The 2009 VH-1 Hip Hop Honors, hosted by Tracy Morgan will for the first time give props to a record label. Hard pressed calling Def Jam a record label, more so an institution for the quarter century worth of contributions the visionaries Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons have each made to the genre of Hip Hop music.
Each of these evolved eclectics to this day are still actively involved in the culture and are candid about the calculated risks involved with the Def Jam juggernaut. How from a dormitory room at New York University they became architects of the single most important establishment in Hip Hop. Without any set precedents or business models they more times than not made up there own rules. Usually at the cost of other labels that couldn’t figure out were to place themselves in this new game in town.
Here’s a clip: