sean Alfano, \u201c\u2018I Am Who I Am,\u2019\u201d CBS<\/em>, 4 June, 2006, 10:13am, https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/i-am-who-i-am\/.<\/p>\n

    [8]<\/sup><\/a> Run-D.M.C., Christmas in Hollis.<\/em><\/p>\n

    [9]<\/sup><\/a> Adam Bradley and Andrew DuBois, editors, The Anthology of Rap<\/em>, (Yale University Press, 2010: 122) JSTOR<\/em>,<\/p>\n

    ezproxy2.williams.edu:2226\/stable\/pdf\/j.ctt1nq45c.36.pdf.<\/p>\n

    [10]<\/sup><\/a> Evan Rytlewski, \u201cWe Talk Run-DMC\u2019s \u2018Christmas in Hollis\u2019 with DMC Himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

    [11]<\/sup><\/a> Kurtis Blow, \u201cChristmas Rappin,\u2019\u201d in Kurtis Blow, <\/em>Mercury Records, 1979, http:\/\/spotify.com.<\/p>\n

    [12]<\/sup><\/a> Adam Bradley and Andrew DuBois, p. 265.<\/p>\n

    [13]<\/sup><\/a> Sean Alfano, \u201c\u2018I Am Who I Am.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It\u2019s that time of the year. Or, should I say, it\u2019s well into that time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1826,"featured_media":357,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/f18-engl117-02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/f18-engl117-02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/f18-engl117-02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/f18-engl117-02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1826"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/f18-engl117-02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/f18-engl117-02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/f18-engl117-02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356\/revisions\/359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/f18-engl117-02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/f18-engl117-02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/f18-engl117-02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/f18-engl117-02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}