NYU, Listen to This!

Russell Simmons Speaking about his time at NYU

In 1984 while attending NYU, Russell Simmons met another NYU student, Rick Rubin, at a club in New York City where hardcore rockers and rappers intermixed. They quickly became close friends. Rubin had a vision of fusing the two genres, rap and rock together. The two decided to go into business together, and Def Jam Records was born. They each put in $4,000 of their own money as startup capital, and the company began operating out of Rubin’s NYU dorm room. 


The first single Def Jam released was L.L. Cool Jay’s “I Need a Beat,” which sold over 100,000 copies. They followed that up with The Beastie Boys’ “Rock Hard.” Within its first year, Def Jam had released seven singles and had negotiated a distribution deal with Columbia Records. 


Def Jam is most famous for launching the career of Jay-Z who at one point became the label's president. Today Def Jam's list of famous artists include: Jennifer Lopez, Ludacris, Ne-Yo, Rihanna and Kanye West.