POP MUSIC

DEF DEAL: Controversial acts Slayer, Danzig and Andrew Dice Clay have a new address: 3300 Warner Blvd., Burbank. Rick Rubin’s Def American Records, notorious for eyebrow-raising performers, has just inked a seven-year distribution deal with Warner Bros. Records. The action comes more than a year after Rubin ended distribution ties with Geffen Records following that label’s refusal to release a Def American album by the scandalous Houston rap group the Geto Boys.

As part of the new pact, Rubin becomes a Warner Bros. executive as well as having complete control over his own releases. The main prize on Rubin’s Def American roster: the Black Crowes, whose 1990 debut has sold more than 3 million copies.

Rubin, 28, said that he doesn’t expect any tension in his new association over his on-the-edge tastes, which even before the Geto Boys issue led Geffen to take its name off albums by comedian Clay and hard-rockers Slayer and Danzig. “(The Warner deal) stresses the creative freedoms that I need to have so I don’t run into a situation like last time,” he said.

The first release under the new agreement? A live album by Slayer--the Los Angeles band that has been accused of, among other things, devil worship (they deny it). It’s due Oct. 22.