11/13/2022 0 Comments Rick rubin def jam![]() ![]() The company soon graduated to a 600-square-foot former dance studio on Manhattan's East 19th Street (Simmons and future label executive Lyor Cohen shared an apartment next door).ĭespite the new address, the company was anything but conventional. Their first release was LL Cool J's "I Need a Beat" after the teen mailed his demo to Rubin's dorm room. "And there was no one else even in that business really except Russell. "Hip-hop was a tiny little cottage industry, and Russell was the center of the hip-hop world," Rubin said during the 2009 VH1 Hip Hop Honors program that celebrated the label's anniversary. His path soon crossed that of Simmons, himself a successful party promoter with an ear for a hit. What is now one of the largest labels in the world was initially a two-man operation featuring the forefathers, Rubin and Simmons.Īccording to the 2005 book "Def Jam, Inc.: Russell Simmons, Rick Rubin and the Extraordinary Story of the World's Most Influential Hip-Hop Label" by Stacy Gueraseva, Rubin was a film and video major at New York University in 1982 when he fell in love with rap music.Īfter parlaying the connections he made at clubs into party promotion, Rubin found success producing T La Rock and DJ Jazzy Jay's single "It's Yours." "Def Jam was the label that you kind of grew up with, so it was definitely a goal of mine to work here," Gousse said. Max Gousse, now an executive with the Island Def Jam Music Group, was a young man in the New York borough of Queens when he first fell in love with the tunes of Def Jam artists such as LL Cool J, Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys. When Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons joined forces to co-found the label, their business savvy - combined with their love of rap - resulted in a company that, despite changes in the music business and the label itself, retains a notable name. "It started from the same humble beginnings that all of those other companies started, very small, but very much passionate about the music." "Def Jam meant to the music industry as much as Stax, Atlantic and Motown meant to their respective music," said rapper Chuck D, whose group Public Enemy is one of the most famous to appear on the label. What began as a boutique indie label quickly caught the ear of a generation and elevated a style of music that had existed primarily in the clubs and block parties of the city boroughs into a thriving new genre. (CNN) - A recipe that includes a nondescript New York University dorm room, a heavyset Jewish kid from Long Island and a street-wise black guy from Queens seems like an unlikely one to cook up musical history.īut when Def Jam Records came on the scene a quarter of a century ago, it did just that and more. ![]()
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