Rick Rubin talks about the working process of Eminem and JAY-Z.
Rick Rubin, the super producer & co-founder of Def Jam Recordings was the latest guest on Joe Rogan’s “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. Among other topics, they talk about the working process of Comedians & Musicians, and Rubin compares the recording process of Eminem and JAY-Z.
“The different ways of approaching comedy, it has got parallel with music right?” asks Rogan. “There are got to be some artists that just want to riff, they want to figure it out on the fly. They wanna do it all almost off the top of their head and then there’s artists that every single word is gone over and meticulously analyzed pieced together.”
“Yeah, there is no right or wrong way and you have to just find your way. Whatever works for you,” says Rubin. “Yeah, I’ve worked with artists who do it completely different ways. You’ll se like, Eminem, he’s always writing in the book. Always writing all the time. And he has always got notebooks writing. And I asked him if these were rhymes to use but he was like ‘No, no, no. It’s like 99% of what I write I never use.’ It’s just to stay engaged in the process of writing and finding new ways to write. So that, it just comes when I need it, it just comes. And then, Jay-Z doesn’t write anything down. And He just listens to the beat, hums and then goes on the mic… 20 minutes later and just says 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 like free. It’s crazy.”
He continued, “When we [He & JAY-Z] were recording “99 Problems,” I played the beat for him. He likes the beat. Then he says ‘okay just keep playing it.’ Then he sits in the back of the control room on the couch and he starts humming. As I said, in 15-20 minutes, he jumps like ‘Okay I got it.’ And then he goes in with no paper, no writing, nothing and delivers the whole thing. And He does it again and again. Words would be the same but the phrasing is different. Words are same, or close to the same but the feeling of it, or the rhythm of it changes when he does it again. And when he does it a few times, he’s like ‘okay, that one is good.’ It’s insane. I’ve never seen like this. I’ve never seen anyone else do that.”
Other discussions in the following in the 3-hour conversation include how he began his career in music, his perspective seeing the emergence of hip-hop, his recent near-death encounter when his residence caught fire while he was sleeping, and the narrative behind the landmark song “Walk This Way” with Aerosmith and RUN DMC.
Watch the whole thing below.
