THIS DAY IN HIP HOP: 30 years ago today in 1984, the sensation of Def Jam Records was born in an NYU dormitory room by a college student named Rick Rubin. Together with a young DJ Jazzy Jay, they would produce the first single record that would help to spawn the culture of a growing phenomenon called Hip Hop. That record was Its Yours by T La Rock & Jazzy Jay. Jazzy Jay would then introduce a young party promoter named Russell Simmons to his co-collaborator Rick Rubin and the rest is history. The distribution of Def Jam by independent Partytime Records was quickly dissolved by its two new owners (Rubin & Simmons) and became independent in its own right. The label face was redesigned with a wine-colored background and the first version of a turntables tonearm. Record #001 was released containing the first single called I Need A Beat by their first newly signed artist, a handsome young rapper from Hollis, Queens named Ladies Love Cool James aka LL Cool J. In 1985, Def Jam acquired a distribution deal with the major label Columbia Records. The label faces background would become black and the design of the trademark turntable tonearm was perfected. This symbol would become significant of the Def Jam label and still remains to this day as a part of its iconic logo. Def Jam went on to sign some of the most groundbreaking acts in Hip Hop such as Beastie Boys, Run-DMC and Public Enemy. The label is marked as THE first true successful Hip Hop record company and still remains as the original blueprint that all other Hip Hop record labels have modeled themselves after such as Ruthless, Cold Chillin, BadBoy, Roc-A-Fella, No Limit and recent examples such as the current magnate of Cash Money. By the time that Rick Rubin left Def Jam in 1988 to start his own imprint, American Recordings, Russell Simmons had already begun to morph the record label into a one-stop Hip Hop shop by expanding into artist management with RUSH Artist Management (Eric B & Rakim, EPMD, etc.) & the first ever true music producer management company, RUSH Producer Management, which molded the careers of producers such as Hank Shocklee (Bomb Squad), Daddy-O, S.I.D. Reynolds, Large Professor and myself (Easy Mo Bee) just to name a few. Im personally saying Happy 30th Anniversary to Def Jam and its original partners, Rick Rubin & Russell Simmons because if there never was a Def Jam there would also probably never have been a RUSH. RUSH Producers Management gave me my start and helped to put me on the map and for that I am eternally grateful. One thing always leads to another and Def Jam lead itself to me. Thank you, Def Jam... #Happy30thAnniversary #DefJam #30YearsLater #TheSagaContinues
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 15:05:05 +0000