Hey everyone, Anthony Fantano here, internet's busiest music nerd, and today I want to talk about one of the GOAT producers regardless of genre, one of the most significant big brains in the music industry ever – or at least he is framed as such – Mr. Rick Rubin.

Now look, as a music nerd who knows his popular music history and tries to do his research as best he can, I and many others have held the name Rick Rubin in super duper high regard. I mean, how could you not, given the man's connections to Def Jam Records, the success and incredible output that we saw for years through his own American label, and the way he also very carefully and creatively revitalized and re-engineered Johnny Cash's career with the American series?

The guy has had a direct hand in some of the most massive and significant success stories in popular music for the last 50 years. His impact on the trajectory of numerous artists and even major genres is so significant and undeniable. I would even argue that for years, a lot of people have overlooked some really glaring issues and flaws when it comes to his approach to production, especially with regard to compression and the "loudness war," as it were.

But for a long time, his finger was clearly on the pulse. And when the 2010s came around, he was clearly ready to start cashing in on all of these decades of successes and goodwill that he had built up for a really long time. Not only by way of working with some really big names – putting his fingerprints on some of the most massive projects of that decade. Think either Adele, 21, or Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo."

The 2010s also saw Rick working with the likes of Eminem, Ed Sheeran, Wu-Tang Clan. But around this time period, I would argue the magic, consistency, and mystique of Rick Rubin really started to fall off. Because even though was involved with a lot of massive projects over this course of time, the range in consistency across all these different albums is pretty wide, to the point where when he does manage to eke out some work on a record that's relatively respectable or does well commercially, you have to wonder how much of it you can attribute to him because he also worked on Kid Rock's "Born Free."

But honestly, the thing that was cracking the Rick Rubin mask – more than just his very weak output over this time period – was probably his Twitter account, where he famous, or infamously, at one time retweeted voices like Scott Adams as well as that psychopath Mike Cernovich. My intention in bringing this up and highlighting this isn't to say that I think Rick Rubin is secretly MAGA or a crazy right-wing conspiracy theorist per se. I just think he's a guy who has years and years and years of experience in the music industry. A lot of people take him seriously and for good reason.

As a result, I think he's really been feeling himself as not just a producer and a guy who has a lot of taste and a lot of vision when it comes to music, but also an artistic and a philosophical guru of sorts who hops on social media to post quotes of himself against white backgrounds to make the various things he thinks and says seem more important than they really are.

Which again, nothing wrong with putting a smart quote out into the world, or, you know, presenting yourself to the world as like the smart guy who says and knows things, but it's hard to keep that impression going when are routinely just embracing whatever the new trending bad idea is. I think he just has a history of platforming and embracing things by virtue of them being like new or radical, or at least having a perception of that.

Which is how we come to a place where Rick Rubin is hosting none other than Peter Thiel on his podcast. A guy who is not only a billionaire piece of trash, but is essentially spearheading this new era of the surveillance state.

Rick Rubin: What is Palantir?

Peter Thiel: Well, I'm always, I'm always tempted to just sort of give a J.R.R. Tolkien literary reference where it's this round orb originally built by the elves.

Not that long ago, Rick even had Louis C.K. and even Woody Allen on his podcast. This podcast is not pulling in millions and millions and millions of streams. It's clearly a passion project for Rick, somebody who is obviously living off of his work in music very handily at this point. This man can do anything he wants with his leisure time. At this point, and you're telling me as a hobby, for fun, you are just giving a platform to rich people and sitting across from them and pretending they're interesting?

Rick has also said AI is the "punk rock of coding," which I guess he did in support of this interactive book he released into the world, The Way of Code: The Timeless Art of Vibe Coding, essentially trying to show users and readers that talking to an AI interface and just natural regular language is more punk rock than actually learning to code and stuff, I guess.

I mean, are either punk rock?

What the hell does it matter? Especially when what we're embracing has essentially been created by billionaires – or is being pushed by billionaires – as a means of replacing coders so they don't have to pay them so much money and they could just hoard more wealth for themselves and their tech companies.

Again, I'm sorry, is that punk rock?

It's really unfortunate because Rick Rubin has a wealth of experience and I'm sure knowledge under his belt when it comes to creativity, when it comes to music, when it comes to the music industry. He's even written a book about creativity, which, I mean, when it comes to the topic of creativity, yeah, sure, I would hear Rick Rubin out. Lots of artists have, and understandably so.

But Rick Rubin doesn't even seem interested in propping up or celebrating that side of his success and his know-how, as evidenced by that strange 2023-2024 press run where he was just desperate to communicate to the world that he knows nothing about music, no technical ability, no know-how.

Anderson Cooper: Do you play instruments?

Rick Rubin: Barely.

Anderson Cooper: Do you know how to work a soundboard?

Rick Rubin: No. I have no technical ability, and I know nothing about music.

Anderson Cooper: You must know something.

Rick Rubin: Well, I know what I like and what I don't like, and I'm decisive about what I like and what I don't like.

Anderson Cooper: So what are you being paid for?

Rick Rubin: The confidence that I have in my taste and my ability to express what I feel.

It's like he wants people to think of him as anything but a producer. Look, I understand the temptation to frame yourself in an unconventional way to make what you do stand out. But when the range of your work goes from The Strokes' New Abnormal to Lil Uzi Vert's Pink Tape, I don't know, maybe conventions aren't so bad of a thing.

But again, I'm not so much annoyed that Rick Rubin embraces this reputation of being a star producer while telling us that he has no technical know-how. That's his business, I guess. What bugs me is that he uses these past successes and uses his music industry track record to build himself up as this new age philosophical thinker who just understands things in a way that all of us are just too pea-brained to. And then he cynically turns around and uses that clout, uses that credibility to put himself in a Polymarket advertisement.

Because what's more high-minded and forward-thinking than, I don't know, betting on Love Island? Again, it's kind of hard for me to see Rick as this all-knowing eye of a person when he just shows up consistently to make money off of or just embrace for attention whatever the worst new idea is.

And as bad and as embarrassing as this AI and this prediction market stuff is, believe me, Rick is gonna drop this stuff like a bad habit in the next year or so, and then we'll hop on whatever the next two bad things are and just advertise those instead.

So shout out to Rick Rubin, who I am increasingly skeptical of. Let me know what you think about all of this stuff down in the comments. I'm sure you will.

Anthony Fantano, Rick Rubin, forever.