AEROSMITH AND RUN DMC LITERALLY CRASHED THE DOORS SEPARATING WHITE ROCK AND BLACK RAP
But 16 years later, when the X-ecutioners and Linkin Park teamed up, the context had completely changed. Hip-hop and rock haven't become interchangeable, but such boundaries seem silly when musical inspiration today is as likely to come from a brand of cognac or a sneaker. We brought Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and the X-ecutioners' Rob Swift together to discuss the state of our complex nation and how we got there.

COMPLEX: Steven, in 1986, what was your sense of hip-hop?

STEVEN TYLER: Light sprinklings of the Sugar Hill Gang, not a whole lot. Of course, we were really high--you know, really high, like, professionally ... you always had a gram, just always. We thought that that was the thing to do--which it was. If I had one regret it was that I wasn't high enough when i did the vocal for "Walk This Way," 'cause there would have been just this much less singing (o,) it then. I'm kinda singin' it, kinda sorta, but not speakin' it. I would love to take the credit for, like, I got the rap thing down first, the closest I can say is (does a little beatboxing).

COMPLEX: Rob, do you remember the first time you heard that song?

ROB SWIFT: First, i'd like to say that it is an honor sitting next to this man. The first time i heard Aerosmith's "Walk This Way", i was about nine years old and my older brother was a DJ at the time. He was part of that first wave with Sugar hill Gang and Grandmaster Flash. My brother's friends would come over with crates of records, and "Walk this Way" was one my brother would cut just the drum section from, and his friends would rap. So my early memories of learning how to scratch, learning how to catch a beat from the left turntable to the right turntable was with "Walk This Way."

COMPLEX: What images represent the most iconic clichés of rock 'n' roll and hip-hop as lifestyles?

TYLER: Working your ass off, getting ripped off, and having things that got in the way of you seeing that--girls, drugs, and just having people steal your energy. Groupies. Bad food. Hotels. Bus life.

COMPLEX: What's the most extravagant thing you ever did?

TYLER: I bought an airplane and never used it ... I think I had a seizure in it once. Cars that sat in the driveway 'cause I locked the keys in them, but they were so expensive I didn't want to break the windows. Now, I mean, look at that f**king piece (flashes enormous skull-head ring encrusted with diamonds). But the greatest gift of all was getting sober. It's a gift when you can get knocked to your knees, because if you're lucky, you get a chance to get back up again. I remember this story about a kid that had a million bucks and blew it all. And I remember telling people, "That'll never happen to me." but i did it. I had no band. my family was gone. I had a dealer and i was shootin' coke.

COMPLEX POP-NALYSIS: We presented Steven and rob with a series of photos and objects to see how they'd react--a live pop-culture remix covering everything from gary Coleman to Adidas shell toes. follow the bouncing ball...

THE WHITE STRIPES VS THE ROLLING STONES?
Tyler: My first thought is, White Stripes--don't know what you got; Rolling Stones--know what you got. And i like the White Stripes. It's good sh*t. I like that they went back to the roots. (Takes the album and examines it) Back when you could chop up the lines and snort it right off the record cover ... and listen to it.

TED NUGENT VS EMINEM?
Swift: Ted nugent--fun. Eminem--stress.
Tyler: I see, the good--Eminem--the bad and the ugly--Ted Nugent. Em is just, like vomiting his thoughts. I love that about him. Em tried. He tried a little bit too much, but he's f**kin' stressed out, he's pissed off and f**kin' real. We just did a song with him where he sampled "Dream on." In this business, you get ripped off and the blood sucked outta you--our first managers took 50 percent of the publishing, so every chance we get to re-record a song, we do it. When Em said he was gonna do "Dream on," I'm thinking, This guy's gonna sell some records, we'll go in and redo it. We re-sang it and joe (Perry) played some really dope sh*t on it and then Em said, "no, i want to use the original 'cause there's a vibe," so we went with that. He's a man. He says what he means. He's not swayed, doesn't give a sh*t what anyone says. there's something there that's missing in a lot of so)called art.

OZZY OSBOURNE VS KELLY OSBOURNE?
Swift: Kelly is the second coming of ozzy, and she knows that, when we become adults, we owe a lot of our parents, wether it's bad or good.

LATRELL STREWELL VS EARL "THE PEARL" MONROE?
Swift: Latrell's the thug. Earl The Pearl is traditional.

MICHAEL JORDAN VS LARRY BIRD?
Swift: It's funny, Michael should be the bird 'cause he's the one that flies. Larry LOOKS like a bird.

BRUCE LEE VS JET LI?
Swift: Passion for Bruce and stone could deadly fierceness for jet li.

MOHAMMED ALI VS MIKE TYSON?
Tyler: Wow. Ali is roots, tradition, gentleman, sense of humor, had his sh*t down. This motherf**ker (tyson) is bitin' people's ears.
Swift: Sign of the times.

GARY COLEMAN VS LIL BOWN WOW?
Swift: Gary coleman was taken advantage of. Lil' Bow Wow, taken care of.

JOHNY KNOXVILLE VS JIM CARREY?
Swift: Knoxville is, like, full-speed ahead. Jim carrey is controlled speed: he knows when to execute it.

GEORGE THE FATHER VS W?
Tyler: George bush the father is old-school. The son is fake-it-till-you-make-it.

TELLY SAVALAS VS MOBY?
Swift and Tyler: (stunned silence)

THE TOMMY LEE AND PAMELA SEX VIDEO VS THE R. KELLY PORN VIDEO?
Tyler: The flame of shame. I watched that Pamela Anderson video, and halfway through it, i thought, This is f**ked up: I'm watching somebody's stolen private porn, and then i got into it for what it was worth and we were on the plane watching it going, "f**kin'-A!"

COMPLEX
i was on the street the other day in New York and this homeless guy was like, "Excuse me sir, what do you think about the controversy with the "I can Fly" guy?" I was like, "I don't know, but there's a quarter."

Tyler: When I went to rehab, you know, for the drug addiction, i was fortunate enough to see the sexual problems faced by so-called sex addicts, and there were people in there that were watching their daughters get dressed and get f**ked by their boyfriend. And guys in there that would beat off in the playgrounds, watching little kids. And i thought, You know, you can almost understand, as a man, watching your offspring, 'cause she's grown up. i mean, Liv is gorgeous. You know i could forcefully, as i am today, turn away if she's naked .. but if you think about it, with a little booze she looks like the wife who you don't get along with anymore, and she's gorgeous and you take advantage of that and that's, therefore, hence all the "Janie's Got A Gun"s. And this guy R. Kelly, he just went off on all his emotions. I don't know if he was stoned or whatever, but he let the dark side of him get the best of him. He sings like an angel.

OJ VS ROBERT BLAKE?
Tyler: It's the year 2002 and they didn't give O.J. a drug test the f**king minute he walked in there? What is that?! It's bullsh*t. They would have found out that he had what's called toxic psychosis. To be able to slit somebody's neck to the bone .. it's sh*t in you. I talk to a therapist in L.A. that went to the jail with O.J.'s lawyers (and) sat in a cell with him--'cause they were looking for a contingency plan if he DID get busted, then they would be able to plead insanity--and they got a professional drug guy in there and apparently--I wan't there--he told me it was toxic psychosis syndrome.

TURNTABLES AND SAMPLES VS GUITAR AND DRUMS?
Swift: tools that have kept a lot of people out of jail.

8-TRACKS VS THE I-POD?
Swift: I look at that picture and i think, wow, how many 8-track tapes would i have to lug when I go on the road? I'd have to have a seperate bus.

PAC-MAN VS X BOX?
Swift: We used to get excitement and joy from these dots on a screen, but now Xbox is almost scary for me. it's just becoming realer and realer.

WRIST RESTRAINTS VS HANDCUFS?
Tyler: Depends on what you're into.
Swift: Those hurt, man, don't they?

HEATHER HUNTER VS LESBO EROTIC?
Tyler: Lesbo-erotic. I'm way into that. To be in the middle of that sh*t ..man.
Swift: Yo, i'm not large like that, so ... maybe one day i'll be that popular.

LARGER CONDOMS OR RIBBED?
Swift and Tyler: larger sized.

ECSTASY VS SPECIAL K?
Tyler: I've never done Ecstasy, but I have done ketamine. it'll take you to your knees. It's a liquid you put in a dish, you heat it, and then you scrape it off and you snort it. And you know, in the old days, when you did drugs, people always referred to it as if it was a one-hit. Coke never was. Ketamine, you do one--tiny, nothing--and you were, like, on the floor. It was, like, it's just so strong it's stupid.

POWDER COCAINE VS CRACK?
Tyler: Either way, it will steal your soul. Great goin' in, but death goin' out. there's a reason that priests and popes and f**kin' lawyers and presidents all do that stuff: 'cause it feels good, there's no doubt about it. It's just that then, here comes the devil, you keep doing this thing and it's so good and before you know it, you're dead.

VICODIN VS GOOD OLD-FASHIONED BONG HITS?
Tyler: i used to be addicted to that Vicodin, and then i had my ACL reconstruction. I tried doing one and i got so dizzy that i got sick to my stomach and i threw it out. But that's great stuff.
Swift: I never smoked weet.

RUN-DMC VS AEROSMITH?
Tyler: You know, i read some of the things that hurt me the most my whole career: someone was writing about Run dMC saying that we never gave them any credit. Working with those guys saved our careers.

RUN-DMC VS NAS?
Swift: I see run-DMC and i think, still developing, artwise. I see Nas and i see a clash of art and having to sell a platinum album--feeling the pressure to do that. Run-DMC did the music the way they wanted to. Nas is one of the most talented lyricists, but he might be feeling pressure from people, like, when you gonna sell a platinum album?

OLD-SCHOOL ADIDAS VS PHAT FARM KNOCKOFF?
Tyler: Which is the heavier sneaker?
Swift: When in doubt, stick to the traditional ways