Our contestants are the two great popularizers and champions of new and emerging musical forms - from swing to the beloved rap/metal crossover - in American music, from the 1930s to the present day. They discovered (or re-discovered) and produced work by artists that they liked, rather than what was dictated to them by factors such as a segregated marketplace or what was acceptable for radio. This revolutionized the recording industry by enabling the crossover, emergence and full acceptance of new kinds of music. Besides making a tremendous amount of money, they helped bridge the cultural and racial divisions in America through mostly musical means.

Background: John Hammond, Sr. (not to be confused with his son, blues musician John Hammond, Jr.) was born in 1910 in New York. He showed a talent and appreciation for music at an early age. Hearing blues legend Bessie Smith sing live in 1927 would remain an influence on Hammond for the rest of his life. Leaving his musical studies behind he started producing records, having his first hit by pianist Garland Wilson in 1930.

He worked as a music journalist in the 1930s and continued producing records for jazz and blues artists such as Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Fletcher Henderson, Count Basie and Billie Holiday, among many others. He was devoted to bringing African-American music to white audiences and worked to remove the colour barrier in the music industry. He was an early member of the NAACP and owned fully integrated nightclubs. After serving in WWII, he concentrated on recording and promoting classical music. Moving to Columbia Records in the late `50s, he discovered and worked with the legendary Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin (who sold few records at Columbia as a gospel singer), folk singer Pete Seeger, and a very young Bruce Springsteen. His last discovery was blues guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughan. Hammond died in 1987.

Rick Rubin was born in Long Island in 1963. He grew up obsessed with The Beatles and the punk and metal of the 70s . Gravitating towards hip-hop (what he considered to be black punk), he founded Def Jam Records with Russell Simmons and in 1984 started putting out records. The deluge of fantastic records that Rick Rubin made helped define what was exciting in the `80s and a reaction against safe rap and pop artists with nothing to say. Wanting to branch out from hip-hop, he later left Def Jam and New York, locating to Los Angeles to form Def American (later American) Records. In the `90s he produced acts such as Tom Petty, Donovan and Aerosmith.

The impact of Public Enemy and Anthrax's version of "Bring the Noise" alone cannot be overestimated and places Rubin as an important figure in modern cultural life.

Methods: The methods that both used were exceedingly simple. Bruce Springsteen walked off the street into Hammond's office, avoided eye contact, sang one song with an acoustic guitar and was signed on the spot. Rubin simply works with acts he likes, from AC/DC to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and even made Johnny Cash a big star again before his death in 2003.

In the studio, both were fond of spare production when it was needed most, for example Bob Dylan's first album's off-the-cuff intimacy and the forceful simplicity of LL Cool J and Run-DMC's early work. Rubin likes to mess with people's expectations: the hard rock/metal (as opposed to disco) samples on his early work, and how he was responsible for cajoling Red Hot Chili Peppers to unleash "Under the Bridge" on an unsuspecting populace.

Smokey Highly Recommends: John Hammond: the work of the artists mentioned is all pretty awesome. Rick Rubin: Run-DMC Raising Hell (1986), Slayer - Reign in Blood (1986), Public Enemy - Yo! Bum Rush the Show (1987) and It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back(1988), Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill (1987), Johnny Cash - American Recordings (1994).