Rubin: Lack of recording expertise preserved authentic early hip-hop sound
Rick Rubin · Rick Rubin on Finding Your Life’s Work · May 24, 2026 · at 4:10
Record producer Rick Rubin describes founding Def Jam and producing his first record, 'It's Yours', while an NYU student in the early 1980s.
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“The fact that I didn't know what I was doing allowed it to be true to what hip hop was. Whereas all of the records that were coming out, the few and far between, 12 inch singles every few weeks, they were made by professionals who made other kinds of music. They weren't made by hip hop people. So an outsider with experience was making what they thought hip hop was. But if you went to the club, you knew what it really was.”
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