Back in 1985 I was an editor at Billboard magazine, just six years out of Queen’s St. John’s University. I was then living off the Parson’s Boulevard stop on the E and F train in the heart of Jamaica, Queens and, through my roommate the late Robert Ford Jr aka Rocky I became friends with a slew of Queens musicians and promoters, including Russell Simmons who managed Kurtis Blow, promoted shows and had recently formed an independent record label called Def Jam. Depite these many Queens connections it was Long Island bred Def Jam co-owner and producer Rick Rubin who asked me to write liner notes for the debut album of a teenager named LL Cool J. I believe on the album it says “Reduced by Rick Rubin,” because the sound was lean and hard, leaving lots of room from Todd Smith to motor mouth over these beats. Somewhere in storage is a gold record I got for my small role in the start of a legendary career. I’m a Brooklyn boy, but some of the most important events in my life happened in Queens. Writing these notes was one of them.
FYI The book, ‘Fresh Hip Hop Don’t Stop,’ was a collection of essays on the emerging art form and I was just one of several writers on the project.