Curated playlist
Def Jam Recordings artists
- Lady GagaLady Gaga's name may have come from a phone typo. Producer Rob Fusari said autocorrect turned "Radio Ga Ga" into "Lady".
- Kanye WestKanye West recorded "Through the Wire" with his jaw still wired shut. A 2002 car accident had shattered it.
- Jay-ZNo major label would sign Jay-Z, so he sold burned CDs out of his car.
- Katy PerryKaty Perry grew up in a home where the word "luck" was banned. Her pastor mother said it reminded her of Lucifer.
- Marley MarlMarley Marl's studio mistake with a snare drum changed how hip-hop beats were built.
- RihannaRobyn Rihanna Fenty, known worldwide as Rihanna, once waited in Jay-Z's office while lawyers finished drawing up a six-album contract with Def Jam Recordings. The music executive Antonio "L.A." Reid had told Jay-Z not to let the teenager…
- Beastie BoysThe Beastie Boys, an American hip-hop trio from New York City, once set off a worldwide run of car thefts without ever touching a car. Around the time their debut album came out, Mike D began appearing on stage and in publicity photographs…
- Rick RossRick Ross worked as a prison guard before he became a rap star. He first denied it, then confirmed it.
- Mariah CareyMariah Carey handed her demo tape to a record boss at a party in December 1988. He turned his car around.
- Kendrick LamarKendrick Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2018, the first for a piece outside classical and jazz.
- NasNas was born Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, and every piece of that name carries a meaning. Nasir is an Arabic name for a helper and protector, and bin means son of. The American rapper, entrepreneur and record producer first recorded in 1989…
- LL Cool JLL Cool J became the first rapper to receive the Kennedy Center Honors in 2017.
- Iggy AzaleaIggy Azalea, born Amethyst Amelia Kelly on the 7th of June 1990, told her parents in 2006 that she was going to the United States on a holiday with a friend. She was shortly before her sixteenth birthday. The holiday never ended. She…
- DMXDMX was the first artist to open five straight studio albums at number one on the Billboard 200.