After touring with Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard in 2022, Classless Act has now added “collaborating with a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer” to the band’s growing resume.

Run-DMC‘s Darryl “DMC” McDaniels has teamed up with Classless Act for a new version of the young rock outfit’s song “Storm Before the Calm.” As frontman Derek Day tells ABC Audio, he was so excited to work with DMC that his reaction to learning the rapper was onboard was basically straight out of a cartoon.

“I had a big coffee in my hand, and I was just about to drink it,” Day recalls. “And it just, like, fell because my manager was on speaker (sharing the news). I was like, ‘What?’ I spilled it all over these pigeons.”

DMC, meanwhile, was equally pumped to link up with Classless Act, even sharing that he was “very intimidated” by the collaboration. In approaching his verse, DMC wanted to add to and accentuate the already powerful message he felt the original “Storm Before the Calm” has.

“I’m not coming to make it old school, I’m not coming to make it hip-hop, I’m not coming to make it cool,” DMC tells ABC Audio. “I’m coming to have a presence in what it is.”

Run-DMC, of course, famously united with Aerosmith in 1986 for a new version of “Walk This Way,” which helped put rap rock on the map. With “Storm Before the Calm,” McDaniels feels Classless Act is following in Aerosmith’s footsteps.

“The beautiful thing about what Classless Act is doing, they’re continuing on that legacy, so it doesn’t die,” he says.

Classless Act and DMC’s “Storm Before the Calm” is out now.

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