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who originally sang the song but now rode on the coattails of a newer, hipper group. It would be brand reinvention at its finest. In May 1986 the Aerosmith/Run-DMC collaboration hit television and radio, and climbed to number four on the charts. The video depicts Aerosmith in one room with Run-DMC in another, divided only by a wall. Aerosmith is trying to sing and play its music, but the noise coming from the adjacent room is so loud that the band can’t perform. So, Tyler and crew break down the wall and sing the chorus of “Walk This Way” through the shattered plaster and into the world of rap. The video continues with the unified band performing and prancing Tyler-style across the stage together. Trends That Trickle Up Similar to the way Elvis helped R&B trickle upward from black culture to mainstream culture, Aerosmith acted as a conduit for the passage of rap music from the urban market to suburban America. Dr. Dre, who played a vital role in rap’s evolution, explains, “They [Aerosmith] were responsible for getting hip-hop played on MTV.” Aerosmith wagered its comeback on the future acceptance of rap and hip-hop by mainstream markets and the impact rap would have on the music industry. It was a smart bet with a big payoff. Rap has captured a huge part of the market for contemporary music, with rappers and urban artists from Eminem to Nelly becoming favorites among wide portions of the population. Is the trickle-up theory of cultural adoption at work in the marketplace today? Just look at what happened to the Tommy Hilfiger brand during the 1990s. The label, which at one time consisted primarily of conservative clothing, began taking its fashion cues from urban neighborhoods. Enter the superbaggy, waistline-below-the-underwear look. Teens thought they looked hot, and parents of the suburban kids who wanted to sport this look paid big bucks for designer versions of urban clothing donned by gangs. The Tommy logo was everywhere as it pushed the urban look upward to suburban markets. The brand and its dominant red, white, and blue Tommy logo were even big inside urban neighborhoods, the realities of which had inspired the fashions themselves. In the ’hood, one way a young male gains manhood is to do time—once he is out,