Def Jam Recordings

Def Jam Recordings

Author: Bill Adler

Publisher: Random House Digital, Inc.

Published: 2011-10-11

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 0847833712

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The illustrated oral history of the greatest hip-hop hit-making machine in history.


Def Jam, Inc.

Def Jam, Inc.

Author: Stacy Gueraseva

Publisher: One World/Ballantine

Published: 2011-03-30

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 0307520390

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In the early ‘80s, the music industry wrote off hip-hop as a passing fad. Few could or would have predicted that the improvised raps and raw beats busting out of New York City’s urban underclass would one day become a multimillion-dollar business and one of music’s most lucrative genres. Among those few were two visionaries: Russell Simmons, a young black man from Hollis, Queens, and Rick Rubin, a Jewish kid from Long Island. Though the two came from different backgrounds, their all-consuming passion for hip-hop brought them together. Soon they would revolutionize the music industry with their groundbreaking label, Def Jam Records. Def Jam, Inc. traces the company’s incredible rise from the NYU dorm room of nineteen-year-old Rubin (where LL Cool J was discovered on a demo tape) to the powerhouse it is today; from financial struggles and scandals–including The Beastie Boys’s departure from the label and Rubin’s and Simmons’s eventual parting–to revealing anecdotes about artists like Slick Rick, Public Enemy, Foxy Brown, Jay-Z, and DMX. Stacy Gueraseva, former editor in chief of Russell Simmons’s magazine, Oneworld, had access to the biggest players on the scene, and brings you real conversations and a behind-the-scenes look from a decade–and a company–that turned the music world upside down. She takes you back to New York in the ‘80s, when late-night spots such as Danceteria and Nell’s were burning with young, fresh rappers, and Simmons and Rubin had nothing but a hunch that they were on to something huge. Far more than just a biography of the two men who made it happen, Def Jam, Inc. is a journey into the world of rap itself. Both an intriguing business history as well as a gritty narrative, here is the definitive book on Def Jam–a must read for any fan of hip-hop as well as all popular-culture junkies.


The Men Behind Def Jam: The Radical Rise of Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin

The Men Behind Def Jam: The Radical Rise of Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin

Author: Alex Ogg

Publisher: Omnibus Press

Published: 2009-12-17

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 0857121081

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The Def Jam label gave America hip hop. But who gave America Def Jam? Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin did. The Men Behind Def Jam examines the most unlikely history of the legendary label that started life in a student dorm and went on to introduce the world to LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, DMX and Jay-Z. Hustler-incarnate Russell Simmons and ex-punk Rick Rubin, the odd couple, fought and triumphed against all predictions to change the course of popular music forever. Here is an honest appraisal of these rival personalities, the quarrels, the successes and the failures of the spectacular Def Jam adventure. With Rubin and Simmons now pursuing other interests, the label continues with others at the helm, but the story of Def Jam’s birth and coming of age makes for one of pop music’s most feisty and fascinating legends.


Bum Rush the Page

Bum Rush the Page

Author: Tony Medina

Publisher: Crown

Published: 2009-04-23

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0307565645

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Bum Rush the Page is a groundbreaking collection, capturing the best new work from the poets who have brought fresh energy, life, and relevance to American poetry. “Here is a democratic orchestration of voices and visions, poets of all ages, ethnicities, and geographic locations coming together to create a dialogue and to jam–not slam. This is our mouth on paper, our hearts on our sleeves, our refusal to shut up and swallow our silence. These poems are tough, honest, astute, perceptive, lyrical, blunt, sad, funny, heartbreaking, and true. They shout, they curse, they whisper, and sing. But most of all, they tell it like it is.” –Tony Medina, from the Introduction


The Story of Def Jam

The Story of Def Jam

Author: Brian Baughan

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2014-09-29

Total Pages: 64

ISBN-13: 1422294668

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When it was founded in 1984, Def Jam was a tiny operation nestled in the college dorm room of Rick Rubin. He and promoter Russell Simmons quickly built a music empire around a talented crew of groundbreaking artists and an allegiance to the "real street music" that was about to bust out of New York City's hip-hop circles. Over the course of several decades, Def Jam has helped launched many of the best acts in rap and pop music, including LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Method Man, DMX, Ja Rule, Jay-Z, and Rihanna. Over 200 gold and over 70 platinum records bear the Def Jam label. Def Jam's 25th anniversary in 2009 was just another milestone in the story of a label that helped define the sound as well as the wider culture of hip-hop.


The Big Payback

The Big Payback

Author: Dan Charnas

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2011-11-01

Total Pages: 880

ISBN-13: 1101568119

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“There has never been a better book about hip-hop…a record-biz portrait that jumps off the page.”—A.V. Club The perfect read for music lovers and business aficionados alike, The Big Payback reveals the secret histories of the early long-shot successes of Sugar Hill Records and Grandmaster Flash, Run DMC’s crossover breakthrough on MTV, the marketing of gangsta rap, and the rise of artist/entrepreneurs like Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs. THE INSPIRATION FOR THE VH1 SERIES THE BREAKS The Big Payback takes readers from the first $15 made by a “rapping DJ” in 1970s New York to the multi-million-dollar sales of the Phat Farm and Roc-a-Wear clothing companies in 2004 and 2007. On this four-decade-long journey from the studios where the first rap records were made to the boardrooms where the big deals were inked, The Big Payback tallies the list of who lost and who won. 300 industry giants like Def Jam founders Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons gave their stories to renowned hip-hop journalist Dan Charnas, who provides a compelling, never-before-seen, myth-debunking view into the victories, defeats, corporate clashes, and street battles along the 40-year road to hip-hop’s dominance. INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS


To Live and Defy in LA

To Live and Defy in LA

Author: Felicia Angeja Viator

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2020-02-25

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0674976363

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How gangsta rap shocked America, made millions, and pulled back the curtain on an urban crisis. How is it that gangsta rap—so dystopian that it struck aspiring Brooklyn rapper and future superstar Jay-Z as “over the top”—was born in Los Angeles, the home of Hollywood, surf, and sun? In the Reagan era, hip-hop was understood to be the music of the inner city and, with rare exception, of New York. Rap was considered the poetry of the street, and it was thought to breed in close quarters, the product of dilapidated tenements, crime-infested housing projects, and graffiti-covered subway cars. To many in the industry, LA was certainly not hard-edged and urban enough to generate authentic hip-hop; a new brand of black rebel music could never come from La-La Land. But it did. In To Live and Defy in LA, Felicia Viator tells the story of the young black men who built gangsta rap and changed LA and the world. She takes readers into South Central, Compton, Long Beach, and Watts two decades after the long hot summer of 1965. This was the world of crack cocaine, street gangs, and Daryl Gates, and it was the environment in which rappers such as Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Eazy-E came of age. By the end of the 1980s, these self-styled “ghetto reporters” had fought their way onto the nation’s radio and TV stations and thus into America’s consciousness, mocking law-and-order crusaders, exposing police brutality, outraging both feminists and traditionalists with their often retrograde treatment of sex and gender, and demanding that America confront an urban crisis too often ignored.


Marvel's Voices

Marvel's Voices

Author: Marvel Various

Publisher: Marvel Entertainment

Published: 2021-08-11

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 130293886X

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Collects Marvel's Voices: Legacy (2021) #1, Black Panther (2016) #1, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2015) #1, Black History Month variants; material from Marvel's Voices (2020) #1, Marvel's Voices (2020) #1 [New Printing], Black Panther (2018) #23-25. Stories from the world outside your window, by diverse creators who are making theirs Marvel - and making their voices heard! Inspired by Marvel's acclaimed podcast series MARVEL'S VOICES, new and established writers and artists share their unique perspectives on legendary characters - including Black Panther, Storm, Blade, Ironheart, Luke Cage, Spectrum, Shuri, Doctor Voodoo, Nick Fury and the Blue Marvel. It's a dizzying array of adventures that will inspire and uplift! Plus: The opening chapter of Ta-Nehisi Coates' revolutionary BLACK PANTHER epic, the sensational first meeting of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, and a stunning gallery of Ernanda Souza's Black History Month variant covers!


Make It Happen

Make It Happen

Author: Kevin Liles

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2005-09-27

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1416510486

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Kevin Liles rose from intern to president of Def Jam Records in only nine years. Today, at age thirty-seven, he is executive vice president of the Warner Music Group and has helped discover and direct the careers of stars such as Jay-Z and Ludacris. Liles' meteoric climb from urban street kid with hip-hop aspirations to one of the most successful and influential executives in the music industry is far more than a rags-to-riches story. It is a tribute to Liles' incredible work ethic, wisdom and confidence in doing his thing his way -- the hip-hop way. "Every real success story in hip hop comes down to the same thing: someone who finds the will, focus and drive to achieve," Liles writes in Make It Happen: The Hip-Hop Generation Guide to Success. "It doesn't matter if you are male or female. It doesn't matter what race or religion you are. It doesn't matter what hustle you choose." What does matter, Liles says, is that you fight against the odds to realize a dream and be the best that you can be. You empower yourself and make it happen. Kevin Liles presents ten rules of business success, which range from "Find Your Will" and "The Blueprint" to "Don't Let Cash Rule" and "Play Your Position." As he outlines his philosophy, Liles shares how he put his principles to work, chronicling his journey to the top and the stories of others -- executives, artists, mentors and friends -- he has worked with along the way. Make It Happen is both an American success story and a guidebook for the road to having a career and a life you love.


How to Wreck a Nice Beach

How to Wreck a Nice Beach

Author: Dave Tompkins

Publisher: Melville House

Published: 2011-11-08

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 1612190936

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The history of the vocoder: how popular music hijacked the Pentagon's speech scrambling weapon The vocoder, invented by Bell Labs in 1928, once guarded phones from eavesdroppers during World War II; by the Vietnam War, it was repurposed as a voice-altering tool for musicians, and is now the ubiquitous voice of popular music. In How to Wreck a Nice Beach—from a mis-hearing of the vocoder-rendered phrase “how to recognize speech”—music journalist Dave Tompkins traces the history of electronic voices from Nazi research labs to Stalin’s gulags, from the 1939 World’s Fair to Hiroshima, from artificial larynges to Auto-Tune. We see the vocoder brush up against FDR, JFK, Stanley Kubrick, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Kraftwerk, the Cylons, Henry Kissinger, and Winston Churchill, who boomed, when vocoderized on V-E Day, “We must go off!” And now vocoder technology is a cell phone standard, allowing a digital replica of your voice to sound human. From T-Mobile to T-Pain, How to Wreck a Nice Beach is a riveting saga of technology and culture, illuminating the work of some of music’s most provocative innovators.