Noisey gets to music legends for their Back & Forth series. Here is part one and two of a talk between Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons, talking about LL Cool J and the Beasties.
Shade 45 Interviews Rick Rubin
There were a lot of important folks here (Paul Rosenberg, Stretch Armstrong, Lord Sear, DJ Whoo Kid and more), but the Shade 45 crew got producer super-legend Rick Rubin on the air to speak on working with Eminem, White people in Hip-Hop, some Def Jam history and much more.
Eminem – Berzerk Explained: Behind The Scenes (Episode 1)
I definitely need to hear another single before I can fel any kind of way about a sequel to what was easily one of the best rap records of all time. The above breakdown of ‘Berzerk’ with Rick Rubin is pretty cool, though.
Rick Rubin Did Not Produce On Jay-Z’s ‘Magna Carta’ Album
In a recent interview with XXL Magazine, Rick Rubin speaks on his involvement with Jay-Z’s Magna Carta Holy Grail; it turns out that Rubin did not have a hands-on role in the making of the album. Apparently, he was simply asked to listen to it and provide his opinion. Read an excerpt from the interview below.
“The point of me being in the commercials was that he was filming a documentary and he asked me—I imagine he’s just comfortable talking to me—to come listen to the songs with him and just talk about the songs. Just listen to it and talk about it, and that’s what we did. It was fun.
I liked what I heard, but it was a little difficult — after just coming from the Kanye sessions — to listen to Jay’s album, because they’re so different. I was in a very alternative and progressive headspace, and Jay’s record is a more traditional hip-hop record.”
Rick Rubin Hints At A Possible ‘Yeezus’ Sequel
Rick Rubin recently did an interview with The Daily Beast (check there for the full interview, it’s a long but interested read) and may or may not have insinuated that there might be a sequel to the current #1 album in the county, Yeezus:
How did you come to work on Yeezus?
Kanye called me. I’d just finished working at the studio for about two months on another album, and I was getting ready to go away on vacation for a couple weeks. Then he called up and said, “Can I just come play my album?” And I said, “Sure.” I always like to hear what he’s working on. So he came over to my house in Malibu. We listened. I thought I was going to hear a finished album, but actually we listened to probably three and a half hours of works in progress.What did the album sound like at that point?
Kind of meandering, unfocused, usually without his vocals. I assumed that the album was scheduled to come out next year. So I said, “When are you thinking of finishing up?” And he said, “It’s coming out in five weeks.” Like completely confident and fine.He wasn’t stressed.
Not at all. I said, “I have a record coming out in November that’s a lot further along than this.” He said, “Really? What are you doing for the next five days?” I said I was going to go away. Then he said, “Please help me. Would you be open to fixing it and shaping it and finishing it off?”Did he realize how much more work it needed?
To me it seemed impossible what he was asking. I remember I wasn’t feeling that well that day, and I was thinking, Is the music making me sick? I don’t feel good about this. We ended up working probably 15 days, 16 days, long hours, no days off, 15 hours a day. I was panicked the whole time.When he came to you with the record, did you have a sense of what needed to be done?
Initially, he thought there were going to be 16 songs on the album. But that first day, before he even asked me to work on it, I said, “Maybe you should make it more concise. Maybe this is two albums. Maybe this is just the first half.” That was one of the first breakthroughs. Kanye was like, “That’s what I came here today to hear! It could be 10 songs!”So there might be another Yeezus in the pipeline?
Might be.
Rick Rubin Speaks On Producing Kanye West’s ‘Yeezus’
Before finishing up Yeezus, Kanye got Rick Rubin on board to executive produce the album. Rubin spoke with the Wall Street Journal about how be took on that position:
When and why did you join the “Yeezus” project?
Kanye came over to play me what I assumed was going to be the finished album at three weeks before the last possible delivery date. We ended up listening to three hours of partially finished pieces. The raw material was very strong but hadn’t yet come into focus. Many of the vocals hadn’t been recorded yet, and many of those still didn’t have lyrics. From what he played me, it sounded like several months more work had to be done. I joined the project because after discussing what he had played for me, he asked if I would be open to taking all of the raw material on and help him finish it.How would you describe the new sound he was driving for, and how you did you help him arrive there?
He wanted the music to take a stripped-down minimal direction. He was always examining what we could take out instead of put in. A good example would be the song that became “Bound.” When he first played it for me, it was a more middle of the road R&B song, done in an adult contemporary style. Kanye had the idea of combining that track with a cool sample he had found and liked – I removed all of the R&B elements leaving only a single note baseline in the hook which we processed to have a punk edge in the Suicide tradition.Can you recall a scene from the sessions that might help people understand his method in the studio?
We were working on a Sunday [the same day West attended a baby shower for girlfriend Kim [Kardashian] and the album was to be turned in two days later. Kanye was planning to go to Milan that night. Five songs still needed vocals and two or three of them still needed lyrics. He said, “Don’t worry, I will score 40 points for you in the fourth quarter.” In the two hours before had to run out to catch the plane, he did exactly that: finished all lyrics and performed them with gusto. A remarkable feat. He had total confidence in his ability to get the job done when push came to shove.
The Making Of Kanye West’s ‘Yeezus’ With Rick Rubin
Less then a week before his album drops, Kanye gives us a behind the scenes look of him recording ‘I Am A God’ off his upcoming project Yeezus.
Rick Rubin – Nowness ‘Interview’ (@NOWNESS)
Rick Rubin: Music and Spirituality on Nowness.com.
Here’s what you don’t see everyday…..a Rick Rubin interview. And he’s still very much Rick Rubin….just older. From Nowness
Recording artist whisperer and all-around wizened sage Rick Rubin contemplates life and art on the stunning cliffs outside his Malibu residence in this short film by Alison Chernick. The mogul ruminates on living in harmony with nature, the importance of recreating its perfection in art, and the transcendental power of sound before leading us into a guided meditation, a practice he has followed since becoming fascinated with yogis as a teenager. His trademark beard, untouched since he was 23 years old, pays clear homage to their spiritual influence. The story of Rubin’s beginnings at Def Jam Records with Russell Simmons in 1984 from his New York University dorm room has become the stuff of legend. He has since become one of the most influential producers in the history of pop music, producing seminal hip-hop albums by artists such as LL Cool J, Run-D.M.C., and The Beastie Boys, with an unparalleled knack for genre-bending and critically acclaimed covers. He has also masterminded the late-career resurrection of a number of artists via American Recordings, exemplified by Johnny Cash’s victorious comeback. Add to that eight Grammy awards, being named one of Time’s most influential people in the world, and a co-presidency of Columbia Records, and Rubin has more than earned his magic reputation. “He is on a journey through the spiritual and creative wilderness,” says Chernick. “It’s transformative to witness.”