In 2003, Rick Rubin famously returned to the game when Jay-Z called on him to produce on The Black Album. Final results ended up being “99 Problems,” Jay-Z’s “final” and most-known single. Kanye West is hoping for similar results with his work with the hip hop pioneer.
A month ago, Kanye West confirmed he was working on Yeezus, his sixth studio album, not counting his collaborative albums from the past two years. Only a few weeks ago, it was confirmed that Kanye West was even working on an album. Over the past few days, Rick Rubin has been rumored to be the executive producer of Yeezus.
Rick Rubin talked to the Wall Street Journal recently and he confirmed his upcoming work with Kanye West. Yeezus is an album that came together late, so Rick Rubin also came into the project in the final stages. During the interview, Rick Rubin explained his work with Kanye West.
Read an excerpt from the interview below:
“Kanye came over to play me what I assumed was going to be the finished album at three weeks before the last possible delivery date. We ended up listening to three hours of partially finished pieces. The raw material was very strong but hadn’t yet come into focus. Many of the vocals hadn’t been recorded yet, and many of those still didn’t have lyrics. From what he played me, it sounded like several months more work had to be done. I joined the project because after discussing what he had played for me, he asked if I would be open to taking all of the raw material on and help him finish it.”
