People don’t usually think about Adele in the same breath as Johnny Cash. The Beastie Boys in the same breath as Jay-Z. Justin Bieber and Slayer. Neil Young and Lady Gaga. The Dixie Chicks and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. But all of these iconic artists have a single person in common: producer Rick Rubin.
Ever since Rubin created Def Jam Recordings from his college dorm room forty years ago and helped launch the global phenomenon that is hip hop, Rubin has produced some of the world’s most popular records. If you look at his discography, it’s almost unbelievable. Rubin works on up to ten records a year, and has become something of a high-priest of popular music.
Today, I talk to Rubin about his new book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being. We talk about what it means to be creative, how to trust your own gut, separating the art from the artist, what he thinks of growing self-censorship in our music, art and culture, and what it means to listen in an era of non-stop distraction.
And to follow Rubin’s next projects, you can visit tetragrammaton.com
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What an amazing interview. I have listened to Rick on other interviews, and he's always come across as the thoughtful, authentic, inspiring artist that he is. I've never heard him talk with a more provoking, curious, and perceptive interviewer, though. Well done Bari!
I was the Student Vice President of Weinstein dorm when Rick lived there. I want to add some illuminating context to that free and transformative moment in time. Ricks dorm room like all of ours was small. But his dorm room was also inhabited by mountains of recording equipment so you could barely walk in. When you did squeeze in it was almost impossible to know if Rick was there or not hidden amongst all the equipment.
At this moment in time there was no cell phones, no social media, no parental involvement unless someone picked up the constantly ringing hallway landline which no one ever did. We were all free to rebel in the most nonjudgmental beautiful way. Washington Square park was an urban carnival which anchored NYU’s campus. St. Marks Place and the lower east side had affordable run down apartments filled with artists, dreamers and experimenters. ( years later we were horrified to learn a Gap store opened on St Marks Place) At the time MTV had just started and we would all gather around the giant box of a TV in the lobby of the Weinstein dorm to watch the newest music video release. Several of the dorm’s front desk staff also moonlighted as MTV VJs.
As the president of the dorm we had a budget to throw parties in the basement of the dorm. The drinking age in NY was still 18 so we were free to stock the parties with beer and hard liquor. Rick was in charge of the music so in this cinderblock space he grandly exalted the party by bringing his artists. As a white girl in the burbs of Philly, by high school, the doors of hip hop were newly cracked open by artists like Grand Master Flash and NWA. But now in the basement in Weinstein dorm Rick brought his “friends”( aka his artists since unbenounced to us he was already in business) like the Beasty Boys and LLCool J. Needless to say the party was a sublime moment in time. We had no idea that Rick and these artists would become legendary but we intuitively knew we were experiencing something transformative. This was the precipice of what Rick was driving forward, a populace uprising, and would ultimately enter the mainstream before anyone knew it was possible. For us we just felt it in our bones as the party blasted all around us.
A funny story Rick may not remember, but once he asked me to pick him up a pack of razors when I went to the store to buy party supplies with the dorm party budget. When I returned from the store and squeezed into Ricks dorm room to locate him and deliver the razors, I told him it probably wasn’t a good idea to buy personal stuff on the dorm budget since the president watched every penny. Even back then Rick just took this in by deeply listening and after a few silent minutes he nodded his head.
I am not sure if it was that moment Rick gave up shaving but I swear I never saw Rick clean shaven again. I ultimately ( unlike Rick) took my LSAT and became a lawyer but I am VERY glad Rick didn’t. : )