‘He was in his head a lot”: Rick Rubin on the hardest-working artist he collaborated with
The internet has a funny habit of quickly shifting narratives. For the last 20 years, Rick Rubin’s arbitrary takes on his own genius have only heightened the allure of his enigmatic qualities. Lately, though, the digital zeitgeist has questioned the validity of the skills of a producer who self-professes his own technical shortcomings.
Meme culture is largely harvested in the bedrooms of adolescents, who soak in every stream of information they receive and humourise it to its very core. The results are undoubtedly funny, but there is certainly a secondary sense of harmfulness that allows the nuanced discourse of a career like Rick Rubin’s to be reduced to simple and humorous takes on an out-of-context sentence taken from an interview.
Because the fact is, while critics tear apart careers from the comfort of their own bedrooms, Rick Rubin was forging a career from his. Building Def Jam recordings in the humble beginnings of his NYU dorm room, Rubin helped pave the way for a burgeoning era of mainstream East Coast hip-hop. The unlikely bearded nerd had a keen ear for acute rhythm sections and would help a generation of fresh talent articulate that into song.
In Rubin’s dorm room, the ashes of what would become a booming decade of hip-hop were beginning to burn, with Wu-Tang Clan, Biggie Smalls and Jay-Z paving the way for a new era of opulent success. Artists in 1980s and 1990s hip-hop couldn’t help but enjoy the fruits of their labour simply because they were so plentiful. But Rubin remembers one artist who walked through his dorm room door, less concerned about the benefits of rap and more focused on studying its intricacies.
“Back then, I would say LL [Cool J] was kind of a nerdy 16-year-old kid,” he told Rolling Stone. “He was really smart, well read. He came to the dorm room and was very motivated. He’s one of the more hardworking artists I’ve worked with, even from then. And I felt like he really kept to himself. He was friendly with the other artists, but I felt like he was a little bit of a loner type guy. He was in his head a lot. It was different than so many artists that were much more outgoing.”
Released as a 12-inch single, ‘I Need A Beat’ was released in 1984 and was officially remixed by DJ Jazzy Jay of the Zulu Nation in 1985. The single became a precursor to LL’s 1985 record Radio which not only helped define the rappers’ career, but a movement of hip-hop that followed.
But a year later, Rubin would leave his indelible mark on modern music. In 1986, Rubin teamed up with the Beastie Boys to produce a string of releases defining his career. ‘No Sleep Till Brooklyn’ was a hip-hop come punk-rock sugar rush song that thrust into the mainstream, paving the way for a new alumni of the rebellious underground. Rubin’s ability to seamlessly blend traditional punk guitar lines with a more cadenced vocal delivery is arguably what triggered a career that would see him span across multiple genres, be it metal, funk or country, to great commercial effect.
