ABSTRACT
Born Frederick Jay Rubin in Long Island, Rubin attended NYU university in the early 1980s, where he befriended Russell Simmons. In 1984 the two formed Def Jam Records out of a dorm room to promote rap and hip-hop music. A year later, they signed a distribution/production deal with Columbia. Rubin discovered and nurtured the talents of rap acts including the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy, both of which achieved great success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Rubin broke with Simmons in 1989, renaming his company Def American. He began expanding his vision beyond rap in the early 1990s, producing the Red Hot Chili Peppers’s hit album, Blood Sugar Sex Majik (Warner
Bros. #26681) in 1991, and working with Mick Jagger in 1993. In 1994, he launched American Recordings, producing a new all-acoustic album with Johnny Cash, and working with Tom Petty. Rubin remained active as a producer through the 1990s, although the new acts he championed had less success in the second half of the decade.
