Rick Rubin, the legendary producer, has joined the long line of memorable guests on The Joe Rogan Experience, which has lately included Elon Musk, Kanye West, and Mark Zuckerberg.
While working in a variety of genres, the American record producer is widely regarded as a pivotal figure in the popularization of hip-hop music.
He is the former co-president of Columbia Records, the co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, and has worked on everything from Adele’s Grammy-winning album 21 to Jay Z‘s “99 Problems” track.
Rubin discusses numerous issues on The Joe Rogan Experience, including the distinct creative approaches of Jay-Z, Eminem, Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and others.
“Jay-Z doesn’t write anything down and he just listens to the beat, hums, goes on the mic 20 minutes later, and says a whole complicated verse. I don’t know how he can remember it much less have just written it and just be able to do it free. It’s wild,” says Rubin.
In contrast to Jay-lyrical Z’s technique, Rubin reveals that Kiedis begins his process by improvising on lines that make no sense.
“The way Anthony works is he’ll hear the music and he’ll sing along but he’ll sing along with an idea of a melody but he doesn’t yet have words and just sing along making up nonsense words automatically real-time and then listens back and says this phrase in this spot sounds good what else goes with that. It’s like a puzzle where you fill in the rest. You don’t necessarily have an idea what the song’s going to be about,” says Rubin.
Other themes covered in the 3-hour conversation include how he got his start in music, his experience seeing the rise of hip-hop, his recent near-death experience when his house caught fire while he was sleeping, and the narrative behind the landmark record “Walk This Way” with Aerosmith and RUN DMC.
