Formed in Austin, Texas, in summer 2010, RUN DMT is the project of American producer and DJ John Robbins. Its early releases included the 2011 EPs Drop Top and Madness, with the latter appearing through Play Me Too Records. Robbins’ productions draw on dubstep, drumstep, trap, moombahton and downtempo, while his work has also crossed into drum and bass and jungle. The project’s releases have appeared through Mad Decent, Play Me Records, Dim Mak and Heavy Artillery. Robbins’ performance work has taken RUN DMT to Electric Daisy Carnival, Camp Bisco, Coachella and Wakarusa.
In June 2012, RUN DMT released the album Union of Opposites, featuring Chali 2na, DJ Swamp and Zeale. The following year brought the self-titled album RUN DMT on 4th Wall, Robbins’ own label. In a 2013 interview, he described that record as a meeting point for dubstep, trap, hip-hop and drum and bass. His official remixes have included work connected to The Who, Major Lazer, Diplo, Bassnectar, Asking Alexandria, Twenty One Pilots and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. He also wrote an official track for the Mortal Kombat soundtrack.
The album Revolutionaire arrived in 2017 on Kill Your Ego, bringing together dubstep, drum and bass, jungle, halftime and riddim. Its collaborations include Barrington Levy and Vorso. That year, the project also issued Revolutionaire Re-Imagined Vol. 1 and Revolutionaire Re-Imagined Vol. 2 through the same label. Elsewhere, Robbins joined Barrington Levy and Dirt Monkey on the track “Rhythm Runners”, and teamed with Stephan Jacobs for the 2015 single “PEYOTE”.
By 2023, Robbins was releasing music as deemster, which he described as a new artistic direction after RUN DMT.