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 Boy...
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 real. So is the guy who spent the first 25 years of his career in a dark room 16 hours a day, seven days a week, waiting for a miracle to show up.
Show notes: https://www.davidsenra.com/episode/rick-rubin
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Rick Rubin
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Substack: https://rickrubin.substack.com
Chapters
(00:00:00) Less Is More But Harder
(00:02:00) Def Jam From The Dorm Room
(00:04:00) Capturing Club Energy On Record
(00:06:00) Going Deep On Influences
(00:12:30) Why Reduced By Rick Rubin
(00:14:00) Beatles Structure Meets Rap
(00:16:00) The Ruthless Edit
(00:19:30) Eminem: The Most Obsessive Artist
(00:22:00) Lazy Workaholic
(00:25:30) Protecting The Moment Of Magic
(00:29:00) Dana White And Becoming A Podcaster
(00:32:30) Professional Listener
(00:44:00) Fishing And Showing Up
(00:47:00) Johnny Cash And Constraints
(00:55:30) Church Business vs. Banking Business
(00:58:50) Run On Intuition Alone
(01:01:00) Jay-Z vs. Eminem Process
(01:04:30) In Service Of The Artist
(01:09:00) Work As Diary Entries
(01:13:30) Four Ways Success Destroys You
(01:16:00) How To Sustain Success
(01:21:00) The House On The Mountain
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