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LL Cool J: Rick actually called me back at my house one day. I wasn’t there, but my grandmother answered. And she could tear a name in half like confetti: "Slick Stubin." "Jimmy Hoogan." "Flip Loogan." "Trick Lubin." I was like, "Rick Rubin?" She said, "Yeah, that’s it!" Jumped on the old rotary phone. Rick was like, "Yo, this is Rick. Come on down. Let’s make a demo." I said, "Word? Oh, man!" People take pills to feel like that!

Adam Horovitz: He was a kid. He had the classic early eighties b-boy look: tight Lee jeans, adidas shell toes, fat laces going up the leg, a Kangol, Cazals, a Le Tigre shirt. And LL was just like, "Who _are _these people? What’s up with these white boys?" Not only that, but Rick was in this weird dorm room. I’m assuming LL expected it to be an office with a secretary and coffee—like on TV. He was just shocked. It was really funny.

LL Cool J: When Rick came downstairs, the first thing I said was, "Yo, you Rick?" He said, "Yeah." I said, "I thought you was black." He said, "Cool."

Rick Rubin: Everyone I met in hip-hop was surprised that I was white. It really was an oddity in the places I was going. But I felt like our passion for music overrode any color, or of my being, you know, the suburban kid. It seemed like we had something in common that was much more profound and special than our differences, something that not so many people had: the love of this music. And together we were the minority. That’s how I felt.

**Adam Horovitz: **Then we went to the studio and recorded "I Need a Beat." I’d made all these beats on Rick’s drum machine, and he used one of them. I got credit on the 12-inch, but not on the album. Waddaya gonna do?

LL Cool J: As soon as we finished the demo, me and Rick played it for Russell. I remember sitting on a pillow because Russell didn’t have chairs in his office at 1133 Broadway. Russell looked at me then asked Rick, "Who’s this guy smilin’ at?" He was smiling, too. Until then, I’d never heard of him. All I knew was that he was behind that desk and had something to do with my dream. Russell was one of those guys who could speak prophecy into your life. He said, "This is LL—he’s gonna make a fortune." You know, it was written. He’d just take me everywhere and say that.

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Rick Rubin: I brought it to Russell and said, "I just finished this record. What should I do with it?" He said, "It’s great. It’s a hit. Let’s give it to Profile." I said, "All you’ve done since we’ve been friends is complain to me about Profile—you hate ’em, you don’t trust ’em, you have to do all the work because they don’t do any, they steal from you, they don’t pay you. Why would we give it to them?" He said, "Well, there are so few options." I said, "Why don’t we just do it ourselves?" He said, "I don’t wanna do that because I’m gonna start a real label." He talked about Robert Ford because Robert Ford was his mentor, and he had an imprint deal with Mercury Records. That was the path Russell wanted to go. I said, "This won’t get in the way of that. This is separate. Let’s do a little independent company. I’ll make all the records. I’ll do all the work. I’ll do everything. You just be my partner."