No. 3 Def Jam Recordings
There had been moderately successful hip-hop labels before, but upstarts like Enjoy and Sugarhill never bum-rushed the mainstream with the kind of purpose and visibility that Def Jam had. Founded by Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons, the label proved that rappers could be as big as any other global music stars and it provided a template for everyone from Ruthless to Bad Boy to Cash Money Records to follow.
