"I don't know what makes someone hip. The goal is artist achievement and the best work we can do with no limitation."

• Born Frederick Jay Rubin on March 10, 1963, in Long Beach, New York
   
• In 1986 Rick Rubin teamed rap group Run DMC with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith for a cover of the latter's "Walk This Way." The resulting single was the first ever rap tune to chart in the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, and effectively introduced a mainstream audience to rap music. Rubin produced a similar crossover success that year with the Beastie Boys' album Licensed To Ill, which featured the smash hit "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)."
   
• Rubin won his first career GRAMMY as a producer for 1997 for Best Country Album for Johnny Cash's Unchained.
   
• In 2006 Rubin was a producer for three of the nominees for Album Of The Year: the Dixie Chicks' Taking The Long Way, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Stadium Arcadium, and Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveSounds, with the Dixie Chicks' Taking The Long Way ultimately winning.
   
• In 1984 Rubin founded Def Jam records, which he operated out of a dorm room at New York University, where he was a student at the time.

• In 2016 Rubin was honored with The Recording Academy's President's Merit Award during the Producers & Engineers Wing's annual GRAMMY Week event in recognition of his creative and sonic excellence and ongoing support for the art and craft of recorded music.