Rick Rubin

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Biography

Frederick Jay "Rick" Rubin (born March 10, 1963) is an United States|American record producer and the co-president of Columbia Records . Along with Russell Simmons , Rubin is the founder of Def Jam Recordings|Def Jam Records and also established American Recordings (record label)|American Recordings . With the Beastie Boys , LL Cool J and Run–D.M.C. , Rubin helped popularize hip hop music .

Rubin has worked with artists as varied as Tom Petty , Black Sabbath , Trouble (band)|Trouble , Slipknot (band)|Slipknot , Slayer , Red Hot Chili Peppers , The Mars Volta , Danzig (band)|Danzig , Dixie Chicks , Metallica , AC/DC , Aerosmith , Weezer , Linkin Park , The Cult , Neil Diamond , Mick Jagger , System of a Down , Rage Against the Machine , Beastie Boys , Audioslave , The Avett Brothers , Adele (singer)|Adele and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan . In the 1990s and 2000s, he produced the " Johnny Cash discography#American Recordings|American Recordings " albums with Johnny Cash . MTV called him "the most important producer of the last 20 years." – MTV.com In 2007, Rubin was listed among Time (magazine)| Time 's 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Life and career

Def Jam years

Rubin was born in Long Beach, New York and grew up in Lido Beach, New York , in a Jewish family. His father was a shoe wholesaler and his mother a housewife.Lynn Hirschberg, , The New York Times Magazine , September 2, 2007. While a student at Long Beach High School (New York)|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 rock|punk band called "The Pricks". Their biggest claim to fame was being thrown off the stage at CBGB after two songs for brawling with the heckling audience. These hecklers were friends of the band instructed to instigate a confrontation so as to get the show shut down and create a buzz. Although he had no authority in New York City , Rubin's father traveled all the way from Nassau County, New York|Nassau county to Manhattan wearing his Lido Beach, New York|Lido Beach auxiliary police uniform as he attempted to "shut down" the show.

At school, Rubin was unpopular among the other musicians due to his complete lack of musical ability beyond a few rudimentary guitar chords. 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 the Art punk|art-punk band Hose (band)|Hose , influenced by San Francisco's Flipper (band)|Flipper . In 1982, Hose became Def Jam Recordings|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 Hardcore punk|hardcore 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 Universal Zulu Nation|Zulu Nation 's Jazzy Jay|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 (musician)|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 (group)|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 hard rock|heavy rock .

It was the idea of Rick Rubin's friend Sue Cummings, an editor at Spin (magazine)|Spin magazine , 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. 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 1987 The Cult released their pivotal third album Electric (The Cult album)|Electric . Produced by Rubin, the album remains one of The Cult's trademark and classic works. Rubin would later work with The Cult again for the single "The Witch". Rubin is credited as "Music Supervisor" in the movie Less Than Zero (film)|Less Than Zero and is the producer of its soundtrack. Rubin portrayed a character based upon himself in the 1985 hip-hop motion picture Krush Groove , which was inspired by the early days of Russell Simmons ' career as a music producer. He then wrote and directed a second Run-D.M.C. film, Tougher Than Leather (film)|Tougher Than Leather in 1988.

Def American years

In 1988, Rubin and Def Jam went their separate ways. He relocated to Los Angeles|Los Angeles, California , where he created American Recordings (US)|Def American Records. In Los Angeles, he signed a number of heavy metal acts, including Slayer , Danzig (band)|Danzig , The Four Horsemen (band)|The Four Horsemen , Masters of Reality , and Wolfsbane (band)|Wolfsbane , as well as alternative rock group The Jesus and Mary Chain and Stand-up comedy|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–D.M.C. among others.

American Recordings years

Rubin originally had given his label the name "Def Jam". The word "def" in urban culture is slang for a song or musical composition that is 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 (US)|American Recordings . In regard to this he stated: "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."Hirchberg, Lynn. The Music Man . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times_Magazine, September 2nd, 2007.

The first major project on the renamed label was Johnny Cash 's American Recordings (album)|American 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 following a fallow period. The formula was repeated for five more Cash albums: Unchained (Johnny Cash album)|Unchained , American III: Solitary Man|Solitary Man , American IV: The Man Comes Around|The Man Comes Around (the last album released before Cash's death), American V: A Hundred Highways|A Hundred Highways , and '' American VI: Ain't No Grave|Ain't No Grave . The Man Comes Around'' earned a 2003 Grammy Award|Grammy for Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance|Best Male Country Vocal Performance ("Give My Love to Rose") and a nomination for Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals|Best Country Collaboration with Vocals (" Bridge over Troubled Water|Bridge Over Troubled Water " with Fiona Apple ). Rubin introduced Cash to Nine Inch Nails ' " Hurt (Nine Inch Nails song)|Hurt ", and the resulting cover version of it on The Man Comes Around would become a defining song of Cash's later years. Rick Rubin also produced the Jay-Z track " 99 Problems ", and was featured in the song's music video.

Rubin produced a number of records with other older artists, which were released on labels other than American. These included Mick Jagger 's 1993 Wandering Spirit (album)|Wandering Spirit album, Lords of Acid 's 1994 Voodoo-U album, Tom Petty 's 1994 Wildflowers (Tom Petty album)|Wildflowers , AC/DC 's 1995 Ballbreaker , Donovan 's 1996 Sutras (album)|Sutras , and Metallica 's 2008 Death Magnetic . According to bassist Robert Trujillo , Rubin will be the producer for the next Metallica album. In 2005, Rick Rubin executive-produced Shakira 's two-album project Fijación Oral Vol. 1|Fijacion Oral Vol. 1 and Oral Fixation Vol. 2 . He was to appear on the Talib Kweli 's album Eardrum (album)|Eardrum , Clipse 's album Til the Casket Drops and Lil Jon 's album Crunk Rock . http://www.billboard.com/news/lil-jon-merging-crunk-and-rock-on-next-album-1003286952.story#/news/lil-jon-merging-crunk-and-rock-on-next-album-1003286952.story
On 11/11/11, it was announced that Rubin will be the producer for Black Sabbath's first new album with the original lineup in 34 years, in 2012. http://www.nme.com/news/black-sabbath/60352

Columbia years

In May, 2007, Rubin was named co-head of Columbia Records. Rubin co-produced Linkin Park's 2007 album, Minutes to Midnight (album)|Minutes to Midnight , with Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda . He also co-produced with Mike Shinoda again for Linkin Park's 2010 album, A Thousand Suns in 2010.
Rubin is also working with the new upcoming Linkin Park album, Living Things (Linkin Park album)|Living Things , which will be released in June 2012.

In 2007, Rubin won the Grammy Award for Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical|Producer of the Year, Non-Classical for his work with the Dixie Chicks , Michael Kranz, Red Hot Chili Peppers , U2 , Green Day , and Johnny Cash released in 2006. Rubin won the award again in 2009, for production work for Metallica , Neil Diamond , Ours (band)|Ours , Jakob Dylan and Weezer in 2008.

In 54th Grammy Awards|2012 Rubin won the Grammy for Grammy Award for Album of the Year|Album of the Year for his role as a producer on Adele (singer)|Adele 's album 21 (Adele album)|21 .

Production style

Rubin's biggest trademark as a producer has been a "stripped-down" sound, which involves eliminating production elements such as String orchestra|string sections , backup vocals, and Reverberation|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 The Washington Post|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".& nbsp;– Washington Post Dr. Dre once stated that Rick was, "hands down, the dopest producer ever that anyone would ever want to be, ever."
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." Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks has praised his production methods, saying that "He has the ability and the patience to let music be discovered, not manufactured. Come to think of it, maybe he is a guru." Not all artists who have worked with Rubin have enjoyed his production style. Although he and his band mates had some positive things to say about Rubin, Slipknot (band)|Slipknot 's lead singer Corey Taylor said that he only met Rubin four times during the entire recording process of Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses) and that Rubin barely showed up to the studio: "...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."

List of albums produced

Filmography

Year !! Film !! Role !! Notes
1985
1988
1990
1992
2004
2006
2007

Copyright Citations

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1. Beastie Boys 2. Ice-T 3. Kanye West 4. Lil Jon 5. Public Enemy 6. Rakim 7. Run-DMC 8. Jay-Z 9. Chino XL 10. Mix Master Mike 11. People Under The Stairs

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