July 13, 2023 • 36 mins
The most cutting-edge rap label Def jam Recordings has grown into global brand. Founded in 1984 by Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin, Def Jam Records roster of artists include LL Cool J, Run DMC, Slick Rick, The Beastie Boys, Jay-Z, Rihanna, Kanye West and many more. For more than three decades Def Jam has established its dominance in music and Hip-Hop culture. Episode guests include Fat Joe. Ed Lover. Ashanunna Ayers. LL Cool J. Shaheem Reid. Russell Simmons. Grand Wizard Theodore. Kurtis Blow. Shanti Das.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
From I Heeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I Am five five Freddy and this is fifty years
of hip hop podcast series. The most cutting edge rap
label with our question deaf Jam Recordings.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
It's worldwide.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Founded back in nineteen eighty four by Russell Simmons and
Rick Rubert, death Jam has given us major acts showing
enough one hundred percent superstars like Ll cool J, Beastie Boys,
Slick Rick, Public Enemy, Rihanna, Kanye West, and many more.
This is death Jam Recordings, hip hop's most iconic label.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
SHAUTI das music industry executive.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
I mean they're innovators of hip hop. You know, hip
hop wouldn't be where it is today if Russell Simmons,
you know, hadn't have had the.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Foresight to do what he did.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
When you think about labels and genres of music, like,
to me, death Jam is to hip hop. It's what
Motown was to R and B music right for Black
Americans and so being able to break artists very early on.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Like a run DMC.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
And I think what a large part of what death
Jam did not only just coming with great artists, death
Jam knew how to market the artists from a hip
hop perspective. And I think Russell Simmons and Death Jam
were responsible for making hip hop a global phenomenon is
if you remember when Run DMC, you know, we're at
(01:43):
the height of their career. They did that deal with Adidas.
We had never seen anything like that, or they did
these matchups with rock artists, like you never saw hip
hop infused with another genre and so that was like
brown breaking for the genre. And so they put hip
hop on global stage. That's what Russell Simmons did, and
(02:04):
you know he was one of the best to ever
do it.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Russell Simmons record executive and entrepreneur oh Rick Rubin, he.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
Said it was earlier at Graffiti Rock, but I wouldn't
know him. Some kid comes up to me, some white kids, saying, oh,
I love rap. But then I the way I remember
meeting Rick Ruben was I heard the record It's.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Yours What's that?
Speaker 5 (02:32):
And I Daddy Jason, I know, and Yaddy d brought
it and I was like, this made It's yours white
and it was him. It was Rick Rubin and played
me all the you know, for me, I was really
a B boy back then, Like the records I really
cared about and everything else was kind of like that
was commercial.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Like that was commercial.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
Doc m S was part of Percent from the Heart
and it spoke to a hole in the market. Knowing
made record like that sound anything like that. And then
Rick had a drum machine full of beats. I mean
beat was a hit in my mind. And then I
started to manage him and the Beastie Boys, and then
we found Aloka at King ad Rock found Llokoo Jay's tape,
(03:15):
and then that was it. You know, that was the
beginning of he was gonna start. He was starting a label.
He had the logo Depth Jam, but he wanted to
start an independent label and he wanted me to be
his partner. I was gonna already make a deal for
Rush Records because we had so many artists that we
were such a big management company and hip hop. We
were patrolling that he might even save culture. But the
(03:38):
beats he made and the stuff he was doing was fascinating,
so I said, I just share with him, and I'll
still manage, and I'll just put money in his lapel.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
We put in three five hundred dollars apiece I think we.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
Put out I Need a Beat by and ad Rock
found him. It was a version of I need a beat,
but Rick reproduced it and well Darren was the first
def Jam record independent. Well, I didn't have any talent,
you know. I produced records that was artist street, that
was about ball. I wrapped on some records for the
(04:11):
fun of it, a couple one with l oh Cool
J and one with Jazzy J. But no, I never
had I still can't there they'll beat. I ain't never
been no rhythm, you know. I mean, but I could.
I really made good records, and people don't know that
I was produce. I like sometimes slip that in. I
made that record, I wrote that. But I can say
that sometimes good people, you know, like running See we
(04:32):
made two albums before we met RICRU and you know,
Larry Smith and I made those records and we made
them unique.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
You know, there's some records we've made with MC, where's
the music said? And ten people begging me, we're gonna
play the base line ain't got no baby. That is itself.
The simplicity of that suck MC record was unique.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
Taking the record and scratching on top of record in
a recording studio was never done.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
We made Jam after J it was new, you know,
check off the ship we may know that for the job, and.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
Yeah, I would saying that I produced a bunch of
records and I started producing records like Alison Williams.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
She had a couple of hits, especially in Europe, but
it was me producing records.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
I produced a Blue Magic album This is Perfect, and
Rick produced The Headless Horseman and a bunch of his
hit was Slayer.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
My hit was Jukes Jones and Aliston and so I.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
Spent a lot of time doing my choledge and he
spent a lot of time doing his challenge.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
And then who was running the ship?
Speaker 5 (05:37):
So I bore in the l A posse could make
LL's second album. They did a good job, very different
from what Rick would have made, right, but it was
all LL. The inspiration came from LL. So in a
record like I Need Love played, you know, it was
not something Rick would have made, and he kind of
you know, it showed, you know, we're becoming companied now
to manage the.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Process more than to make it.
Speaker 5 (05:59):
Rick, although he was always going to be one of
the great produced of all time, he was off making
heavy metal. So we separated at that time and that's
when we started to really I think depth Jem started
to really excel, because that's when we started to become up.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Machine.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Music producer Rick Rubin and music manager and producer Russell
Simmons co founded Depth Jam Records, only to become creators
of hip hop's most prominent record label. Russell Simmons, a
young black kid from Queens, New York, would be a
part of designing the blueprint to commercial success in rap music.
LL cool J actor, rapper, entrepreneur considered one of the
(06:39):
best to ever do it.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
It's funny, you know when it first started.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
You know, first of all, I went I went up
to Rick Storm, you know, saying went up in the dorm.
Ad Rock had played, you know, the Beast of Boys
had played my demo team for Rick Rubin.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Ad Rock actually programmed to beat on my first song,
I Need to Beat.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Rick Rubin produced it like spectacularly, did a great job,
add kind of program the programming. Jason Jay did the
cut and but before that we did a song called
catch This Break. We went over to Russell's office and
it's so funny, had an office like one secretary of him,
and he's in there and we played.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
The demo for him.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
He's like, ah, the same old sound like the Churcher's
three so like a Samuel' fak. So me and Rick
looked at each other and was like, oh yeah, so
we were back in the studio. Made I Need a Beat.
When he earned I Need a Beat, he was like okay, yeah,
And they decided to make their own record because they
were labeled, because Rick was having problems getting money from
Party Times street Wide because remember he just had a
(07:33):
production deal with them, he didn't have a label. So
we did that and the rest was history. Ashannaz music
executive and founder of the Heirs Agency.
Speaker 6 (07:44):
Russell Simmons is what we call the godfather of hip hop. Ambitious,
brilliant man from Queens where I'm from Queen's get the
money from Queens who started a record label with his
friend and their college dorm. They laid the foundation for
what the business of music or hip hop music looks
(08:08):
like for generations and generations and generations. They were visionaries
and understood the value of hip hop and built a
business that millions and billions and billions of people are
benefiting from today.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Shahim read music journalists.
Speaker 7 (08:27):
Wow, when you think about deaths, then you got to
say that to me, that's the most started label out there, right.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
I mean, you.
Speaker 7 (08:37):
Definitely got other labels, But to me, Russell Simmons and
with Willman, they they loved the blueprint for everything that's
going on, as far as having your label, as far
as having superstar artists, as far as putting the power
into the artist's hands, as far as putting up the
power into your hands as an executive. These are guys
(08:59):
that started one of the most powerful entities and most
one of the most influential entities, and all of them,
not just hip hop, but black culture period. When you
look at everything that spawned off from Death Damn Death,
Promy Jan clothing behind it, you know, just everything. And
these are guys who they were selling rapports out of
(09:23):
Rick Willman is DRM well olegend.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Rick Wilvern went on.
Speaker 7 (09:27):
To be a super successful and impactful producer. Russell is
one of our great success stories as black people. When
you look at this is this is a kid from Queen's.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Fat Joe, recording artists, Bronx, hip hop legend and author
me and you.
Speaker 8 (09:46):
Wouldn't have a job if it wasn't for Russell Simmons
because he took hip hop to the next level. Of
where you could actually make a living and pay bills.
And so before that we had the underground rappers to
Drammaster kaz is that this step he made it mainstream.
He wasn't closed minded. He had run DMC, work with
(10:09):
Walk this Way. You know, they signed the Beastie Boys,
They invent the Death Jab Records to where that is
the prototype for all record labels and boutiques like you know,
like a terror squad, like a rocketfeller, like a rough Riders.
So so deaf on this, you know. He showed us
(10:33):
how to be entrepreneurs. He showed us how to get
to the back. He taught us how to dream, be
and be visionary and be creatives, to imagine that we
can be bigger than we ever be in our life.
And so I personally have never made one dollar with
Russell Simmons. I have never done business with him, but
(10:55):
to this day I attribute my success to Russell Simmons,
and she showed us away.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Curtis Bloom, legendary rapper and hip hop's first rap superstar.
Speaker 7 (11:05):
Oh Def Dam became the label that Russell and I
dreamed about when we were in college. During that time
are related to a movie The Star Wars the Jedi Knights.
See that was the name of the basketball team at
City College, the Jedi Knights, and so we all became
(11:28):
Jedi Knights, and we went to those movies and I
was Curtis sky Walker.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
We had an.
Speaker 7 (11:34):
Obie Wan Canobe. His name was Bob Loane Russell. Funny story,
we called Russell c three Bo because he was always talking.
He was a talker. He was the Blonnie Stone. Russell
was a great communicator. And so during those times when
(11:56):
we figure it out and Star Wars, you know that
part of they talk about the planet All Duron. That's
where the home base of the Jedi Knights, and so
our dream of success was going to All do We're
trying to get to all Doroon. So that was our mission.
You know, success was all garnt for us, and Russell
(12:21):
did it. We all owe him gratitude and a big
thanks and give him his flowers because he did it.
He made it happen. Along with le Or Cohen and
also Rick Rubin, they took this idea, this dream, this wish,
(12:43):
and it made it a reality. I remember Russell going
over to the Grammys and protesting the Grammys with picted
signs and all that, trying to say we need a
rap category, you know, we need a wrap award, you know,
and stuff that fighting when it was unheard of, and
(13:04):
they put this man out. You know, now you see
him front row. He's sitting at the Grammys, right and
the Oscars and all that. So man, you made it, Russell,
you did it. My hat goes off to you all
the wrong babies.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
How sea is?
Speaker 6 (13:23):
I think LLL from the perspective of you know, deaf
jam and hip hop, I think he showed what the
commercial viability of hip hop was. I think you know,
his you know, the songs, the record sales, radio airplay,
like all of those things, I think showed what commercial
(13:44):
success looked like for hip hop. There were hip hop
artists obviously before him, but I think he was the
first to have like massive global commercial success and that
was important because I think again, like that said, the
tone for what the future of hip hop looked like
from a commercially viable standpoint, from a you know, not
(14:07):
just developing you know, these successful you know rappers, but
also building businesses and establishing careers and employees being able
to see their families. Like it wasn't just the success
of LLL himself and what that looked like for the
rap community or the rap genre. But it was also
(14:28):
like it built a sustainable business that allowed, you know again,
allowed for a murder ink to exist, allowed for a
death row to exist, and all of the employees and
people that came from those companies to have thriving jobs
and legacies for years and years and years to come.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
LLL Cool jet Rick was had a very specific taste
and he also was able to translate the things that
me or my friends would want him to do. So
I'd be like, yo, Rick, I would hum a beating
and he would play the bat. I would tell him,
you'll do it like this, and he would do it.
So he was really expressing a lot of my stuff,
my ideas, and then he would take my ideas and
(15:10):
he would make the better.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
He would enhance them as a producer and take them
to another level. And that's how it was. It was crazy.
It was a math.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Russell Simmons hellow Pool.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
Jay was when most sounds and Boltless, I mean run
used to always say that's the guy at the best
vocless and he was young both his next generation that
not not only he was the first one that really
I think that I worked with that really spoke to
the recording generations. Run remember was a rapper before they
were rap records. Was DJ Run from Curtis Flow that
(15:43):
just goes done and Curdy Flow. So they all came
from the ballroom and the performing art. Ello pool J
was a recording art. He heard records to make him
make a record. They heard tape to make them make
their performances and eventually their record. So Old Cool J
for me was the first artist that I mad July
Foe percent to the next generation, the first generation of
(16:08):
hip hop as a recording art.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Ll cool J.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
I mean I made ten platinum albums in a row.
Be that's pretty good for coming for an independent label.
Have an artist come out and make ten platinum albums
in a row. At that time, it wasn't gonna be
no number one spect It was hip hop. This was
rap music. It was no pop radio play. There was
no you know, you get a little bit of airplayer
on the weekend. And I made ten number one albums
(16:33):
in a row. So that's a big, big important thing
for the LABE from a label side. Now in terms
of hip hop showing people that you could be legitimately
and I say this would humility, but that you could
really be a rap star, like like I showed people
how to be a rap star be there was no
real rap stars before me.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
They were except for run DMC as a group.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
And it was a little different because my thing struck
a little different chord because I struck the teen heartthrob
chord and the like the cultural rhyming chord.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
It was a little different, right.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
So I'm like, I'm on the cover with new addition,
you know what I'm saying, Like I'm you know, I'm
on magazines with new addition.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
I'm on magazines with Michael Jackson.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
So you have to think about it, like like you
have to think about it like that. So and then
what I did was I showed people that you could
have emotional intelligence. I introduced like it was guys who
wrapped the females on records before, you know, like introducing
the love thing to the game, like before I made
I Need Love and before I started really embracing the
females even on my B sides, like I want you
(17:40):
on the other side of the B side of dangerous
dudes weren't comfortable with that and that was a whole
dimension of hip hop that was not open. The only
one that would dabble in it a little bit more
would be Spoony G. But he was still keeping it.
He wasn't He was never allowing himself to be vulnerable.
So so I really like opened up the world of
(18:04):
you know, love, the idea of love being introduced to hip.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Hop like I did that.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
I did, oh man, so many memories.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I was definitely deep in the mix at that time
and seeing all this go down first hands. Let me
tell you my little story about me Rick Rubin for
the first time. I was at the Roxy one night
back in the early eighties and a record came on
which really made me freeze in my steps. It was
the record was It's yours right, Tiga Rock, And I'm.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
Like, what is this record? Right?
Speaker 2 (18:37):
So I go up to the DJ and I said, yo, man,
like what is this? Like what he says, Yo, it's
this new record is yours? I said, who made this?
And he pointed to this group He said, this guy
over here, And I saw several people over there and this,
you know, several black folks and this white guy.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
And I was like, who who?
Speaker 4 (18:54):
And he was like this guy right here, straight up.
It was the white guy.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
And I went over and I introduced myself. It was
Rick Rubin, and Rick was really cool.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
And it was like I told him who I was,
you know, he knew who I was, and he invited
me to his dorm room at m YU University, a
small dorm room with his little small bed and a
DJ turntable set up and a drum machine and boom.
I definitely saw the beginning of deaf jam records, and
it was brilliant the way Rick.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
And Russell linked up with each other because.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Rick had a you know, understood like you know, pop
music and the formula of making a tight four minute
record like a record because rappers at that time, some
of the first rap records came out, people would wrap
it for ten and fifteen minutes. And Rick had a
sense of how to shape this into something that was
a much tighter, more condensed, explosive basically hit records that
(19:53):
could that could work on radio and work everywhere else.
It was pretty amazed at the seed beginnings of at
and where Rick.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
And Russell took it to Russell Simmons.
Speaker 9 (20:03):
Well, of it was hip hop, but you know, I
met people who inspired me to Quincy Jones to the world.
They tried to remind me that it was nothing new
when music doing the same thing when evolved, reminded me
of the jazz era Loui Ro you know, okay, here
black music doing it again.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
And they gave me perspective and you know.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
Instead of being you know, cocky and young, they gave
me another perspective, which I was cocky and young, but
they gave me another perspective that how I fit in history.
Quincy Jones took me the Beastie Boys, Fellow Pool, Jay
Tela Robbs, Run DMC. I'm trying to think that Rick
was bit but he joined us about Christal Champaign took
(20:46):
it all out.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
He wanted to know. It was late about eighty five.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
I remember playing turn on the radio and run DMC
record played, and Quincy's got my House and get ready
to go to Dinner played in the demo for Orange
Juice Jones walking into Ain't I had just produced.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
We went to Dinner, But all Rush Band took a
lot of art.
Speaker 5 (21:06):
Again, there were so many that were pioneers and had
records on a different label.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
So remember we met Big Daddy Kane and Eric p
and rocked him and.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
We managed the Day of Soul and tried for a
quest and we managed and we rushed management with all
of that depth.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
Jem felt like all of that too, because we're all family,
all wore Dept. JM jacket. It was the cultural movement.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
We were part of a family and the Slick Rakes
and you know Big Daddy Kane where you know, they
were the same right even though we couldn't. And I
never felt as a manager, I never felt any different
between those who are my label and those who I
just managed.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Well.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
My family, the Rush family was expensive and plenty. Joels
fed all of them and he inspired me so many
ways because he gave me for respective and that helped
me a little bit over the years a lot over
the years.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Grant was It Dead or pioneering hip hop DJ credited
as the inventor of the scratching technique.
Speaker 7 (22:04):
Not only is in Russell and Rick Rudman. One of
the ultimates is such stories, but you could just look
at them for inspiration. Man, Like, there's a lot of
people that want to do stuff and that could actually
do it, but it's scared to do it. And there's
people that can actually do it. They're not scared to
(22:25):
do it, but they're too stubborn or too proud to
team up with somebody. These people form the team. And
when you look at the death Jam family tree, there
was a record label, there was also a management team.
You understand, like they manage leaders of the New School,
trip or Request and from that, the family tree that
(22:48):
they have is nothing but hall of fame. It's like
death Jam, you can't really say enough. And when you
look at the catalog that they have from LL Cool
J Slick with Public Enemy, Rick Ross red Man, that's
that man, the Rockefeller Record Label, jay Z and everything
(23:09):
that he did after reasonable doubt, Kanye West, job Role Science,
he Murder, and DMX with Rough Fridays. These guys not
only did they make and again, this is something that
we keep talking about, is that it's something special when
(23:31):
you're making classic music, but it's also extra extra special
when you're making classic music and you're implementing a business infrastructure.
Like they showed us not just how to get it
as artists, but how to get it as businessmen and
business women.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
A Shana is I.
Speaker 6 (23:52):
Think deaf Jam any any relation to def Jam being
an artist or an employee. It's a badge of honor.
It's a club, a community, a college. It's almost like
pledging if you were a part of Death Jam then
or now, it's a badge of honor for the music business.
It represents a certain level of excellence, It represents a
(24:14):
certain purity, a certain attachment to the culture or or
not even attachment, symbolism that you're a culture creator, like
you are driving.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
The culture forward.
Speaker 6 (24:26):
Death Jam was the leader in driving the culture forward
and being a part of it in any way, be
it you know, as a musician, as an artist, as
an executive, meant that you were a part of a
team that was driving culture forward.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Das it was just their flavor. Like for example, when
I worked in New York, Damn had this Christmas party
every year, like they always had their hand on the
pulse of the culture.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Everybody always wanted to go to.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
The Deaf Jam parties and the Deaf Jam vents because
they know how to do it on the big scale.
And I have to shout out one of my former mentors,
Kevin Lyles, who used to be president of Death Jam Records.
Like if Kevin hosted an event at a music conference,
you knew all the like cool people were gonna be there,
like all the actors.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
He brought people in from other worlds.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Like they mixed fashion and hip hop and art, and
you had all the cool people. And that was to me,
that was really utilizing hip hop in a way that
hadn't been done before. That's when we really knew that
hip hop was currency, right, hip hop was big business,
and so that's when you started seeing a lot of
you know, sneaker brands and spirit brands and other people
(25:40):
want to collaborate with these artists because death Jam not
only was good with the music, but again they were
good with the marketing and promotions. And so that's something
that we always looked to and I was like, how
do they do it? Like they mixed the world together,
and they really they have to shape what culture looks
like for us to this day, because again, the culture
and the currency is music, fashion, in sports, it's entertainment.
(26:01):
But Death Jam was really at the forefront of that,
putting their artists in other rooms that people in the
genre hadn't necessarily been exposed to before.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
I think Snoop.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
Dogg does a great job of it now and how
he's expanded his brand, but early on, I don't think
anybody did it like death Jam in terms of being
able to cross collaborate and bring those worlds together. And
so that was what was cool. It was like going
to a deaf Jam event. You just felt like, Wow,
this is the culture.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
This is it.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
This is where we all want to be. Athletes want
to be artists. Artists want to be athletes. And it
was nothing to like look up and seeing an NFL
player or NBA star or seeing death Jam artists participate
in NBA All Star Weekend. Like they really started a
lot of that from a cultural perspective, and I think
that really also helped catapult the genre to a global
(26:51):
status and put us in other worlds and in corporate
America and making these big.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Deals that we hadn't seen that before.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
So that was Russell, That was you know, Rick, that
was Kevin Laws, all those folks, Ronnie coll and Tracy Waypool's,
all those folks who worked over there, like they really
had the blueprint down for like how to work records,
but also how to market them and how to bring
the culture together to how a good time and to
make good money and to make good records.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Ed Lover, rapper, actor, radio personality, and former.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
MTV v J.
Speaker 10 (27:24):
Oh my God, it's that deaf Jam is everything. There
was a time and if you wasn't on deaf Jam,
you wasn't really on the label. And even though Running
It was on Profile, it was almost like they were
on deaf Jam because that was Russell's brother. And I
think for Russell, of them got a lot of credit
because they did manage Running D for a while. And
I think Russell and Rick Rubin, the music that they
(27:48):
were able to create. The stuff that Rick Rubin was
able to create as a producer is still unmatched to
this day. Russell's business acumen learning on the fly. It's
not like he's you know, he's a graduate of Wharton
School of Business. But it's just a street wise, dope,
dope dude that was smart enough to see that Rick
was doing something or going somewhere and made Deaf Jam
(28:12):
Records and it is probably the most important hip hop
label ever because everybody else wanted to have.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
A label because of Death Name.
Speaker 10 (28:21):
You know, Tommy Boy put out a lot of dance records,
Electro Funk Records, Sleeping Bag, everybody put out a lot
of different kinds of music. Death Jam for a long
time was strictly hip hop before they started dabbling into
R and B. That was just like the ultimate hip
hop label. Dude, I can't tell you what year it was,
(28:42):
but I remember when they gave me a deaf Jam jacket,
like they gave me a deaf damn jacket. That jacket
was that was part of the club. If you had
a death Jam jacket which your name on it, Oh
my god.
Speaker 7 (28:56):
Wow.
Speaker 10 (28:57):
So deaf Jam for us was everything, and especially from
us from Queens because it was Russell. He's from Hollands,
He's from out Oot, so that's what made it even bigger.
And my sister used to work at deaf Jam at
the front desk, and so it's all full circle. Man.
Deaf Jam meant everything to us. It was the premier
(29:18):
hip hop label, the premier label. The best of the
best were on deaf Jam.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
I shun it is.
Speaker 6 (29:24):
I think it's safe to say that deaf Jam was
at the forefront of disruptive marketing for sure, things like
street teams, things like you know, merch, you know brand
The deaf Damn jacket was something that you know, people
would pay for back then, massive billboards and just kind
of over the top, like grassroots street marketing is the
(29:49):
deaf Jam way. And I definitely think it influenced how
not just record companies, but how any brand who wanted
to reach that hip hop community began to mark it
after seeing the way Death Jam.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Marketed Shaheim Weed music journalists.
Speaker 7 (30:05):
They've empowered so many greats from our culture that have
empowered other people. And it's the gift that keeps on giving.
You know, so many women that work that Death Jam,
so many young people that work that Death Jam. And
it's not just the music. Music. Music is fantastic. You
(30:27):
look at the Death Jam catalog and it's it's in
this classic's young jeezy, you know, it's inless classes. But
you gotta also look at the people and what it
meant Like Death Jam meant us as young even though
Rick Ruben was white, right, it just meant like us
(30:47):
as young rebels doing what we wanted to do. And
it wasn't reckless. It wasn't reckless. These guys were successful.
It wasn't like, oh, we just gonna give these young kids.
Let's see what these young kids do with tens of
millions of dollars. Nah, they pulled their money together the
Soul records, and then when he started getting all of
(31:10):
the millions of dollars, they started doing like all of
these other businesses across Rick Rubin. He stepped away from
death Gym and he started doing his own thing. And
then it was more like Russell Simmons, Kevin Lows and
le Or Cohen that was doing it. Then you know
later Mike Kayser and Julie and all of these people.
But this is a young young black kid from from
(31:32):
queens Man, Russell, and he built the empire like this
is This is the stuff that has influenced every executive
in the game. They've all looked at Russell Simmons at
a point, I don't care what, I don't care who
you are.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Black, all white.
Speaker 7 (31:50):
Everybody that came up after Russell had to look at
this man as being one of the blue prints.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Russell Simmons, we had office all over the wall.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
We have offices today, my office gutshtout I was talking about.
We're in thirteen eleven countries.
Speaker 5 (32:05):
They're a deaf jem office in almost every World Asian country,
eleven ten of the countries of East Asian we have
two officers in America, but jen of the eleven countries
are in East Asia. They're a deaf Gym office in
every country, and hip hop is prominent in every country.
The biggest show in China called The Wrap of China
one show, first episode, a billion people going. They're only
(32:28):
three hundred million in America. So the impact of hip
hop globally, deaf Gym has been there as part of
the staying the taste.
Speaker 4 (32:37):
So it had a good impact.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
You know, it was alone when we were doing what
we were doing international, and it was kind of alone
we were doing in America for a very long time
because we saw the artists as not disposable. We sought
them as as great artists with long term possibility, and
the labels thought them as twelve inch autist that would
make a recorded We'd get the next records in somebody else.
(33:03):
We built album and careers, We managed images. We took
the people who made the mean seriously and that's what
made Rush Management special, and that's what made Death Damn
special too. That same mentality, Now, whoja not here for
this single I need a beat, but for the album
Radio and Run.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
DMC was an album, not a record with.
Speaker 5 (33:25):
An artist that would be here for years, and so
we had that lead good luck, good watching to see
that crystal clear to me.
Speaker 4 (33:32):
But it was at the time very different thinking.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Man, so many amazing memories, so much incredible work, does
so many major doors broken down, kicked in, opened up
wide to let us in, made by Deaf jam.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
And one of the most important groups is Public Enemy.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
The impact the voice that conscious hip hop hit so
hard at.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
A critical time.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
And I was honored to get the show that stuff
on my show, your MTV raps. But it was amazing
to have Rick Rubin tell me one day how Public Enemy.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Rick had heard a little.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Bit of a demo that they used on their college
radio station. And Rick Rubin, for almost an entire year
called Chuck d relentlessly to try to get him to
come in and make an album. And Chuck, who was
probably about twenty one at the time, felt like he
was actually too old because LLLL had just hit and
(34:31):
ll hit the game hard at sixteen seventeen years old,
you know what I'm saying. But Rick's persistence with what
Public Enemy became and Chuck said, man, okay, give me
this budget and step back and let us do our thing.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
And that's the story behind Public Enemy.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Once again, impactful group and the message that they had
a lot of people would not have been ready to
get down and to push a group like that message
so strong and so clear. Once again, another tribute to
what def JM did, thankfully and Rick Rubins just you know,
instincts and intuition to like let Public Enemy go and
(35:12):
do what they did. Fight the power. On the next
episode of the fifty Years of Hip Hop podcast series,
The Shipping Hill Gangs, Rap is Delight had the first
music video, but it wasn't until six years later when
MTV Network's first show dedicated entirely to rap music hit
the screen.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
Y'all know what that is.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
This next episode is going to remind this so the
first rap video to make its way into MTV's rotation
run DMC's Rock Box, and that was also back in
nineteen eighty four. And the journey of a show that
launched as an experiment only to become and hit and
you know I'm talking about yo. This episode has been
(35:54):
executive produced by Dolly S. Bishop, hosted and produced by
your Boy Fab five Freddy, Produced by Aaron A.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
King Howard.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Edit mixed sound by Dwayne Crawford, music scoring by Trey Jones,
Talent booking by Nicole Spence,
From I Heeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I Am five five Freddy and this is fifty years
of hip hop podcast series. The most cutting edge rap
label with our question deaf Jam Recordings.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
It's worldwide.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Founded back in nineteen eighty four by Russell Simmons and
Rick Rubert, death Jam has given us major acts showing
enough one hundred percent superstars like Ll cool J, Beastie Boys,
Slick Rick, Public Enemy, Rihanna, Kanye West, and many more.
This is death Jam Recordings, hip hop's most iconic label.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
SHAUTI das music industry executive.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
I mean they're innovators of hip hop. You know, hip
hop wouldn't be where it is today if Russell Simmons,
you know, hadn't have had the.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Foresight to do what he did.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
When you think about labels and genres of music, like,
to me, death Jam is to hip hop. It's what
Motown was to R and B music right for Black
Americans and so being able to break artists very early on.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Like a run DMC.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
And I think what a large part of what death
Jam did not only just coming with great artists, death
Jam knew how to market the artists from a hip
hop perspective. And I think Russell Simmons and Death Jam
were responsible for making hip hop a global phenomenon is
if you remember when Run DMC, you know, we're at
(01:43):
the height of their career. They did that deal with Adidas.
We had never seen anything like that, or they did
these matchups with rock artists, like you never saw hip
hop infused with another genre and so that was like
brown breaking for the genre. And so they put hip
hop on global stage. That's what Russell Simmons did, and
(02:04):
you know he was one of the best to ever
do it.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Russell Simmons record executive and entrepreneur oh Rick Rubin, he.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
Said it was earlier at Graffiti Rock, but I wouldn't
know him. Some kid comes up to me, some white kids, saying, oh,
I love rap. But then I the way I remember
meeting Rick Ruben was I heard the record It's.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Yours What's that?
Speaker 5 (02:32):
And I Daddy Jason, I know, and Yaddy d brought
it and I was like, this made It's yours white
and it was him. It was Rick Rubin and played
me all the you know, for me, I was really
a B boy back then, Like the records I really
cared about and everything else was kind of like that
was commercial.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Like that was commercial.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
Doc m S was part of Percent from the Heart
and it spoke to a hole in the market. Knowing
made record like that sound anything like that. And then
Rick had a drum machine full of beats. I mean
beat was a hit in my mind. And then I
started to manage him and the Beastie Boys, and then
we found Aloka at King ad Rock found Llokoo Jay's tape,
(03:15):
and then that was it. You know, that was the
beginning of he was gonna start. He was starting a label.
He had the logo Depth Jam, but he wanted to
start an independent label and he wanted me to be
his partner. I was gonna already make a deal for
Rush Records because we had so many artists that we
were such a big management company and hip hop. We
were patrolling that he might even save culture. But the
(03:38):
beats he made and the stuff he was doing was fascinating,
so I said, I just share with him, and I'll
still manage, and I'll just put money in his lapel.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
We put in three five hundred dollars apiece I think we.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
Put out I Need a Beat by and ad Rock
found him. It was a version of I need a beat,
but Rick reproduced it and well Darren was the first
def Jam record independent. Well, I didn't have any talent,
you know. I produced records that was artist street, that
was about ball. I wrapped on some records for the
(04:11):
fun of it, a couple one with l oh Cool
J and one with Jazzy J. But no, I never
had I still can't there they'll beat. I ain't never
been no rhythm, you know. I mean, but I could.
I really made good records, and people don't know that
I was produce. I like sometimes slip that in. I
made that record, I wrote that. But I can say
that sometimes good people, you know, like running See we
(04:32):
made two albums before we met RICRU and you know,
Larry Smith and I made those records and we made
them unique.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
You know, there's some records we've made with MC, where's
the music said? And ten people begging me, we're gonna
play the base line ain't got no baby. That is itself.
The simplicity of that suck MC record was unique.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
Taking the record and scratching on top of record in
a recording studio was never done.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
We made Jam after J it was new, you know,
check off the ship we may know that for the job, and.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
Yeah, I would saying that I produced a bunch of
records and I started producing records like Alison Williams.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
She had a couple of hits, especially in Europe, but
it was me producing records.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
I produced a Blue Magic album This is Perfect, and
Rick produced The Headless Horseman and a bunch of his
hit was Slayer.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
My hit was Jukes Jones and Aliston and so I.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
Spent a lot of time doing my choledge and he
spent a lot of time doing his challenge.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
And then who was running the ship?
Speaker 5 (05:37):
So I bore in the l A posse could make
LL's second album. They did a good job, very different
from what Rick would have made, right, but it was
all LL. The inspiration came from LL. So in a
record like I Need Love played, you know, it was
not something Rick would have made, and he kind of
you know, it showed, you know, we're becoming companied now
to manage the.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Process more than to make it.
Speaker 5 (05:59):
Rick, although he was always going to be one of
the great produced of all time, he was off making
heavy metal. So we separated at that time and that's
when we started to really I think depth Jem started
to really excel, because that's when we started to become up.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Machine.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Music producer Rick Rubin and music manager and producer Russell
Simmons co founded Depth Jam Records, only to become creators
of hip hop's most prominent record label. Russell Simmons, a
young black kid from Queens, New York, would be a
part of designing the blueprint to commercial success in rap music.
LL cool J actor, rapper, entrepreneur considered one of the
(06:39):
best to ever do it.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
It's funny, you know when it first started.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
You know, first of all, I went I went up
to Rick Storm, you know, saying went up in the dorm.
Ad Rock had played, you know, the Beast of Boys
had played my demo team for Rick Rubin.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Ad Rock actually programmed to beat on my first song,
I Need to Beat.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Rick Rubin produced it like spectacularly, did a great job,
add kind of program the programming. Jason Jay did the
cut and but before that we did a song called
catch This Break. We went over to Russell's office and
it's so funny, had an office like one secretary of him,
and he's in there and we played.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
The demo for him.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
He's like, ah, the same old sound like the Churcher's
three so like a Samuel' fak. So me and Rick
looked at each other and was like, oh yeah, so
we were back in the studio. Made I Need a Beat.
When he earned I Need a Beat, he was like okay, yeah,
And they decided to make their own record because they
were labeled, because Rick was having problems getting money from
Party Times street Wide because remember he just had a
(07:33):
production deal with them, he didn't have a label. So
we did that and the rest was history. Ashannaz music
executive and founder of the Heirs Agency.
Speaker 6 (07:44):
Russell Simmons is what we call the godfather of hip hop. Ambitious,
brilliant man from Queens where I'm from Queen's get the
money from Queens who started a record label with his
friend and their college dorm. They laid the foundation for
what the business of music or hip hop music looks
(08:08):
like for generations and generations and generations. They were visionaries
and understood the value of hip hop and built a
business that millions and billions and billions of people are
benefiting from today.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Shahim read music journalists.
Speaker 7 (08:27):
Wow, when you think about deaths, then you got to
say that to me, that's the most started label out there, right.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
I mean, you.
Speaker 7 (08:37):
Definitely got other labels, But to me, Russell Simmons and
with Willman, they they loved the blueprint for everything that's
going on, as far as having your label, as far
as having superstar artists, as far as putting the power
into the artist's hands, as far as putting up the
power into your hands as an executive. These are guys
(08:59):
that started one of the most powerful entities and most
one of the most influential entities, and all of them,
not just hip hop, but black culture period. When you
look at everything that spawned off from Death Damn Death,
Promy Jan clothing behind it, you know, just everything. And
these are guys who they were selling rapports out of
(09:23):
Rick Willman is DRM well olegend.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Rick Wilvern went on.
Speaker 7 (09:27):
To be a super successful and impactful producer. Russell is
one of our great success stories as black people. When
you look at this is this is a kid from Queen's.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Fat Joe, recording artists, Bronx, hip hop legend and author
me and you.
Speaker 8 (09:46):
Wouldn't have a job if it wasn't for Russell Simmons
because he took hip hop to the next level. Of
where you could actually make a living and pay bills.
And so before that we had the underground rappers to
Drammaster kaz is that this step he made it mainstream.
He wasn't closed minded. He had run DMC, work with
(10:09):
Walk this Way. You know, they signed the Beastie Boys,
They invent the Death Jab Records to where that is
the prototype for all record labels and boutiques like you know,
like a terror squad, like a rocketfeller, like a rough Riders.
So so deaf on this, you know. He showed us
(10:33):
how to be entrepreneurs. He showed us how to get
to the back. He taught us how to dream, be
and be visionary and be creatives, to imagine that we
can be bigger than we ever be in our life.
And so I personally have never made one dollar with
Russell Simmons. I have never done business with him, but
(10:55):
to this day I attribute my success to Russell Simmons,
and she showed us away.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Curtis Bloom, legendary rapper and hip hop's first rap superstar.
Speaker 7 (11:05):
Oh Def Dam became the label that Russell and I
dreamed about when we were in college. During that time
are related to a movie The Star Wars the Jedi Knights.
See that was the name of the basketball team at
City College, the Jedi Knights, and so we all became
(11:28):
Jedi Knights, and we went to those movies and I
was Curtis sky Walker.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
We had an.
Speaker 7 (11:34):
Obie Wan Canobe. His name was Bob Loane Russell. Funny story,
we called Russell c three Bo because he was always talking.
He was a talker. He was the Blonnie Stone. Russell
was a great communicator. And so during those times when
(11:56):
we figure it out and Star Wars, you know that
part of they talk about the planet All Duron. That's
where the home base of the Jedi Knights, and so
our dream of success was going to All do We're
trying to get to all Doroon. So that was our mission.
You know, success was all garnt for us, and Russell
(12:21):
did it. We all owe him gratitude and a big
thanks and give him his flowers because he did it.
He made it happen. Along with le Or Cohen and
also Rick Rubin, they took this idea, this dream, this wish,
(12:43):
and it made it a reality. I remember Russell going
over to the Grammys and protesting the Grammys with picted
signs and all that, trying to say we need a
rap category, you know, we need a wrap award, you know,
and stuff that fighting when it was unheard of, and
(13:04):
they put this man out. You know, now you see
him front row. He's sitting at the Grammys, right and
the Oscars and all that. So man, you made it, Russell,
you did it. My hat goes off to you all
the wrong babies.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
How sea is?
Speaker 6 (13:23):
I think LLL from the perspective of you know, deaf
jam and hip hop, I think he showed what the
commercial viability of hip hop was. I think you know,
his you know, the songs, the record sales, radio airplay,
like all of those things, I think showed what commercial
(13:44):
success looked like for hip hop. There were hip hop
artists obviously before him, but I think he was the
first to have like massive global commercial success and that
was important because I think again, like that said, the
tone for what the future of hip hop looked like
from a commercially viable standpoint, from a you know, not
(14:07):
just developing you know, these successful you know rappers, but
also building businesses and establishing careers and employees being able
to see their families. Like it wasn't just the success
of LLL himself and what that looked like for the
rap community or the rap genre. But it was also
(14:28):
like it built a sustainable business that allowed, you know again,
allowed for a murder ink to exist, allowed for a
death row to exist, and all of the employees and
people that came from those companies to have thriving jobs
and legacies for years and years and years to come.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
LLL Cool jet Rick was had a very specific taste
and he also was able to translate the things that
me or my friends would want him to do. So
I'd be like, yo, Rick, I would hum a beating
and he would play the bat. I would tell him,
you'll do it like this, and he would do it.
So he was really expressing a lot of my stuff,
my ideas, and then he would take my ideas and
(15:10):
he would make the better.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
He would enhance them as a producer and take them
to another level. And that's how it was. It was crazy.
It was a math.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Russell Simmons hellow Pool.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
Jay was when most sounds and Boltless, I mean run
used to always say that's the guy at the best
vocless and he was young both his next generation that
not not only he was the first one that really
I think that I worked with that really spoke to
the recording generations. Run remember was a rapper before they
were rap records. Was DJ Run from Curtis Flow that
(15:43):
just goes done and Curdy Flow. So they all came
from the ballroom and the performing art. Ello pool J
was a recording art. He heard records to make him
make a record. They heard tape to make them make
their performances and eventually their record. So Old Cool J
for me was the first artist that I mad July
Foe percent to the next generation, the first generation of
(16:08):
hip hop as a recording art.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Ll cool J.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
I mean I made ten platinum albums in a row.
Be that's pretty good for coming for an independent label.
Have an artist come out and make ten platinum albums
in a row. At that time, it wasn't gonna be
no number one spect It was hip hop. This was
rap music. It was no pop radio play. There was
no you know, you get a little bit of airplayer
on the weekend. And I made ten number one albums
(16:33):
in a row. So that's a big, big important thing
for the LABE from a label side. Now in terms
of hip hop showing people that you could be legitimately
and I say this would humility, but that you could
really be a rap star, like like I showed people
how to be a rap star be there was no
real rap stars before me.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
They were except for run DMC as a group.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
And it was a little different because my thing struck
a little different chord because I struck the teen heartthrob
chord and the like the cultural rhyming chord.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
It was a little different, right.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
So I'm like, I'm on the cover with new addition,
you know what I'm saying, Like I'm you know, I'm
on magazines with new addition.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
I'm on magazines with Michael Jackson.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
So you have to think about it, like like you
have to think about it like that. So and then
what I did was I showed people that you could
have emotional intelligence. I introduced like it was guys who
wrapped the females on records before, you know, like introducing
the love thing to the game, like before I made
I Need Love and before I started really embracing the
females even on my B sides, like I want you
(17:40):
on the other side of the B side of dangerous
dudes weren't comfortable with that and that was a whole
dimension of hip hop that was not open. The only
one that would dabble in it a little bit more
would be Spoony G. But he was still keeping it.
He wasn't He was never allowing himself to be vulnerable.
So so I really like opened up the world of
(18:04):
you know, love, the idea of love being introduced to hip.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Hop like I did that.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
I did, oh man, so many memories.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I was definitely deep in the mix at that time
and seeing all this go down first hands. Let me
tell you my little story about me Rick Rubin for
the first time. I was at the Roxy one night
back in the early eighties and a record came on
which really made me freeze in my steps. It was
the record was It's yours right, Tiga Rock, And I'm.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
Like, what is this record? Right?
Speaker 2 (18:37):
So I go up to the DJ and I said, yo, man,
like what is this? Like what he says, Yo, it's
this new record is yours? I said, who made this?
And he pointed to this group He said, this guy
over here, And I saw several people over there and this,
you know, several black folks and this white guy.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
And I was like, who who?
Speaker 4 (18:54):
And he was like this guy right here, straight up.
It was the white guy.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
And I went over and I introduced myself. It was
Rick Rubin, and Rick was really cool.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
And it was like I told him who I was,
you know, he knew who I was, and he invited
me to his dorm room at m YU University, a
small dorm room with his little small bed and a
DJ turntable set up and a drum machine and boom.
I definitely saw the beginning of deaf jam records, and
it was brilliant the way Rick.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
And Russell linked up with each other because.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Rick had a you know, understood like you know, pop
music and the formula of making a tight four minute
record like a record because rappers at that time, some
of the first rap records came out, people would wrap
it for ten and fifteen minutes. And Rick had a
sense of how to shape this into something that was
a much tighter, more condensed, explosive basically hit records that
(19:53):
could that could work on radio and work everywhere else.
It was pretty amazed at the seed beginnings of at
and where Rick.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
And Russell took it to Russell Simmons.
Speaker 9 (20:03):
Well, of it was hip hop, but you know, I
met people who inspired me to Quincy Jones to the world.
They tried to remind me that it was nothing new
when music doing the same thing when evolved, reminded me
of the jazz era Loui Ro you know, okay, here
black music doing it again.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
And they gave me perspective and you know.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
Instead of being you know, cocky and young, they gave
me another perspective, which I was cocky and young, but
they gave me another perspective that how I fit in history.
Quincy Jones took me the Beastie Boys, Fellow Pool, Jay
Tela Robbs, Run DMC. I'm trying to think that Rick
was bit but he joined us about Christal Champaign took
(20:46):
it all out.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
He wanted to know. It was late about eighty five.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
I remember playing turn on the radio and run DMC
record played, and Quincy's got my House and get ready
to go to Dinner played in the demo for Orange
Juice Jones walking into Ain't I had just produced.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
We went to Dinner, But all Rush Band took a
lot of art.
Speaker 5 (21:06):
Again, there were so many that were pioneers and had
records on a different label.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
So remember we met Big Daddy Kane and Eric p
and rocked him and.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
We managed the Day of Soul and tried for a
quest and we managed and we rushed management with all
of that depth.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
Jem felt like all of that too, because we're all family,
all wore Dept. JM jacket. It was the cultural movement.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
We were part of a family and the Slick Rakes
and you know Big Daddy Kane where you know, they
were the same right even though we couldn't. And I
never felt as a manager, I never felt any different
between those who are my label and those who I
just managed.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Well.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
My family, the Rush family was expensive and plenty. Joels
fed all of them and he inspired me so many
ways because he gave me for respective and that helped
me a little bit over the years a lot over
the years.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Grant was It Dead or pioneering hip hop DJ credited
as the inventor of the scratching technique.
Speaker 7 (22:04):
Not only is in Russell and Rick Rudman. One of
the ultimates is such stories, but you could just look
at them for inspiration. Man, Like, there's a lot of
people that want to do stuff and that could actually
do it, but it's scared to do it. And there's
people that can actually do it. They're not scared to
(22:25):
do it, but they're too stubborn or too proud to
team up with somebody. These people form the team. And
when you look at the death Jam family tree, there
was a record label, there was also a management team.
You understand, like they manage leaders of the New School,
trip or Request and from that, the family tree that
(22:48):
they have is nothing but hall of fame. It's like
death Jam, you can't really say enough. And when you
look at the catalog that they have from LL Cool
J Slick with Public Enemy, Rick Ross red Man, that's
that man, the Rockefeller Record Label, jay Z and everything
(23:09):
that he did after reasonable doubt, Kanye West, job Role Science,
he Murder, and DMX with Rough Fridays. These guys not
only did they make and again, this is something that
we keep talking about, is that it's something special when
(23:31):
you're making classic music, but it's also extra extra special
when you're making classic music and you're implementing a business infrastructure.
Like they showed us not just how to get it
as artists, but how to get it as businessmen and
business women.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
A Shana is I.
Speaker 6 (23:52):
Think deaf Jam any any relation to def Jam being
an artist or an employee. It's a badge of honor.
It's a club, a community, a college. It's almost like
pledging if you were a part of Death Jam then
or now, it's a badge of honor for the music business.
It represents a certain level of excellence, It represents a
(24:14):
certain purity, a certain attachment to the culture or or
not even attachment, symbolism that you're a culture creator, like
you are driving.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
The culture forward.
Speaker 6 (24:26):
Death Jam was the leader in driving the culture forward
and being a part of it in any way, be
it you know, as a musician, as an artist, as
an executive, meant that you were a part of a
team that was driving culture forward.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Das it was just their flavor. Like for example, when
I worked in New York, Damn had this Christmas party
every year, like they always had their hand on the
pulse of the culture.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Everybody always wanted to go to.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
The Deaf Jam parties and the Deaf Jam vents because
they know how to do it on the big scale.
And I have to shout out one of my former mentors,
Kevin Lyles, who used to be president of Death Jam Records.
Like if Kevin hosted an event at a music conference,
you knew all the like cool people were gonna be there,
like all the actors.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
He brought people in from other worlds.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Like they mixed fashion and hip hop and art, and
you had all the cool people. And that was to me,
that was really utilizing hip hop in a way that
hadn't been done before. That's when we really knew that
hip hop was currency, right, hip hop was big business,
and so that's when you started seeing a lot of
you know, sneaker brands and spirit brands and other people
(25:40):
want to collaborate with these artists because death Jam not
only was good with the music, but again they were
good with the marketing and promotions. And so that's something
that we always looked to and I was like, how
do they do it? Like they mixed the world together,
and they really they have to shape what culture looks
like for us to this day, because again, the culture
and the currency is music, fashion, in sports, it's entertainment.
(26:01):
But Death Jam was really at the forefront of that,
putting their artists in other rooms that people in the
genre hadn't necessarily been exposed to before.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
I think Snoop.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
Dogg does a great job of it now and how
he's expanded his brand, but early on, I don't think
anybody did it like death Jam in terms of being
able to cross collaborate and bring those worlds together. And
so that was what was cool. It was like going
to a deaf Jam event. You just felt like, Wow,
this is the culture.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
This is it.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
This is where we all want to be. Athletes want
to be artists. Artists want to be athletes. And it
was nothing to like look up and seeing an NFL
player or NBA star or seeing death Jam artists participate
in NBA All Star Weekend. Like they really started a
lot of that from a cultural perspective, and I think
that really also helped catapult the genre to a global
(26:51):
status and put us in other worlds and in corporate
America and making these big.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
Deals that we hadn't seen that before.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
So that was Russell, That was you know, Rick, that
was Kevin Laws, all those folks, Ronnie coll and Tracy Waypool's,
all those folks who worked over there, like they really
had the blueprint down for like how to work records,
but also how to market them and how to bring
the culture together to how a good time and to
make good money and to make good records.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Ed Lover, rapper, actor, radio personality, and former.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
MTV v J.
Speaker 10 (27:24):
Oh my God, it's that deaf Jam is everything. There
was a time and if you wasn't on deaf Jam,
you wasn't really on the label. And even though Running
It was on Profile, it was almost like they were
on deaf Jam because that was Russell's brother. And I
think for Russell, of them got a lot of credit
because they did manage Running D for a while. And
I think Russell and Rick Rubin, the music that they
(27:48):
were able to create. The stuff that Rick Rubin was
able to create as a producer is still unmatched to
this day. Russell's business acumen learning on the fly. It's
not like he's you know, he's a graduate of Wharton
School of Business. But it's just a street wise, dope,
dope dude that was smart enough to see that Rick
was doing something or going somewhere and made Deaf Jam
(28:12):
Records and it is probably the most important hip hop
label ever because everybody else wanted to have.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
A label because of Death Name.
Speaker 10 (28:21):
You know, Tommy Boy put out a lot of dance records,
Electro Funk Records, Sleeping Bag, everybody put out a lot
of different kinds of music. Death Jam for a long
time was strictly hip hop before they started dabbling into
R and B. That was just like the ultimate hip
hop label. Dude, I can't tell you what year it was,
(28:42):
but I remember when they gave me a deaf Jam jacket,
like they gave me a deaf damn jacket. That jacket
was that was part of the club. If you had
a death Jam jacket which your name on it, Oh
my god.
Speaker 7 (28:56):
Wow.
Speaker 10 (28:57):
So deaf Jam for us was everything, and especially from
us from Queens because it was Russell. He's from Hollands,
He's from out Oot, so that's what made it even bigger.
And my sister used to work at deaf Jam at
the front desk, and so it's all full circle. Man.
Deaf Jam meant everything to us. It was the premier
(29:18):
hip hop label, the premier label. The best of the
best were on deaf Jam.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
I shun it is.
Speaker 6 (29:24):
I think it's safe to say that deaf Jam was
at the forefront of disruptive marketing for sure, things like
street teams, things like you know, merch, you know brand
The deaf Damn jacket was something that you know, people
would pay for back then, massive billboards and just kind
of over the top, like grassroots street marketing is the
(29:49):
deaf Jam way. And I definitely think it influenced how
not just record companies, but how any brand who wanted
to reach that hip hop community began to mark it
after seeing the way Death Jam.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Marketed Shaheim Weed music journalists.
Speaker 7 (30:05):
They've empowered so many greats from our culture that have
empowered other people. And it's the gift that keeps on giving.
You know, so many women that work that Death Jam,
so many young people that work that Death Jam. And
it's not just the music. Music. Music is fantastic. You
(30:27):
look at the Death Jam catalog and it's it's in
this classic's young jeezy, you know, it's inless classes. But
you gotta also look at the people and what it
meant Like Death Jam meant us as young even though
Rick Ruben was white, right, it just meant like us
(30:47):
as young rebels doing what we wanted to do. And
it wasn't reckless. It wasn't reckless. These guys were successful.
It wasn't like, oh, we just gonna give these young kids.
Let's see what these young kids do with tens of
millions of dollars. Nah, they pulled their money together the
Soul records, and then when he started getting all of
(31:10):
the millions of dollars, they started doing like all of
these other businesses across Rick Rubin. He stepped away from
death Gym and he started doing his own thing. And
then it was more like Russell Simmons, Kevin Lows and
le Or Cohen that was doing it. Then you know
later Mike Kayser and Julie and all of these people.
But this is a young young black kid from from
(31:32):
queens Man, Russell, and he built the empire like this
is This is the stuff that has influenced every executive
in the game. They've all looked at Russell Simmons at
a point, I don't care what, I don't care who
you are.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Black, all white.
Speaker 7 (31:50):
Everybody that came up after Russell had to look at
this man as being one of the blue prints.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Russell Simmons, we had office all over the wall.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
We have offices today, my office gutshtout I was talking about.
We're in thirteen eleven countries.
Speaker 5 (32:05):
They're a deaf jem office in almost every World Asian country,
eleven ten of the countries of East Asian we have
two officers in America, but jen of the eleven countries
are in East Asia. They're a deaf Gym office in
every country, and hip hop is prominent in every country.
The biggest show in China called The Wrap of China
one show, first episode, a billion people going. They're only
(32:28):
three hundred million in America. So the impact of hip
hop globally, deaf Gym has been there as part of
the staying the taste.
Speaker 4 (32:37):
So it had a good impact.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
You know, it was alone when we were doing what
we were doing international, and it was kind of alone
we were doing in America for a very long time
because we saw the artists as not disposable. We sought
them as as great artists with long term possibility, and
the labels thought them as twelve inch autist that would
make a recorded We'd get the next records in somebody else.
(33:03):
We built album and careers, We managed images. We took
the people who made the mean seriously and that's what
made Rush Management special, and that's what made Death Damn
special too. That same mentality, Now, whoja not here for
this single I need a beat, but for the album
Radio and Run.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
DMC was an album, not a record with.
Speaker 5 (33:25):
An artist that would be here for years, and so
we had that lead good luck, good watching to see
that crystal clear to me.
Speaker 4 (33:32):
But it was at the time very different thinking.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Man, so many amazing memories, so much incredible work, does
so many major doors broken down, kicked in, opened up
wide to let us in, made by Deaf jam.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
And one of the most important groups is Public Enemy.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
The impact the voice that conscious hip hop hit so
hard at.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
A critical time.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
And I was honored to get the show that stuff
on my show, your MTV raps. But it was amazing
to have Rick Rubin tell me one day how Public Enemy.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Rick had heard a little.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Bit of a demo that they used on their college
radio station. And Rick Rubin, for almost an entire year
called Chuck d relentlessly to try to get him to
come in and make an album. And Chuck, who was
probably about twenty one at the time, felt like he
was actually too old because LLLL had just hit and
(34:31):
ll hit the game hard at sixteen seventeen years old,
you know what I'm saying. But Rick's persistence with what
Public Enemy became and Chuck said, man, okay, give me
this budget and step back and let us do our thing.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
And that's the story behind Public Enemy.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Once again, impactful group and the message that they had
a lot of people would not have been ready to
get down and to push a group like that message
so strong and so clear. Once again, another tribute to
what def JM did, thankfully and Rick Rubins just you know,
instincts and intuition to like let Public Enemy go and
(35:12):
do what they did. Fight the power. On the next
episode of the fifty Years of Hip Hop podcast series,
The Shipping Hill Gangs, Rap is Delight had the first
music video, but it wasn't until six years later when
MTV Network's first show dedicated entirely to rap music hit
the screen.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
Y'all know what that is.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
This next episode is going to remind this so the
first rap video to make its way into MTV's rotation
run DMC's Rock Box, and that was also back in
nineteen eighty four. And the journey of a show that
launched as an experiment only to become and hit and
you know I'm talking about yo. This episode has been
(35:54):
executive produced by Dolly S. Bishop, hosted and produced by
your Boy Fab five Freddy, Produced by Aaron A.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
King Howard.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Edit mixed sound by Dwayne Crawford, music scoring by Trey Jones,
Talent booking by Nicole Spence,
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