In 1981, a long-haired philosophy major named Frederick Jay Rubin enrolled at NYU. Rick had started making recordings under the moniker Def Jam Records while in high school at Lido Beach, NY. He continued to produce recordings while in his dorm room (#802) on the eighth floor of Weinstein Hall.

In 1983, Rubin had befriended Zulu Nation's Jazzy Jay, who taught Rubin about hip hop production. Later that year, the Beastie Boys had an unexpected hit with their pseudo-hip hop song "Cooky Puss" off their Pollywog Stew EP. They hired Rubin to DJ for them as they made the transition from a hardcore punk band to a hip hop act.

Def Jam Records put out their first hip hop track, "It's Yours" by T La Rock, in 1983. The single was produced by Rubin and Jazzy Jay and distributed by Streetwise Records. Rubin was introduced to promoter/manager Russell Simmons by Jazzy Jay, and Jazzy was edged out of Def Jam shortly after.

In 1984, Def Jam put out the debut single by Queens rapper LL Cool J called "I Need a Beat." The song was written by James Todd Smith (LL Cool J), Adam Horovitz (King Ad-Rock), and Rick Rubin.

Along with the Beastie Boys Rock Hard EP, "I Need a Beat" features the earliest logo artwork and catalog numbers for Def Jam Recordings. Rock Hard is the first rap attempt by the Beastie Boys, but is not available in the US because it features an unlicensed sample from AC/DC. The song is essentially a prototype of the hard-rock/hip hop fusion that would make Licensed to Ill enormously successful.

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On May 11, 1965, Johnny Cash was arrested in Starkville, Mississippi for what he described as "pickin' flowers." The official charge was public drunkenness, and Johnny Cash spent the night in the Starkville City Jail (now known as Oktibbeha County Jail). While in the jail cell, Cash kicked the wall so hard that he broke his toe. He was fined $36 and released the next morning.

The NY Times recounted a near mythical experience of Smokey Evans that night. Smokey claims that when he was 15 and drunk, he was thrown in the same cell as Cash. After Johnny broke his toe, he gave Smokey his black shoes and said: "Here’s a souvenir. I’m Johnny Cash." Evans left the shoes to his nephew in his will.

The experience was immortalized in the song "Starkville City Jail" which was recorded on the At San Quentin live album. Johnny Cash was arrested in seven different cities, but only Starkville warranted its own song.

Since that fateful day, the town of Starkville has periodically held the Pardon Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival to celebrate the Man in Black's brush with the law for drunken horticulture.

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The Guns N' Roses Use Your Illusion Tour was one of the longest rock tours ever lasting 28 months from the beginning of 1991 until mid-1993. An hour and a half into their July 2, 1991 show at the Riverport Amphitheater west of St. Louis, Axl Rose repeatedly told security to confiscate the camera of someone in the front. When they didn't he dived into the crowd and then threw down the mic when he returned to the stage, ending the show and kicking off a riot in the new venue that had only been open for less than one month.

It wasn't until after GNR returned from the Europe leg of their tour the following year that Axl was arrested on assault and property damage charges. A second riot took place in 1992 after a show in Montreal when the band was on tour with Metallica and Faith No More.

Watch footage of the St. Louis incident here.

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In 1957, Satellite Records was formed by Jim Stewart in his wife's uncle's garage in North Memphis, TN. By 1961, Stewart's sister had mortgaged her house to pay for recording equipment, and the name had changed to Stax Records.

The studio moved into the abandoned Capitol Theater on McLemore Ave, and a group of neighborhood kids began playing on records regularly, becoming Booker T. and the MGs (the house band at Stax for 8 years). In 1962, the same year they came out with "Green Onions," Otis Redding had joined Stax Records.

In 1965, Sam & Dave joined Stax and with the help of song-writer Isaac Hayes (theme from Shaft, South Park's Chef) put out a string of hits including "I Take What I Want," "Soul Man," and "Hold On, I'm Coming."

In 1967, tragedy struck the Stax family when Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays crashed into Lake Monona, WI.

Today, the Stax Museum is open to the public, supporting a number of music programs in the Memphis area.

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A beloved stalwart dive bar in the increasingly yuppified Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis, the CC Club was the inspiration for The Replacements song "Here Comes a Regular" off their 1985 album Tim.

The Replacements, Hüsker Dü, Soul Asylum (and pretty much every other Twin Cities band) used to hang out here regularly- the record store Oar Folkjokeopus, which is now Treehouse Records, is across the street.

It's a good place to go when you've worked up "a mean, mean thirst after a hard day of nothin' much at all."

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