TITLE: Why So Many People Think This Icon Is a Fraud
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fnmIYFYRq8

Is Rick Rubin a real producer? Some say he's not. Some say he is. Do you need to play an instrument to be a real producer? Do you need to know how to make beats? Or do you need to know how to work the boards? What makes you a producer? >> When I hear you say, cuz you're a modest guy, Rick, when I hear you say, "I don't know anything about I was referring to the Anderson Cooper interview. I don't know anything about equipment. I don't >> I don't No, but I'm telling you like if we went to a studio, I could not run a session myself. I couldn't record it. >> But you know what the gear is? You know, you know the difference between a knee and an API. >> I do because I've been in places with both of them. >> Yes. >> But it doesn't matter. Yeah. >> What I'm saying is for the technical people who work with me. >> Yeah. >> The skill they have. >> Yes. >> I don't have that skill. I can't do their job. I can't sub for them. I can't get by. I cannot do those jobs. I need a technical person who knows how the studio works and I can say more of this, less of that. And that's always what I've done. >> Thousands of people online argue that Rick Rubin is not a real producer. If a producer doesn't make beats, what are they actually being paid for? This is how the industry's been lying to you. >> Loop makers are sample choppers. >> Sample choppers. Why? because that's the true art of producing, >> you know? It it got weird with the business, you know what I mean? And them trying to take >> all of this [ __ ] So, I get that. But the essence of producing comes from chopping, you know what I mean? And like I feel like a lot of these guys don't even know that or don't even know how to chop. Don't even know how to load it up. You know what I mean? So, it's like I don't respect it. >> Producers create context, not content. I like that about it. But if it sounds like something could be on someone else's album, it can't be on your record. So it's like that's the trick is Oh, >> you got to take the snare away. Just turn the snare down. It would make something completely different. >> Okay, cool. >> And you turn them strings up. >> Beat makers create content. Know the difference. Beat makers are really writers. They just used notes as their pencil. >> I said, "Who produced this?" The rapper said, "Me." The guy that did the beat said, "Me. I'm the producer, man. Don't take my credit. I'm the producer. I'm the producer. So I said, "Oh [ __ ] Hold on." Cuz I was on the east side of LA. These things could get vicious over here, man. Hold on, fellas. Hold on. What did you do? He said, "Man, I sat there in my mama house. I made the beat. I sampled that and did that. Made the beat." I said, "So, how do you get the beat?" He said, "I emailed him the beat." I said, "Oh, who wrote the hook?" He said, "He did." Who put the hook right there? He did. Who came with the concept? He did. Who mixed it? He did. Who shortened it? He did. Oh, so you're the beat maker and he's the producer. You still get some publishing. You get your writers, but let's just call it what it is. If you a dude sitting at your mama house or your house or your big ass studio doing beats and once you email those beats to an artist and they come with all these things, even down to who's going to mix the record and you just sitting back getting the money with the producer deck. You're not the producer. Don't lie to yourself. And don't let them lie to you. >> A producer must have a vision. A beat maker must have execution. There's a difference between a visionary and a technician. They're both necessary, but there's definitely a difference. >> Where does the role of engineer like recording engineer and mix engineer end and producer begin? Or is that line a bit blurry? >> It's a pretty blurry line. Yeah. Um, I think, um, the really good mixers, um, should really get more of a co-production credit, um, on on material because, um, in the end, um, uh, it's really, you know, it's in the hands of of the mixer. you know, most people come to me and they I've never heard the the album before and I come in with fresh ears and it takes a lot of um just takes a lot of trust from people to just hand me something that they've been working on for for a year or whatever and say here see what you can do with it, you know. So, um the really good I think the really good mixers should um they do a lot of like production, you know, in the end. Sometimes we're tricked in defining value by cost or effort when we should define value by outcome. >> You know, same so many thing about Quincy Jones in in most interviews. I was surprised by that. >> What >> about Quincy Jones, your feeling about his music and everything? I'd like to know how. Well, you know, he has a knack of of of getting a group together that that will fit your style, you know, like like Michael's album, We Are the World. >> Is there a particular memory you have or a particular lesson that you learned from Rick Rubin? >> I feel like every time we work together, I'm always amazed at when he makes decisions, how definitive he is at making the decision. like in the moment, you know, and how he's doing it by like >> like the spirit, [laughter] you know, like patient. >> He listens. He's like he listens to other people's ideas. You can't really quantify how valuable Rick Rubin might be in the room. Directors have camera operators, painters have curators, and beat makers have producers. And you know, I'm I'm always careful how I word it now, you know, because I like letting people get their credit. So he he definitely grew. Like the minute I first session I went in with him, I was like, "Are you a producer? You don't need me to produce. I'm just going to produce the fact that you produce and kind of show you what to do." Because I knew he had all these thoughts in his mind. And I know the one thing is um the more I study what I do is it's not that I'm becoming a guru. I'm actually just learning what producing really is cuz hip-hop and technology are confused what producing is. >> Yeah. People think beat makers are producers. >> Absolutely. So, it's just getting deeper into what that really means, which is just like figuring out what a what a person is inside, how to score that, how to put them in the right situations um and make people go, "Oh, I I like that for what it is, uniquely, specifically." And that that's um that come that came over time, but that also came from honestly studying a lot of what Quincy Jones says. When I hear people say he doesn't make beats, he's not a producer, it lets me know that hip-hop really doesn't respect what an actual producer is. Saying that would put Quincy Jones out of the producer realm. If I believe what I hear all the time now, Quincy Jones wouldn't even qualify as a music producer if we were going by the rules of hip-hop. >> What did you think about when you when you were doing it? Was that even in your mind? >> Like, >> were you were you going like, "This is a hit or people are going to be freaked out by this and not know what to think of this or this is going to create a [ __ ] storm because this artist shouldn't be doing this or should be doing it or whatever." And he goes, "I don't know. I made a dope beat and let them write what they wanted on it." And [laughter] I was like, like, you didn't participate? He's like, I wasn't even there when they wrote when they wrote the lyric. I when it was mixed. >> Wow. >> So, so it hit to him. It was like he made a a great beat and he knew the artist was a strong artist and they were going to write something cool over it and >> he's like you got you got I did my contribution. >> Yeah. >> And so and I look at that and go like can he call himself a producer if he does that? >> The outcome is what matters. No matter what industry you work in, different creators have different superpowers. Usually the best product is made by multiple minds just one creator. Okayh. >> Okay. Uh, let's listen to it back. >> Context still matters. Producers are not button pushers. They provide clarity, context, restraint, decisionm. >> I only cared what it sound like sounded like. I didn't care how it got to sounding like it sounded. You know, if the meters were pinned in the red, sometimes the engineer say, well, you know, the meters are it's like, but it sounds good. I don't care. I never cared what technically was happening as long as the sound coming from the speakers sounded good. So my my only memories of it were having fun in the studio trying to make something that sounded exciting that we all left happy with. >> This is Brian from the King's Hand. And like I say, I don't need to always be right. I just want the opportunity to be wrong. If you like this video, make sure you like and subscribe and hit [clears throat] the notification bell. Until we meet again, >> be appointed hand of the king. [music]