Rick Rubin on AI, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Eminem and Adele: the idea matters more than the tool

Legendary producer Rick Rubin used a wide-ranging interview on The Diary of a CEO with host Steven Bartlett to lay out his view of creativity, generative AI, and what separates lasting artists from everyone else. Rubin said AI could become a powerful creative tool and lower the barrier for people who cannot paint or play instruments, because prompts can still carry original intent. At the same time, he stopped short of calling AI a full replacement for artists, arguing that the hardest thing to replicate is a human point of view. Rubin tied that argument to stories from his work with major artists. He recalled Jay-Z recording "99 Problems" without writing lyrics down, sitting with the beat for 20 to 30 minutes before delivering a full verse in one take. He described Kanye West as artistically fearless during the making of 2013’s Yeezus, cited Eminem’s habit of writing constantly even though 99% of it never gets released, and praised Adele’s ability to sing the same song 30 times at a usable level each time. Across those examples, Rubin returned to one idea: the best work often looks indefensible at first. In his view, market logic, short-term incentives, and data rarely produce the most original art.