Rick Rubin | |
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 Rubin in 2006 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as |
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| Born | Frederick Jay Rubin (1963-03-10)March 10, 1963 (age 62) Long Beach, New York, U.S. |
| Origin | Hempstead, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupations |
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| Works | Production discography |
| Years active | 1981–present |
| Labels | |
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Frederick Jay Rubin (/ˈruːbɪn/,ROO-bin; born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer. He is a co-founder ofDef Jam Recordings, founder ofAmerican Recordings, and former co-president ofColumbia Records.
Rubin helped popularizehip hop by producing records for pioneering acts such asLL Cool J,the Beastie Boys,Run-DMC,Public Enemy andGeto Boys. He has also produced hit records for acts from a variety of other genres, such aspop (Kesha,Adele,Ed Sheeran,Lady Gaga),heavy metal (Danzig,Metallica,Slayer),alternative rock (The Cult,Red Hot Chili Peppers,Rage Against the Machine,the Strokes,Weezer),hard rock (Audioslave,AC/DC,Aerosmith),nu metal (Linkin Park,System of a Down,Slipknot), andcountry (Johnny Cash,The Avett Brothers,the Chicks,Tyler Childers). He also worked withKid Rock in 2010 for his albumBorn Free.
In 2007, Rubin was called "the most important producer of the last 20 years" byMTV[1] and was named onTime's 2007 list of the "100 Most Influential People in the World".[2]
Frederick Jay Rubin was born into aJewish family inLong Beach, New York, on March 10, 1963,[3] the son of housewife Linda and shoe wholesaler Michael Rubin.[4] He grew up inLido Beach. While a student atLong Beach High School, Rubin befriended the school's audiovisual department director, who gave him a few lessons in guitar playing and songwriting.[5] He then played in a band with three friends, performing at garage gigs and school shows until a teacher helped him create apunk band called the Pricks. Their biggest claim to fame was being thrown off the stage atCBGB after performing two songs due to brawling with hecklers. This turn of events was actually instigated by friends of the band who had been instructed to do so to get the show shut down and create a buzz.[6] Although he had no authority inNew York City, his father traveled toManhattan wearing his Long Beachauxiliary police uniform as he attempted to "shut down" the show.[citation needed]
Rubin foundedDef Jam Recordings while in college at New York University.[7] He moved on to form the bandHose, influenced by San Francisco'sFlipper, where he played guitar. In 1982, a Hose track became Def Jam's first release, a 45 rpm 7" vinyl single in a brown paper bag, and no label.[8] The band played in and around the NYC punk scene, toured the Midwest and California, and played with seminalhardcore bands likeMeat Puppets,Hüsker Dü,Circle Jerks,Butthole Surfers, andMinor Threat, becoming friends withFugazi frontman andDischord Records ownerIan MacKaye. The band broke up in 1984 as Rubin's passion moved toward the NYC hip hop scene.[8]
Having befriendedZulu Nation'sDJ Jazzy Jay, Rubin began to learn abouthip hop production. By 1983, the two had produced "It's Yours" for Bronx rapperT La Rock, and released it on Def Jam. ProducerArthur Baker helped to distribute the record worldwide on Baker's Streetwise Records in 1984. Jazzy Jay introduced Rubin to concert promoter/artist managerRussell Simmons in the Negril 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 attendingNew York University in 1984. Its first release wasLL Cool J's "I Need a Beat". Rubin went on to find more hip-hop acts outsidethe Bronx,Brooklyn, andHarlem, including rappers fromQueens,Staten Island, andLong Island, which eventually led to Def Jam's signing ofPublic Enemy. Rubin was instrumental in pointing the members of the Beastie Boys away from their punk roots and into rap, resulting inKate Schellenbach's departure from the group.[9] The Beastie Boys' 1985 "Rock Hard"/"Party's Gettin' Rough"/"Beastie Groove" EP came out on the success of Rubin's production work with breakthrough actRun-DMC, of which previous recordings were produced by Simmons and Orange Krush's musician Larry Smith. His productions were characterized by occasionally fusing rap withheavy rock. Rubin tappedAdam Dubin andRic Menello to co-direct the videos for the Beastie Boys' "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)" and "No Sleep till Brooklyn", effectively launching the band's mainstream hip hop career.[10][11]
It was the idea of Rubin's friend Sue Cummings, an editor atSpin magazine, to have Run-DMC andAerosmith collaborate on acover of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way". This 1986 production is often credited with both introducingrap hard rock to mainstream ears and revitalizing Aerosmith's career.[12] In 1986, he worked with Aerosmith again on demos for their forthcoming album, but their collaboration ended early and resulted in only rough studio jams. In the same year, Rubin began his long musical partnership withSlayer, producingReign in Blood, considered a classic of the heavy metal genre. This was his first work with a metal band.
In 1987,the Cult released its pivotal third album,Electric. Produced by Rubin, the album remains one of the Cult's trademark and classic works. Rubin worked with the Cult again on the 1992 single "The Witch". He is credited as music supervisor for the filmLess than Zero and as the producer ofits soundtrack. Rubin portrayed a character based on himself in the 1985 hip-hop motion pictureKrush Groove, which was inspired by the early days of Simmons's career as an artist manager and music producer. He then directed and co-wrote (withRic Menello) a second Run–DMC film,Tougher Than Leather in 1988.[citation needed][13]
In 1988, Rubin and Simmons went their separate ways after Rubin had a falling out with then Def Jam presidentLyor Cohen. Rubin left forLos Angeles to start Def American Records, while Simmons remained at Def Jam in New York. In Los Angeles, Rubin signed a number of rock and heavy metal acts, includingDanzig,Masters of Reality,the Four Horsemen, andWolfsbane, as well as alternative rock groupthe Jesus and Mary Chain and stand-up comedianAndrew Dice Clay. Though Rubin's work at this time focused mainly on rock and metal, he still retained a close association with rap, signing theGeto Boys and continuing to work with Public Enemy, LL Cool J, and Run-DMC.[14][15][16]
Rubin had originally given his new label the name "Def American Recordings". In 1993, he found that the word "def" had been accepted into the standardized dictionary and held an actual funeral for the word, complete with a casket, grave, celebrity mourners, and a eulogy byAl Sharpton.[4][17] Def American becameAmerican Recordings. Rubin has said: "When advertisers and the fashion world co-opted the image of hippies, a group of the original hippies in San Francisco literally buried the image of the hippie. When 'def' went from street lingo to mainstream, it defeated its purpose."[18]
The first major project on the renamed label wasJohnny Cash'sAmerican Recordings (1994), a record including six cover songs and new material written by others for Cash at Rubin's request. The album was a critical and commercial success, and helped revive Cash's career after a fallow period. The formula was repeated for five more Cash albums:Unchained (on whichTom Petty and the Heartbreakers served as the backing band),Solitary Man,The Man Comes Around (the last album released before Cash's death),A Hundred Highways, andAin't No Grave.The Man Comes Around earned a 2003Grammy forBest Male Country Vocal Performance ("Give My Love to Rose") and a nomination forBest Country Collaboration with Vocals ("Bridge over Troubled Water" withFiona Apple). Rubin introduced Cash toNine Inch Nails' "Hurt", and the resulting cover version of it onThe Man Comes Around became a defining song of Cash's later years. Rubin also produced two ofJoe Strummer's final songs, "Long Shadow", a song Strummer wrote for Cash to record although he never did, and a cover ofBob Marley's "Redemption Song". Both were released on Strummer's final album,Streetcore, which was released after his death. Rubin also produced a version of "Redemption Song" with Strummer and Cash together, which was featured in Cash's posthumous box set,Unearthed.
Rubin has also produced a number of records with other artists, which were released on labels other than American. Arguably his biggest success as a producer came from working with theRed Hot Chili Peppers, with whom Rubin produced six studio albums from 1991 to 2011, and in 2022, starting with the band's fifth release,Blood Sugar Sex Magik, which launched the band to mainstream success thanks to the hit singles "Give It Away" and "Under the Bridge". Other albums includeOne Hot Minute,Californication,By the Way,Stadium Arcadium,I'm With You,Unlimited Love, andReturn of the Dream Canteen. The eight albums with the Chili Peppers also spawned 14 number-one singles on theBillboardAlternative Songs chart, a record the band as of 2022 still holds. It also received various award nods including 16 Grammy nominations (with six wins), and a Producer of the Year Grammy award for 2006'sStadium Arcadium, which was also nominated for Album of the Year. The band has sold over 80 million albums worldwide, most of which are the Rubin-produced albums. Various members of the Chili Peppers have also been used on other projects by Rubin, John Frusciante featured on Johnny Cash and Chad Smith featured on the Chicks. After 24 years of working with Rubin, the band announced in late 2014 that it would be working withDanger Mouse on its 11th studio album. As previously mentioned, Rubin returned to the role of producer for the band's two albums released in 2022, seven months apart from one another:Unlimited Love andReturn of the Dream Canteen. Again these two albums both featured no.1 singles on the Alternative Songs chart.
Rubin also producedMick Jagger's 1993Wandering Spirit album,Lords of Acid's 1994Voodoo-U album,Tom Petty's 1994Wildflowers,AC/DC's 1995Ballbreaker,Donovan's 1996Sutras,System of a Down's 1998Self-titled album, andMetallica's 2008Death Magnetic. In 2005, Rubin executive-producedShakira's two-album projectFijación Oral, Vol. 1 andOral Fixation, Vol. 2. He was to appear on theTalib Kweli's albumEardrum,[19]Clipse's albumTil the Casket Drops[20] andLil Jon's albumCrunk Rock.[21] Rubin also produced theJay-Z track "99 Problems", and was featured in the song's video. He also worked withEminem on the song and music video "Berzerk".
Rubin producedBlack Sabbath's 2013 album13[22] andBilly Corgan's comeback solo albumOgilala.
In 2003 Rubin producedThe Mars Volta debut albumDe-Loused in the Comatorium.
In May 2007, Rubin was named co-head of Columbia Records. He co-producedLinkin Park's 2007 albumMinutes to Midnight withMike Shinoda. Rubin and Shinoda have since co-produced the band's 2010 albumA Thousand Suns and its 2012 releaseLiving Things.
In 2007, Rubin won theGrammy Award forProducer of the Year, Non-Classical for his work withthe Chicks, Michael Kranz,Red Hot Chili Peppers,U2,Green Day, and Johnny Cash released in 2006.[23] Rubin won the award again in 2009, for production work forMetallica,Neil Diamond,Ours,Jakob Dylan, andWeezer in 2008.
In2007 and2012, Rubin won theGrammy Award for Album of the Year. The former was for his work on the Chicks albumTaking the Long Way and the latter came for his contribution toAdele's album21.
Rubin left Columbia in 2012, and revived the American Recordings imprint through a deal withRepublic Records. The first albums released under this new deal wereZZ Top'sLa Futura andthe Avett Brothers'The Carpenter.[24]
Rubin attempted to record acover album withCrosby, Stills & Nash in 2012, but the brief sessions were unsuccessful.Graham Nash called the sessions "irritable" and "not a great experience".[25]
In July 2021, Rubin signed withEndeavor Content to further develop his home studio, Shangri-La Recording Studios.[26]
Rubin has a chapter giving advice inTim Ferriss's bookTools of Titans, and often gives advice on creativity via hisInstagram page.[27]
In 2021 he co-starred in the six-part documentary miniseriesMcCartney 3,2,1 which explores the career ofPaul McCartney.[28]
Rubin's debut book, published on January 17, 2023, byPenguin Press, isThe Creative Act: A Way of Being. It is a nonfiction work about creativity. He said, "I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art. Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be."[29][30]
In 2023, he started hosting apodcast titled "Tetragrammaton" onApple Podcasts, which mainly featuredinterviews.[31]
Rubin's biggest trademark as a producer has been a "stripped-down" sound, which involves eliminating production elements such asstring sections, backup vocals, andreverb, and instead having naked vocals and bare instrumentation. But by the 2000s, Rubin's style[32] included such elements, as noted inThe Washington Post: "As the track reaches a crescendo and [Neil] Diamond's portentous baritone soars over a swelling string arrangement, Rubin leans back, as though floored by the emotional power of the song."[33]
Of Rubin's production methods,Dan Charnas, a music journalist who worked as vice president of A&R (Artists & Repertoire) and marketing at American Recordings 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."[33]Natalie Maines ofthe Chicks has praised his production methods, saying, "He has the ability and the patience to let music be discovered, not manufactured. Come to think of it, maybe he is a guru."[34] ProducerDr. Dre has said that Rubin is "hands down, the dopest producer ever that anyone would ever want to be, ever".[35]
Despite having never worked with Rubin,[36] British bandMuse praised him for his "hands off" approach to production and credited him as an influence on its first self-produced album,The Resistance.[36] The album's lead single, "Uprising", was named UK Single of the Year at the 2010Music Producers Guild Awards, and Muse frontmanMatt Bellamy while accepting the award said, "I'd like to thankJohn Leckie for teaching us how to produce and Rick Rubin for teaching us how not to produce."[37] The statement was initially interpreted as a criticism of Rubin,[38] but Bellamy later clarified it was meant as a self-deprecating comment on the band's similarly "hands-off" attitude to production.[36]
In 2014,Slipknot frontmanCorey Taylor said that he met Rubin only four times during the entire recording process ofVol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses): "We were being charged horrendous amounts of money. And for me, if you're going to produce something, you're fucking there. I don't care who you are! [...] The Rick Rubin of today is a shadow of the Rick Rubin that he was. He is overrated, he is overpaid, and I will never work with him again."[39][40] Taylor expressed regret for those comments in 2016, and said he wanted to make amends with Rubin, attributing the friction to being "freshly sober [...] unsure of [himself]" and to never having previously worked with anyone whose methods were like Rubin's.[41]
In 2019, when comparing Rubin toGreg Fidelman (who had recently produced Slipknot's albumWe Are Not Your Kind), Taylor again criticized Rubin for his absences from the studio due to other work commitments. He said that Rubin was "a nice guy, absolutely nice guy" but claimed that "he just wasn't fucking there" and that the band did not see him more than once a week until they finished recording the vocals at his house.[42]
In 2022, Black Sabbath bassistGeezer Butler said of Rubin's production of the band's 2013 album13: "Some of it I liked, some of it I didn't like particularly. It was a weird experience, especially with being told to forget that you're a heavy metal band. That was the first thing [Rubin] said to us. He played us ourvery first album, and he said, 'Cast your mind back to then when there was no such thing as heavy metal or anything like that, and pretend it's the follow-up album to that,' which is a ridiculous thing to think."[43][44] Butler also stated that vocalistOzzy Osbourne and guitaristTony Iommi had frustrations with Rubin's suggestions, and said: "I still don't know what [Rubin] did. It's, like, 'Yeah, that's good.' 'No, don't do that.' And you go, 'Why?' [And he'd say], 'Just don't do it.'"[43][44]
Since at least 1999, listeners have criticized Rubin for contributing to a phenomenon in music known as theloudness war, in which thedynamic range of recorded music iscompressed and sometimesclipped in order to increase the general loudness. Albums Rubin produced that have been criticized for such treatment include:
Rubin has practicedBuddhism andmeditation since he was 14 years old.[53][54] He also has a preference for goingbarefoot for spiritual reasons.[55]
Rubin lives inMalibu, California. He is married to Mourielle Hurtado Herrera, a former actress and model turned farmer. They have a son who was born in 2017.[56]
Rubin was avegan for over 20 years, but later began eating meat again.[57] He is a fan ofprofessional wrestling and held season tickets toWWE events atMadison Square Garden throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He has cited wrestlersRoddy Piper andRic Flair as influences on his work, and has said thatvillainous wrestlers were hugely influential in the development of theBeastie Boys' public image. He financially backed wrestling promoterJim Cornette's companySmoky Mountain Wrestling from 1991 to 1995.[58]
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