The Simple Genius of Rick Rubin

About this episode

The episode explores the life and innovative music production techniques of Rick Rubin.

David Senra: Read the notes at at podcastnotes.org . Don't forget to subscribe for free to our newsletter, the top 10 ideas of the week, every Monday --------- Rick Rubin grew up on Long Island obsessed with music — arena rock at 13, punk by high school, then hip-hop when it was still a street movement you could only hear at one club in New York City. The records coming out didn't sound like the club. They were made by professionals who didn't go to the club. So at 18, while a freshman at NYU, he made one himself — "It's Yours" with T La Rock. It sold 100,000 copies in 18 months. He put his dorm room address on the sleeve. This launched Def Jam Recordings. LL Cool J's first record came next. The Beastie Boys after that. His credit on those records didn't say "produced by." It said "reduced by" — a theological statement as much as a job title. His method has never changed: strip everything down until what remains has no place to hide, then protect whatever magic appears. He's applied it to Jay-Z, Johnny Cash, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Eminem, The Strokes, Metallica, Kanye West, Tom Petty, and many other top artists. He describes himself as a lazy workaholic. The Zen exterior is…

People in this episode

Host: David Senra

Topics covered

• music production
• entrepreneurship
• record labels
• artist collaboration
• creative process

Keywords

• Rick Rubin
• Def Jam
• music production
• creativity
• hip-hop

Sponsors

Ramp, Deel, HubSpot

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Def Jam Recordings

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