I came in to argue a point but you are all mostly right
I'll stick to just production shyt... he is basically just a dude who takes dumb ass people (IE Metallica, Beasties, Jay-z, Kanye) not dumb in a sense every single time they record mind you....
he basically just shows them... "Look, the key part of this song is the drums... we are gonna turn your bass way low in the mix and muddy the vocals to bring out the part of the song that's actually the hit"
Metallica "fell off"
Kanye wanted "a sparse futuristic quality to yeezus"
Jay wanted "hiphop royalty and guidance" for his "retirement album"
Beasties were all over the place with sound and placements
Rick just cuts through the mess and organizes