Def Jam Turns 25: No Sleep Til It’s Raining Blood
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The first time a Def Jam recording set foot in my house was in 1991 when LL Cool J released "Mama Said Knock You Out." I remember my mom being a big fan of the song - surprising, considering her shoebox of cassettes overflowing with Taylor Dayne and other such tragedies.
It wasn't until 1998 that I finally discovered Beastie Boys and Licensed to Ill, an album that was already over ten years old at the time. Over the next few years, while I busied myself going head-over-heels for anything and everything Beastie Boys, my younger brother was discovering SLAYER. Reign in Blood was originally released in 1986 by Def Jam; it's safe to say they'll never be as metal as that again. It was "Raining Blood" and mosh pits from my brother's room, and "Paul Revere" and gold chains in mine - just kidding, I wish I was cool enough to convincingly say I had a dookie rope hanging from my neck in 8th grade.
The rap and metal paths crossed when Slayer's Kerry King appeared in the "No Sleep Til Brooklyn" video. Unfortunately, pointing out this cameo to my brother did not undo his distaste for the Beastie Boys, but at least these days he has enough to sense to balance the hardcore with some MF DOOM.
The second Def Jam album that I obsessed over wasn't for a while. Jay-Z's The Blueprint dropped in 2001, but pardon me, I was going through some pathetically confused musical phases and didn't grab it until I was perusing the close-out sale at Virgin in the mid-2000s. Following that I got Jay-Z Unplugged, a live set still worthy of many, many plays, and it drew me back into rap (emo is for sad, sappy suckers, anyway).
2004-2006 I seriously stepped my Def Jam game up and bought whatever latest albums they had to offer. Cam'ron's Purple Haze, a harmless, young Kanye's The College Dropout, Ghostface Killah's Fishscale, Young Jeezy's Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101, Rick Ross Port of Miami, hell, even Young Gunz Brothers From Another (also a find from Virgin) made it into my collection.
Most recently I've been listening to Ghostface's new and amazingly-titled album Ghostdini: The Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City. You can see a video from that album, along with a quick hit list of others from my favorite Def Jam artists.
Ghostface "Baby"
Cam'ron "Down and Out" (prod. by Kanye West)
Ludacris "Get Back" (dir. Spike Jonze)
Comments (8)
Haha - great article Brittany! And thank you, Rick Rubin, for starting Def Jam with Russell Simmons in your NYU dorm.
Licensed to Ill was actually my third CD ever owned (after Offspring "Smash" and Green Day "Dookie") I got License to Ill in 1994 after hearing "You gotta fight, for your right" on MTV (back when MTV was actually playing music videos - who would have thought 10 years later that they were strictly into reality TV that have absolutely nothing to do with music. Damn MTV.
My mom hated the album and proceeded to ridicule me saying, "every song sounds like a game boy game." Another sign of the times - game boys were THE form of video game play - amazing how far our generation has come in the last 15 years (I'm seeing 4 year olds with iPhones now.) Going back to my mom - I didn't take much stock into her opinion of music, the ten cassettes she had in her car at the time were; WHAM, George Michael, Rod Stewart, Phil Collins, Madonna, Miami Sound Machine, Culture Club, Hall and Oates, Michael Jackson and New Kids on the Block. Disgusting - looking back on it now I can actually see a lot of my musical influences in the artists listed above - damn.
So anyways - thanks Brittany for letting me reminisce about my third album ever owned.
One more tid bit of info - if you ever want to ROCK a karaoke party - sing all three parts of Paul Revere (song 9) - guaranteed standing ovation!
HAHA!!! I have been trying to wrangle people for karaoke lately. And "Paul Revere" is at the top of my list, no doubt. Come to think of it, I love singing all their parts, all the time, especially the many golden nuggets of lyrics on Paul's Boutique. I just got Check Your Head on vinyl... very niiiiice.
Remember how Game Boys were as big as bricks? Has your mom ever listened to "Nintendo-core"? (Probs not. Has anyone's mom?) Click here for Horse the Band. Hilariously awful.
Yes...that's actually my mom's favorite band - how did you know ;)
thanks for passing this gem my way
still have the beastie boys album from when I was a kid, god I love this label
I have been rollin' with Def Jam since it started. I had each and everyone of the purple label singles. Rush and Rick were my heroes..Post-indie after the deal with Sony, I wasn't as much of a fan. But that was more ME, than the records.
very good post Brittany! like your brother, I think MF Doom is awesome... somehow, he must appeal to the people who like the heavy stuff. my first beasties' purchase was Check Your Head
I feel really old now, I remember watching MTV debut day (we had cable for over a month before they showed up) because my sister was in high school and heard all about it, while playing Atari I leaned over and hit the metal "Toggle" button to watch Video Killed the Radio Star.
I was in college when Def Jam was formed.
Unf...
MSS: Yeah, what is it about DOOM that grabs the hardcore/metal listeners?
Ghost: I wish I was that age at the time. I would've been going to the shows. Could've seen the Fat Boys, damn! :)