In July of 1986, Run-DMC released their third album, Raising Hell, and thanks to their Aerosmith-assisted cover of "Walk This Way," they were on the way to becoming rap's first crossover stars. Darryl "DMC" McDaniels got a sense of the madness that lay ahead in the form of a couple of fresh-faced autograph seekers outside his Hollis, Queens home. DMC shares, "That's my house on 197th Street, my driveway, my brand-new '86 Caddy. I used to come home and find cars parked on my block, people who'd driven from Philly or D.C. or Baltimore to see if DMC really lived there. There would always be girls, fly girls, B-boys. But those kids? I mean, when I discovered Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa, I was 12. These kids are like, five, six, and eight. I knew everyone in a 50-block radius, but I'd never seen them before in my life. That look on my face is "Oh Shit!" - they're looking at me like I'm famous, like I'm a celebrity. Before that, if you asked me for an autograph, you were a hip-hop fan, looking to have a 12-inch or a 45 signed... This picture is the beginning of my greatness, but the end of my normalcy. After this, we made a movie, Krush Groove, and went on tour for Raising Hell, and by the time I came back, it was those kids' mothers and fathers and then white people and then people flying in from Germany. Then in '88, the crack epidemic hit Hollis and I started worrying about motherf#ckers coming to stick me up or hurting my mother and father, so we moved to Freeport, Long Island. But I'd still drive to Hollis every day to hang out in front of the pizza place on 203rd Street. Run lived on 205th and Jam Master Jay was on 203rd. It's a great memory. I've got my Adidas three-striped on. I'm fresh till death. - Spin (7/01).