Rick Rubin

The co-founder of the legendary Def Jam label, producer Rick Rubin was among the key figures behind the commercial and artistic rise of hip-hop, lending his signature rap/metal style to many of the biggest records of the pre-gangsta era. Born Frederick Jay Rubin on Long Island, NY, in 1963, he was attending New York University when he and Russell Simmons founded Def Jam in 1984. Operating the company out of Rubin's dorm room, they bowed with the T La Rock and Jazzy Jay single "It's Yours," issued in association with Partytime/Streetwise. By 1985 Def Jam entered into a distribution deal with Columbia, and the label also produced its own rap movie, Krush Groove; however, even from the outset, Rubin's interests extended well beyond hip-hop, and he raised more than a few eyebrows producing Hell Awaits for the thrash band Slayer later that same year.



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