RICK RUBIN
Rick Rubin (born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer and former co-president of Columbia Records. Along with Russell Simmons, Rubin is the co-founder of Def Jam Records and also established American Recordings. With the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, and Run–D.M.C., Rubin helped popularize hip hop music but has also worked with a host of other important artists. In 2007, MTV called him “the most important producer of the last 20 years”, and the same year Rubin appeared on Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. (More from Wikipedia)
The current (August/September 2016) issue of AARP The Magazine – a perk for anyone who joins AARP that keeps getting better every year – includes a section called “Surviving the ’80s”. The item about the “Walk This Way” remake reads, quoting Darryl McDaniels (aka D.M.C.): “[Producer] Rick Rubin gives us this yellow notebook pad. He tells us, ‘Go down to D’s basement, put the needle on the record.’ We go down to my basement and put on the record, and then you hear, “Backstroke lover always hidin’ ’neath the covers,’ and immediately me and Joe [Joseph Simmons aka Run] get on the phone and say, ‘Hell no, this ain’t going to happen. This is hillbilly gibberish.’”
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LL Cool J – the initials stand for “Ladies Love Cool James” (his real name is James Todd Smith) – is one of the forefathers of pop rap according to Wikipedia. To date, he has released 13 albums and 2 greatest-hits collections.
About his first album, Radio (1985), Wikipedia says: “Reflecting the new school and ghettoblaster subculture in the U.S. during the mid-1980s, Radio belongs to a pivotal moment in the history and culture of hip hop. Its success contributed to the displacement of the old school with the new school form and to the genre’s mainstream success during the period. Its success also served as a career breakthrough for LL Cool J and [producer] Rick Rubin. Radio has been recognized by music writers as one of the first cohesive and commercially successful hip hop albums.”
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“Beat Street” was actually the second choice by Lightning Strike for their first single. As related by Paul Fischer: “Debut single was due to be live favorite ‘Exocet Alley’, a blast of Rick Rubin-esque rap-rock via Sigue Sigue Sputnik, which derided Jeffrey Archer in the lyrics.” Jeffrey Archer is a Conservative Party politician in England who had been caught with a prostitute in 1986. In July 1987, Archer launched a high-profile libel suit against one newspaper who reported the story, the Daily Star; and the record label decided to pass on the release.
(September 2016)
