Rick Rubin Compares the Creative Process of Eminem, Jay-Z, and Anthony Kiedis

The different ways of approaching comedy, it's got to parallel with music, right? I mean, there's got to be some artists that, you know, they just want to riff. They want to figure it out on the fly. They want to do it all, you know, almost off the top of their head. And then there's other artists where every single word has gone over and meticulously analyzed and pieced together. Yeah, there's no right or wrong way and you just have to find your way and whatever works for you. Yeah, I've worked with artists who do it completely different ways. You know, you'll see like Eminem will, he's always writing in a book, always writing all the time. And he's always got notebooks writing. And I asked him, it's like, are these all rhymes to use? He's like, no, no, no. 99% of what I write I'll never use just to stay engaged in the process of writing and finding new ways to write so that it just, when I need it, it just comes. And then Jay Z doesn't write anything down. Yeah. And he just listens to the beat and hums, hums, and then goes on the mic, you know, 20 minutes later and just says a whole complicated verse, 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. Why? When you practice on his own, does he create these raps on his own, like alone or does he only do it when he's talking to people? Does he only do it on stage? No, no, no. This is for a record. Like when we were recording 99 Problems, I played the beat for him. He likes the beat. And then he says, okay, just keep playing it. And then he sits in the back of the control room on the couch and he's, and you just hear him humming like, as I say, 15 or 20 minutes. And then he jumps on, I was like, okay, I got it. And he goes in, no, no paper, no writing, nothing, and delivers the whole thing. And then says, let's try it again. And then he does it again and the words will be the same, but the phrasing will be different. So it's more like an improvisational solo. You know, if you have a melody, you could play the same melody with putting emphasis on different parts of it. So he does it. It's not the same. The words are the same or close to the same, but the feeling of it and the rhythm of it changes when he does it again. And he does it a few times and he's like, okay, I think that one's good. But did you ever ask him these things that he's saying? Has he said them before? He's not. I know he hasn't because it's happening live in the room in this moment. But it's not like he's not, even though it's live in the moment, it's not like things that he's thought of before. No. Just all off the top. Yes. Wow. Yes, in that moment. That's incredible. It's insane. That's incredible. Yeah, he's famous for that. He's famous for having it all in his head. But instantaneously or relatively instantaneously. Does anybody else do it like that? I've not seen anyone else do that. Wow. It's not uncommon for singers or rappers to hear something and immediately start automatic writing, where they'll just start saying nonsense words. Yeah. The first thing that comes to mind over the beat, where you can feel a shape of what it can be. Yeah. And like we just made two new albums with the Chili Peppers. The second one is just coming out now, I think. But the first one came out like six months ago, but two double albums. And the way Anthony works is he'll hear the music and he'll sing along. But he'll sing along with an idea of a melody, but he doesn't yet have words. And just sing nonsense words. And just sing along, making up nonsense words, automatically real time, and then listens back and says, oh, okay, this phrase in this spot sounds good. And this phrase in this spot sounds good. What else goes with that? And then it's like a puzzle where you fill in the rest. You don't necessarily have an idea of what the song's going to be about, or you might not even know what the song's about until you finish. You might not even know after the song's finished what it's about. You might not know for years what it's about. Because it's like a dream. You know, it comes from the subconscious. Yeah. It's a great way to work. It's a great way to write, to just like participate with what's going on in a free way, and then listen back to what you did and look for clues, look for where is the connective tissue here. Are there any things here that sound like they belong there? Thank you.