Rick Rubin Producing skills

[CarltonJunior]

Not all. I've seen Pharrell create a whole album for Justin Timberlake. Literally Justin walked in and added vocals to music created fully P and Chad.

Part of that is producing, part of it is engineering. Making the album instrumentation and sounds outside of the vocals, to me, is producing. The process of actually recording and mixing the vocals onto the track is engineering.

Rick Rubin does neither.

 

[Yehuda]

Is the "if you did not play the instruments in the beat you are not the producer" argument used outside of hip-hop?

 

[Double Burger With Cheese]

Rick Rubin the type of nikka to watch you make a cake and literally put a cherry on top and people say y’all made the cake together. Or in his case, he would tell you to take the cherry off since his thing supposed to be stripping your shyt down lol. Rumor on the streets is, it’s Rick Rubin that told Griselda to take the drums out of all they beats

 

[GPBear]

right place right time

in honesty, he's one of the WOAT producers, he was almost directly responsible for the 'loudness wars' which basically ruined the quality of music produced the last few decades, because there's no dynamics and everything is compressed to shyt. his work in the 80s/90s was good because he didn't have access to the same digital technologies that allowed him to just set everything to 100% later on, but yeah.

 

[Goat poster]

Or they just don't fully understand it. Which is fine. Both options are plausible.

But I mean I'm not really trying to die on this hill, because I don't really like Rick Rubin. For non music reasons too. He seemed like he was dipping his toes into the alt-right scene, and fukk that. And even beyond possibly being a right wing nut job I've always thought that he was pretentious and that a lot of his music was overrated.

could you expand on the Alt-right thing?

 

[boogers]

As far as the 'not a musician' claim goes, that isn't actually true. Rick Rubin played guitar in an art-rock band called Hose in the 1980s.

They were fukking horrible.



Personally, I can't stand dude. I guess I sort of respect him for helping Def Jam get started, just for history's sake. shyt he did for T La Rock and LL will be classics for all time. All time.

But I just get this pseudo-intellectual vibe from him, like he's one of those crazy older white men who are into Eastern philosophy and veganism and shyt like that. Bet he wears Crocs and doesn't wash his feet, either. Probably smells his own farts to sample his own flavor.

That's not even to mention his dilly-dallying with right-wing politics...

But really, why do I hate this cat?



That's why.

 

[L. Deezy]

Is the "if you did not play the instruments in the beat you are not the producer" argument used outside of hip-hop?

Lol.. I blame this generation for just not having the understanding that before programs and MPC's. Producers conveyed to musicians how it should sound and musicians played it.

 

[Edub]

He don’t do shyt

 

[TheDarceKnight]

could you expand on the Alt-right thing?

He’s retweeted tweets by a few people either associated with the alt-right and/or were big trump supporters. None of the tweets had racist or messed up content in them directly, but he retweeted within any context…so a few people have suggested not rushing to judgement, but it’s also raised some eyebrows.

 

[GunRanger]

If you can't create a beat by yourself I'm not giving you veneration as a hip-hop producer

Consistent with my views on bars

This is like saying the director of a movie isnt the director because he isnt holding the camera

 

[Shadow King]

This is like saying the director of a movie isnt the director because he isnt holding the camera

Except it isn't

 

[altruicsense]

this thread is full of blue collar mindset disease. the belief that manual/physical/longer labor is harder work and deserves more praise and reward.

If you know the difference between a chef and a cook you'll know why OP is wrong.

 

[Formerly known as...]

Lol.. I blame this generation for just not having the understanding that before programs and MPC's. Producers conveyed to musicians how it should sound and musicians played it.

Ok but for example do you think he comes in with a sound in his head and conveys this to say Flea and Frusciante and they then play it? No.
They come in with the sounds and he then adds a comment and they might then use that comment and change it slightly. He isn't picking up a guitar and saying 'maybe this would sound good in this section'

Again I thought he could do more than he can this is all new to me BUT he is still used by many so he is obviously good at what he does but what he does is less than I thought. That's all.

I assumed produced by Rubin meant bands walked in and he has some sounds/grooves for them to go with but nah they come in with that and he then makes slight adjustments IF needed.

 

[Mike the Executioner]

All I know is that his style is one-dimensional and he hasn't been a good hip hop producer in years. His shyt still sounds like 1986, but the actual music he produced in 1986 still sounds fresher. Somebody more knowledgeable could explain it.

He produced "Classic (Better Than I've Ever Been)," but the DJ Premier remix is the one people actually remember because the original one was horrible.

It was his ideas that eventually led to Kanye making Yeezus sound as harsh and anti-musical as possible, literally days before the album was supposed to be mixed.

He gave Eminem some beats on Revival.

I'll always give him credit for his earlier work (Radio, Raising Hell, Licensed to Ill). But musically, he never left that era and you can tell by comments he's made about other styles of hip hop (he didn't like The Chronic and couldn't get into that sound). He seems to do well as a consultant. He was the one that told Adele that the music she was making for 25 didn't feel personal enough and sounded like any other artist could make it.

But as far as him making beats? He's beyond in that regard.

 

[MurderToCassette]

I never got the fascination with him. He produced a couple huge records in the 80’s, had a comeback hit with Jay Z going on 20 years ago and mostly works as a consultant (or as a producer where no one can explain what exactly he does) otherwise.

It seems like everyone who consults him would be better off picking up a set of Brian Eno’s “Oblique Strategies” cards for creativity. It would be a million times cheaper and the end product would likely be better.