Def Jams Movers & Shakers
25 People Who Helped Shape Def Jam Records
Celebrating the 25th anniversary of hip hop's most durable brand should not be taken lightly. Blackvoices.com pays homage to the 25 people out-front and behind-the-scenes who made a difference.
Def Jams Movers & Shakers
Since it was founded in 1984 in Rick Rubin's New York University dorm room, Def Jam Recordings has been home to some of the greatest artists in hip-hop music. Talented rappers and singers, from LL Cool J and Jay-Z to Patti LaBelle and Rihanna, have called the legendary record label home. In celebration of Def Jam's 25 years in the music business, Blackvoices.com takes a look at some of the important figures who have made the imprint what it is today.
Def Jams Movers & Shakers
Who: Russell Simmons
What: Around 1984, rapper Jazzy Jay introduced the Phat Farm clothing founder to Rick Rubin, and the two created Def Jam Records. LL Cool J, Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys were some of the early artists that Simmons signed. But his time with Def Jam ended in 1999, when he sold his stake in the company to Universal Music Group for $100 million.
Factoid: Pre-Def Jam, in the early 1980s, the Queens, NY, native spent his time as a concert promoter for early hip-hop acts like Kurtis Blow and Run-DMC – the latter act included his brother, Joseph DJ Run' Simmons.
Def Jams Movers & Shakers
Who: Rick Rubin
What: While attending New York University, he created Def Jam Records with Russell Simmons. Rubin was the Beastie Boys' original DJ and worked extensively with heavy metal groups, including Slayer, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica.
Factoid: Rubin came up with the idea of having Run-DMC cover Aerosmith's 'Walk This Way.' The 1986 version of the song became an MTV staple and made the Queens-bred trio crossover superstars.
Def Jams Movers & Shakers
Who: LL Cool J
What: Up until his most recent release 'Exit 13' last year, he remained Def Jam's longest-signed artist. The Queens rapper dropped out of school in 1985 to record his debut, 'Radio,' and has made a name for himself creating more pop-friendly rap songs that cater to women, including 'I Need Love,' 'Hey Lover' and 'Around the Way Girl.'
Factoid: LL Cool J has starred in the TV shows 'In The House,' Oz,' and 'NCSI: Los Angeles,' the movies 'Any Given Sunday,' 'Deep Blue Sea,' 'Krush Groove' and 'Last Holiday' opposite Queen Latifah.
Def Jams Movers & Shakers
Who: Beastie Boys
What: Rick Rubin signed the punk rocking rappers to Def Jam in 1984. Their big break would come in the form of 'Licensed to Ill,' the group's 1986 offering that became the best-selling rap album of the 1980s and the first rap album to hit number one on the Billboard album charts. It's recognized as the fastest-selling Def Jam debut to date.
Factoid: 'Licensed to Ill' sold more than 5 million copies and spawned the breakout single 'Fight for Your Right to Party.' But after it was released, the Beastie Boys ended their relationship with Rubin and signed with Capital Records.
Def Jams Movers & Shakers
Who: Alyson Williams
What: She's the first R&B artist signed directly to Def Jam Records.
Factoid: After singing background on classics such as Kurtis Blow's 'Basketball' and The Fat Boys ''The Fat Boys Are Back,' the Harlem native released three critically acclaimed opuses: 'Raw' in 1989, a self-titled 1992 set and 2005's 'It's About Time.' She remains a staple on the New York City live club scene.
Def Jams Movers & Shakers
Who: Public Enemy
What: Arguably one of the greatest hip-hop groups in history, Public Enemy had a long career at Def Jam Records. The label's co-founder, Rick Rubin, signed the New York rappers after hearing a demo of front man Chuck D freestyling. And the rest is history.
Factoid: Public Enemy's 'Fight the Power' became the theme song of Spike Lee's 'Do the Right Thing' movie in 1989. Coincidentally, PE's final Def Jam album was the soundtrack to Lee's 1998 film 'He Got Game.'
Def Jams Movers & Shakers
Who: Bill Bellamy
What: The soundtrack to Bill Bellamy's 1997 comedy 'How To Be A Player' was released by Def Jam. The gold-certified-album also included the hit song 'Big Bad Mamma' by Foxy Brown and Dru Hill, as well as tracks by Junior M.A.F.I.A. , Redman and 2Pac.
Factoid: The Newark, New Jersey native has deep roots with the Def Jam brand. He and his then-girlfriend Roceania Williams starred in the music video for the Alyson Williams song 'Can't Have My Man' in 1992. The former 'MTV Jams' VJ also was a part of the troupe of acclaimed comedians who appeared on the groundbreaking HBO series "Def Comedy Jam' in the early 1990s.
Def Jams Movers & Shakers
Who: Warren G
What: Long Beach, California-reared rapper Warren G is credited with reviving Def Jam Records. Shortly after PolyGram acquired the record label, Warren G released his debut, 'Regulate...G Funk Era.' The triple-platinum album boosted the infectious single 'Regulate' with Nate Dogg.
Factoid: Warren G (real name: Warren Griffin, III) appeared on season five of the hit VH1 reality series 'Celebrity Fit Club.'
Def Jams Movers & Shakers
Comments: (24)
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By: The Baby on 1/05/2011 4:35PM
I would set aside money for my childrens education and then with the help of my church I woud build and organization to help the youth who have been abused by getting them the services they need to be successful in life. I would buy buildings to provide housing to those youths and and education as well as learn a trade or provide funding for college. Then do the I would do the same for adults in order to provide a safe haven and help them begin again. I would adopt and help find parents for abused and or unwanted children in America of from all backrounds. If you dont start and help them as children first it becomes much harder when they becoe adults. I know this because I was once an abused child who became an abused adult like the ones I want to help.
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By: Steeler1 on 1/05/2011 4:52PM
THE COMMUNITY, within MY COMMUNITY, if I was SUPER RICH, would take the COMMUNITY in which I lived in that was not PROSPERING, would PURCHASE from the CITY and Have a COMMUNITY inside of a COMMUNITY, which I would eMPOWER people to be and to take PRIDE in their Own COMMUNITY, from POLICING, MEDICAL, GROCERY STORES, eNTERTAINMENT, our COMMUNITY WOULD HAVE a THEME name, we would SPREAD and Take over other COMMUNITIES!!!
This if I was SUPER DOOOPPER RICH!!!
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By: Vita on 1/27/2011 7:39PM
If we would all have the same sense of social responsibility in our communities, we will succeed. Community organizations need support. Our youth need local outlets and only a few of us are willing to support them. If we make business owners give back time and/or donations every week towards the community service centers where their business is located.
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By: DENISE WHITE on 1/05/2011 5:49PM
First, let me say we are all rich in that we are here each day. If I financially rich, I would remodel our family home to acommodate my aunt who is in a home and my mother who cannot live alone. I would give both my sons a start (investments, bought home and vehicle), each family would receive something of their choice (for the family). I would help my church, and my final wish would be to open group homes for pregnant teens who have no one to help them during and after the pregnancy.
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By: Ms. Lena on 1/06/2011 5:25PM
If I were super rich, I would travel the world with my family. I would establish an organization that would help homeless people. I would establish a soup kitchen and recreation center for they youth in my city. Help in the fulfillment of my Pastor's vision for the church. Establish a scholarship fund in my name for deserving high school children.
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By: Sharon Williams on 1/05/2011 6:40PM
If I were super wealthy, I would provide homes for the homeless as well as jobs and help those misplaced workers obtain the education to improve job skills.Instead of sending money to countries that are in poverty, I would literally adopt these children and provide a group home for all to live, get an education and have the best medical care possible. I would personally oversee it to make sure my wishes are being carried out to the letter.And of course, my own family will be well taken care of. This will be a family oriented organization.
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By: mdeborah827 on 1/05/2011 7:10PM
I would start buying up abandoned properties in our neighborhoods and rent them out at way below market rates just so people could get themselves together and catch a break and then start an effort to stop gentrification by helping poor and middle class black folks own the property, be aware of that nasty property tax hike to push you out and stop the yuppie scum that loves to interfere with us and push us out. Since I'm tired of seeing people from other countries own stores in our neighborhoods but treating us like crap, I would start an effort to buy them up, start small grocery stores and have the struggling farmers supply them and create more jobs that some swear we don't want to do, place poor families in the stores to run them and then assume ownership eventually thus creating a stronger middle class base. I would go into rougher areas and start businesses where we create everything you basically use on a daily basis so that we are now producers instead of always being consumers and run walmart and the like out of town. I would have each business create a fund (a susu) that helps to support everything from private schools that really teach the kids and adults to building our own hospitals and our own pharmaceutical company. I would create a car company that makes cars that run on something cheap and easy to get like rainwater and piss off every, money grubbing corporate bastard and turn the world upside down.
I would snatch the music industry away from the people who have basically killed it and let artists do what they are supposed to do.
No illegal immigrant would ever be able to undermine our jobs (because we always do terribly in times of high illegal immigration) because the industry we create would help and inspire my downtrodden fellow African American who has been abused when working while black.
I would create a home furnishing company and a few others so that inmates coming out would have a job of some sort and create very low cost decent housing so that they can afford to live somewhere where some of them can be watched and helped.
In every place where there is gentrification going on I would do my best to buy choice property and either rent it out or undersell it to lower the property costs.
I would make sure that small black businesses would have a fund to turn to for small loans to expand. I would snatch the black beauty business from the Koreans and bring them to their knees and ensure that no black woman again ever has to go to a nail salon where she would be cursed out like some subhuman. I would start a chain of movie theaters in black communities that showcase our stories from all over and shake up the control that the big movie houses have on independent theater and all the garbage they put out plus help put our beautiful black people to work on cutting edge story telling. I would name each theater after one of the many successful black townships started by freed slaves that were economically independent and then burned down to the ground. I would do my absolute best to resurrect the memory of them. I would ensure that all foreign blacks are aware of how their predecessors here worked hard in the civil rights movement and to stop sucking their teeth and being resentful towards Black Americans. I would remind Black Americans of that past and that there is a framework there.
I would do my best to inspire the rude Latinos in my neighborhood to seek higher thinking, realize my black self is not in their way and to work on a cutting edge plan to take over their homelands and return armed with a plan to seize it from the dirty bastards that keep them hungry, desperate and downtrodden and take it over with a plan to stop making so many damned miserable babies, have a serious education and industrialization plan to employ and house everyone there and raise the standard of living without killing the environment and stop mistreating the black mexicans especially in vera cruz.
I would inspire the trouble making Latinos in my neighborhood that scream and holler to turn their backs on Spain and let Spain know about it.
I would start a national effort to make Black people in America realize that it was you who literally build the darn country and to go back to making everything. I would find ways to get us to become highly creative again, start making everything under the sun, start stores that have everything made in America and start a national movement to stop the outsourcing.
Plus, all my properties would be run on mostly solar power and the like to upset the power companies that charge too much.
There is a lot more but you see where I'm going with this.
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By: joe bethea on 1/05/2011 7:23PM
what would he do if he was not ripping off poor black people with his rush card
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By: zoner on 1/07/2011 3:42PM
I thought the exact thing when I saw that commercial. What a nerve asking such a question right after sponsoring that credit card that targets black people knowing once people have it they will reduce themselves in more debt. Congradulations Simmons, You Are A Sell Out! If you want a credit card, choose one with the best terms not the one who has your favorit whatever that endorses it.
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By: Good1 on 1/05/2011 8:31PM
If i were super rich I would finish school first. Once I finish school then the magic happens, I would share my education with the kids since they are our future. I would invest in those same kids to show them that their dreams can come true no matter how many times someone tells you no. Then I would jump over and help the eldery, because my grandmothers should not have to decide whether they eat or pay for medicines that they need. Really, the people that set the foundation for this country is not being treated fairly and this is non-sense, then I would invest in small businesses beacuse people are going through real life, they are out of work and that's not cool. Last but not least, single mothers. I would help them be all that they can be, whether going back to school, finding decent housing, jobs, whatever it takes for them to provide for their self and kids. Last finally , the love of my life (my son) I would send him away to get the best education that money can buy, teach him how to be a man and provide for hisself, family, and his people.
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