TV & Radio Interviews

Rick Rubin Compares Creative Approaches of Jay-Z and Red Hot Chili Peppers on 'JRE'

Adding to the long list of memorable guests which recently includes Elon Musk, Kanye West, and Mark Zuckerberg, the latest to make an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience is the music legend, Rick Rubin. While having worked across a wide range of genres, the American record producer is credited for being a pivotal figure in the popularization of hip-hop music and has served as the former co-president of Columbia Records, co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, and has worked on everywhere from Adele‘s Grammy-winning album 21 to Jay-Z‘s iconic “99 Problems” track. 

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In his appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, Rubin touches upon several topics including the different creative approaches of Jay-Z, Eminem, Anthony Kiedis from 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-Z’s lyrical approach, Rubin shares that Kiedis begins his process with riffing phrases that don’t make sense at all. “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. 

Watch full interview Here

You don’t necessarily have an idea what the song’s going to be about,” says Rubin. Other topics touched upon in the extensive 3-hour interview are how he got his start in music, his experience on witnessing the rise of hip-hop, his recent near-death experience when his house caught on fire while sleeping, and the story behind creating the historic record with Aerosmith and RUN DMC “Walk This Way.”

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