Hip-hop wasn’t always as accepted as it is today. Even though it began to peak about a decade after punk, the two American styles shared a lot in common and broke similar boundaries.
Leading the way for rap’s entree into mainstream radio and MTV was Def Jam Records, founded by Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin. Together they helped launch the careers of Run DMC, the Beastie Boys, and Public Enemy, all of whom changed the musical landscape of the 1980s.
Each of them, along with Grandmaster Flash, became the first four hip-hop artists to get inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
So when people call Rick Rubin a genius, he could have stopped his producing in the ’80s, and rested on his laurel of producing the first three of four rap outfits who broke through to the Rock Hall.
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