Rick Rubin Totally Explained

Everything about Rick Rubin totally explained

Frederick Jay "Rick" Rubin (born March 10 1963 in Lido Beach, New York) is a Jewish American record producer and is currently the co-head of Columbia Records. He is given credit for merging rap and heavy metal (now known as rapcore), as well as the "American series" albums with Johnny Cash. MTV called him "the most important producer of the last 20 years."
Rick is a musician serving as the original DJ of the Beastie Boys, and a head of a record label, co-founding Def Jam Records with Russell Simmons, and later founding American Recordings. In 2007, Rubin was listed among Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World.

Career

Def Jam years

Rubin has Jewish roots and grew up in Lido Beach, New York. His father was a shoe wholesaler and his mother a housewife. While a student at Long Beach High School he befriended the school's AV Director Steve Freeman who gave him a few lessons in guitar playing and songwriting and helped him create a punk band called "The Pricks". At school, Rubin was unpopular among the other musicians. During his senior year Rubin founded Def Jam records using the school's four track recorder. Moving on to New York University he played guitar in a New York University art-punk band called "Hose", influenced by San Francisco's Flipper. In 1982, Hose became Def Jam release #1, a 45 rpm 7" vinyl single in a brown paper bag, and no label. The band played in and around the NYC punk scene, toured the Midwest and California, and played with seminal punk bands like the Meat Puppets, Hüsker Dü, the Circle Jerks and the Butthole Surfers. The band broke up in 1986 as Rubin's passion moved towards the NYC Hip Hop scene.
   Having befriended Zulu Nation's DJ Jazzy Jay, Rubin began to learn about hip hop production. By 1983, the two men produced "It's Yours" for rapper T La Rock, and released it on their independent label, Def Jam Records. Producer Arthur Baker helped to distribute the record worldwide on Baker's Streetwise Records in 1984.
   Jazzy Jay introduced Rubin to concert promoter/artist manager Russell Simmons in a club, and Rubin explained he needed help getting Def Jam off the ground. Simmons and Rubin edged out Jazzy Jay and the official Def Jam record label was founded while Rubin was still attending New York University in 1984. Their first record released was LL Cool J's "I Need a Beat". Rubin went on to find more hip-hop acts outside The Bronx, Brooklyn and Harlem including rappers from Queens, Staten Island and Long Island, which eventually led to Def Jam's signing of Public Enemy. "Rock Hard"/"Party's Gettin' Rough"/"Beastie Groove" EP by the Beastie Boys came out on the success of Rubin's production work with breakthrough act Run-D.M.C.. His productions were characterized by occasionally fusing rap with heavy rock.
   It was Rubin's idea to have Run-D.M.C. and Aerosmith collaborate on a cover of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" in 1986, a production credited with both introducing rap-hard rock to mainstream ears and revitalizing Aerosmith.

Def American years

In 1988, Simmons and Rubin went their separate ways, partly due to a power struggle that Rubin lost with Def Jam president Lyor Cohen. Simmons stayed in New York with Def Jam, and Rubin left for Los Angeles, California, where he created Def American Records. In Los Angeles, he signed a number of heavy rock acts, including Slayer, Danzig, Masters of Reality, and Wolfsbane, as well as the indie rockers The Jesus and Mary Chain and controversial stand up comedian Andrew Dice Clay. Rubin also produced the Red Hot Chili Peppers' breakthrough album Blood Sugar Sex Magik. He retained a close association with rap, signing the Geto Boys and continuing to work with Public Enemy, LL Cool J and Run-DMC among others.

American Recordings years

Rubin originally had given his label the name "Def Jam". The word "Jam" in urban culture is slang for a song or musical composition that's well liked for its attractive rhythm and dance appeal. Nine years later, Rubin found that the word "def" had been accepted into the standardized dictionary; in 1993, Rubin held an actual funeral, complete with a casket and a grave, for the word "def". Def American became American Recordings.
   The first major project on the renamed label was Johnny Cash's American Recordings (1994), a record including six cover versions. The album helped revive Cash's career following a fallow period. The formula was repeated for four more Cash albums: Unchained,, (the last album released before Cash's death), and . The Man Comes Around earned a 2003 Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal Performance ("Give My Love to Rose") and a nomination for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals ("Bridge Over Troubled Water" with Fiona Apple). Rubin introduced Cash to Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt", and the resulting cover of it on The Man Comes Around would become the defining song of Cash's later years.
   Rubin produced a number of records with other older artists, including Mick Jagger's 1993 Wandering Spirit album, Tom Petty's 1994 Wildflowers, and Donovan's 1996 Sutras.
   In 2007, Rubin won the Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical for his work with The Dixie Chicks, Justin Timberlake, Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2, and Johnny Cash released in 2006.

Production trademarks

Rubin's biggest trademark as a producer has been a "stripped-down" sound, that involves eliminating production elements such as string sections, backup vocals, and reverb, and instead having naked vocals and bare instrumentation. However, by the 2000s, Rubin's style had been known to include such elements, as noted in the Washington Post: "As the track reaches a crescendo and Diamond's portentous baritone soars over a swelling string arrangement, Rubin leans back, as though floored by the emotional power of the song". Another form of stripping down the sound of an album would be Rick Rubin's suggestions to have 'Gapless Albums' which are albums with songs that segue into each other, such as Minutes To Midnight by Linkin Park, South of Heaven by Slayer, and Blood Sugar Sex Magik by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
   His previous style began with his very first production effort, LL Cool J's Radio, which consisted of little more than rapping and percussive beats (the liner notes credit for the album read "Reduced by Rick Rubin" rather than the usual "Produced by Rick Rubin"). He later gained a reputation for being able to restore the careers of veteran singers and bands, as somebody who could help them break out of the commercial rut they were currently in. He did this most notably with Johnny Cash, achieving this with Tom Petty and Neil Diamond (on 12 Songs) as well.
   On the subject of his production methods; Dan Charnas, a music journalist who worked as vice president of A&R and marketing at Rubin's American Recordings label in the 1990s, said "He's fantastic with sound and arrangements, and he's tremendous with artists. They love him. He shows them how to make it better, and he gets more honest and exciting performances out of people than anyone." Rubin pioneered the fusion of rap and hard rock/heavy metal in his work with Run-D.M.C., the Beastie Boys and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Later examples of his rap-rock fusion were Jay-Z's 2003 song "99 Problems" and Lil' Jon's 2004 song "Stop Fuckin Wit Me". The latter sampled Slayer's "Mandatory Suicide" and "Raining Blood", both originally produced by Rubin. He also co-produced Linkin Park's latest album Minutes to Midnight.
   Another trademark has been having artists cover songs where the covering band's style is different from the original version of the song. Rubin produced Slayer's cover of Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", and produced Rage Against the Machine's 2000 covers album, Renegades. He presented the song "Hurt" to Johnny Cash originally recorded by industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. He also brought the members of RATM to form Audioslave and produced their first two albums, Audioslave and Out Of Exile.

Awards

Rubin has won 6 Grammy Awards 1998:

Best Country Album- Unchained, Johnny Cash

2007:

Record of the Year- Not Ready to Make Nice, Dixie Chicks

Album of the Year- Taking the Long Way, Dixie Chicks

Best Rock Album- Stadium Arcadium, Red Hot Chili Peppers

Best Country Album- Taking the Long Way, Dixie Chicks

Producer of the Year, Non-Classical

List of albums produced

1985: Radio – LL Cool J

1986: Licensed to Ill – Beastie Boys

1986: Raising Hell – Run-DMC

1986: Reign in Blood – Slayer

1987: Electric – The Cult

1987: Yo! Bum Rush the Show - Public Enemy

1988: Danzig – Danzig

1988: Tougher Than Leather – Run-DMC

1988: South of Heaven – Slayer

1988: Masters of Reality – Masters of Reality

1989: Dice – Andrew Dice Clay

1989: Live Fast, Die Fast – Wolfsbane

1990: Same – Geto Boys

1990: Trouble – Trouble

1990: – Danzig

1990: Seasons in the Abyss – Slayer

1991: Nobody Said It Was Easy – The Four Horsemen

1991: Manic Frustration – Trouble

1991: Decade of Aggression – Slayer

1991: Blood Sugar Sex Magik – Red Hot Chili Peppers

1992: – Danzig

1992: King King – Red Devils

1993: – Danzig

1993: Wandering Spirit – Mick Jagger

1993: 21st Century Jesus – Messiah

1994: Danzig 4 – Danzig

1994: American Recordings – Johnny Cash

1994: Divine Intervention – Slayer

1994: Wildflowers – Tom Petty

1995: One Hot Minute – Red Hot Chili Peppers

1995: Ballbreaker – AC/DC

1995: God Lives Underwater – God Lives Underwater

1995: Empty – God Lives Underwater

1996: Songs and Music from "She's the One" – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

1996: Unchained – Johnny Cash

1996: Undisputed Attitude – Slayer

1996: Don't Call me Barry – Hermann and the Hermits

1996: Sutras – Donovan

1998: "Let Me Give the World to You" – The Smashing Pumpkins (an unreleased song)

1998: – Johnny Cash & Willie Nelson

1998: Diabolus in Musica – Slayer

1998: Car Wheels on a Gravel Road – Lucinda Williams (mix only)

1998: System of a Down – System of a Down

1998: Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts – Kula Shaker ("Sound of Drums")

1998: – South Park

1999: Northern Star – Melanie C ("Suddenly Monday" and "Ga Ga")

1999: Californication – Red Hot Chili Peppers

1999: Echo – Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers

1999: Loud Rocks – V/A ("Shame" by System of a Down and Wu-Tang Clan, "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nothing Ta Fuck Wit" Tom Morello, Chad Smith and Wu-Tang Clan)

1999: The Globe Sessions – Sheryl Crow ("Sweet Child O'Mine")

2000: – Johnny Cash

2000: Paloalto – Paloalto

2000: Renegades – Rage Against the Machine

2001: Amethyst Rock Star – Saul Williams

2001: The War of Art – American Head Charge

2001: Breath of the Heart – Krishna Das

2001: The Final Studio Recordings – Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

2001: Toxicity – System of a Down

2002: – Johnny Cash

2002: By the Way – Red Hot Chili Peppers

2002: Audioslave – Audioslave

2002: Steal This Album! – System of a Down

2003: Results May Vary – Limp Bizkit (with Terry Date and Jordan Schur)

2003: Unearthed – Johnny Cash

2003: Door of Faith – Krishna Das

2003: De-Loused in the Comatorium – The Mars Volta (with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez)

2003: The Black Album – Jay-Z ("99 Problems")

2003: Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium – Rage Against the Machine

2003: Heroes and Villains – Paloalto

2004: Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses) – Slipknot

2004: Armed Love – The (International) Noise Conspiracy

2004: Crunk Juice – Lil' Jon and the East Side Boyz ("Stop Fuckin' Wit Me")

2005: Make Believe – Weezer

2005: Fijación Oral Vol. 1 – Shakira

2005: Oral Fixation Vol. 2 – Shakira

2005: Out of Exile – Audioslave

2005: Mezmerize – System of a Down

2005: Hypnotize – System of a Down

2005: 12 Songs – Neil Diamond

2006: Stadium Arcadium – Red Hot Chili Peppers

2006: Taking the Long Way – Dixie Chicks

2006: – Johnny Cash

2006: FutureSex/LoveSounds – Justin Timberlake ("(Another Song) All Over Again")

2006: The Saints are Coming – U2 and Green Day (single)

2006: Window in the Skies – U2 (single)

2007: American VI – Johnny Cash

2007: Heroes and Thieves – Vanessa Carlton (with Irv Gotti, 7 Aurelius and Stephan Jenkins)

2007: Luna Halo – Luna Halo

2007: Dancing for the Death of an Imaginary Enemy – Ours

2007: "Better Than I've Ever Been" – Kanye West, Nas, KRS-One (single)

2007: Minutes to Midnight – Linkin Park

2007: Free Life – Dan Wilson

2008: The Cross of My Calling – The (International) Noise Conspiracy

2008: Weezer – Weezer

2008: Scars on Broadway – Scars on Broadway

2008: Home Before Dark – Neil Diamond

2008: Dancing for the Death of an Imaginary Enemy - Ours

2008: Seeing Things – Jakob Dylan

2008: Metallica's ninth studio album – Metallica

2008: Slayer's Tenth Studio Album – SlayerFurther Information
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