Frederick Jay "Rick" Rubin (born
March 10, 1963 in
Lido Beach, New York) is an
American record producer and is currently the co-head of
Columbia Records. He is given credit for merging
rap and
heavy metal as well as producing the "
American Recordings" albums with
Johnny Cash.
MTV called him "the most important producer of the last 20&_160;years."
[1]Rubin is a musician serving as the original DJ of the Beastie Boys, and a head of a record label, co-founding Def Jam Records with Russell Simmons, and later founding American Recordings. In 2007, Rubin was listed among Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World.
Rubin grew up in Long Island, New York, in a Jewish family. His father was a shoe wholesaler and his mother a housewife.[2] While a student at Long Beach High School he befriended the school's AV Director Steve Freeman who gave him a few lessons in guitar playing and songwriting and helped him create a punk band called "The Pricks". At school, Rubin was unpopular among the other musicians due to his complete lack of musical ability beyond a few rudimentary guitar chords. During his senior year Rubin founded Def Jam records using the school's four track recorder. Moving on to New York University he played guitar in an art-punk band called "Hose", influenced by San Francisco's Flipper. In 1982, Hose became Def Jam release _1, a 45 rpm 7" vinyl single in a brown paper bag, and no label. The band played in and around the NYC punk scene, toured the Midwest and California, and played with seminal hardcore bands like the Meat Puppets, Hüsker Dü, the Circle Jerks and the Butthole Surfers. The band broke up in 1986 as Rubin's passion moved towards the NYC Hip Hop scene.
Having befriended Zulu Nation's DJ Jazzy Jay, Rubin began to learn about hip hop production. By 1983, the two men produced "It's Yours" for rapper T La Rock, and released it on their independent label, Def Jam Records. Producer Arthur Baker helped to distribute the record worldwide on Baker's Streetwise Records in 1984.
