Present at the creation, Rick Rubin oversaw so many seminal hip hop records that he earned the right to grow his hair as fugly as he wanted. How Slayer, the Chili Peppers, and, uh, Mick Jagger assumed he’d bring anything other than cachet is a story I’d love to hear ’round the bar in heaven. The simplest explanation is that as a teen he loved metal for how it sounded, and hip-hop to young Rick was the new metal. He wasn’t wrong. By the time the geezers hired him he must have thought he could make them sound good too. He wasn’t wrong, for the most part.
1. LL Cool J – Rock the Bells
2. Beastie Boys – The New Style
3. Run-D.M.C. – It’s Tricky
4. T La Rock and Jazzy Jay – It’s Yours
5. Roy Orbison – Life Fades Away
6. Tom Petty – Yo Don’t Know How It Feels
7. Johnny Cash – The Beast in Me
8. The Bangles – Hazy Shade of Winter
9. Slayer – Angel of Death
10. LL Cool J – Going Back to Cali
11. Jazzy Jay – Def Jam/Cold Chillin’ In The Spot
12. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Suck My Kiss
13. Run-D.M.C. – Christmas in Hollis
14. Johnny Cash – Hurt
15. Jay-Z – 99 Problems
16. Dixie Chicks – The Long Way Around
17. Neil Diamond – Oh Mary
18. Jimny Spicer – This Is It/Beat the Clock
19. Mick Jagger – Wired All Night
20. Lady Gaga – Dope
Humanizing The Vacuum 