Who is Rick Rubin?

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You may have seen this silver-bearded, hippie looking man hanging out with your favorite artist. The odds are likely due to his broad scope of genres. He has worked with everyone from Kanye West to the Beastie Boys to the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Slayer and many more artists. You may have even heard other fans say he's legendary and that if he's hanging out with an artist their next album is going to be amazing. You're probably wondering what's so special about this guy. Well, let's learn about legendary producer Rick Rubin.
Rick Rubin is the co-founder along with Russel Simmons of one of the biggest record labels for the past 36 years, Def Jam Recordings. With artists such as Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Logic, and many more the record label is home to some of the biggest artists in the world. The record label is also credited with the popularization of hip-hop music with early acts including Run-D.M.C., LL Cool J, and the Beastie Boys. Rick Rubin would produce music for all 3 acts and would take very rough demos and turn them into radio-ready sounding music.
Young Rick Rubin was into both a lot of heavy metal music and hip-hop. This shows in the music he worked on and that his record label put out. He shaped Reign in Blood (1986) by Slayer as well as Raising Hell (1986) by Run-D.M.C. which was the first platinum hip-hop album ever. It was becoming very apparent that any album that he was involved in was amazing and would be a major commercial success. He, very early on, achieved a reputation as this legendary producer who could you take you from nothing and catapult you on to the world stage. Many saw Licensed to Ill (1986) by the Beastie Boys as being in large part the creation of Rick Rubin. At a certain point if Rick Rubin worked on an album, it was now a Rick Rubin album.
Rick Rubin's work didn't stop in the 80s either. As he aged, his beard aged along with him. He has continued working with many new artists such as with Kanye West for his 2013 release, Yeezus and he has also been seen with new artists who have yet to break into the mainstream such as Kaytranada. Clearly the man isn't done even after amassing a net worth of $250 million and making some of the most influential music of multiple generations.

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