If Rick Rubin were to write a memoir, it would be quite a tale. The American super-producer co-founded the hip-hop label Def Jam from his college dormitory in the 1980s and produced early records for LL Cool J (the credit ran: “Reduced by Rick Rubin”) and the Beastie Boys.
Swiftly, though, Rubin began deploying his signature pared-back essentialism to amplify other loud genres, to great commercial success. Slayer’s classic Reign in Blood was one of his, as was Walk This Way, the inspired pairing of Aerosmith and Run-DMC that ushered in rap rock. The blame for six albums by the Red Hot Chili Peppers also sits squarely at his door.
