Kanye West’s ‘Yeezus’ Received Last-Minute Help From Rick Rubin

Kayne West’s upcoming album Yeezus received some last-minute assistance from legendary producer Rick Rubin.

The man who helped bring the Beastie Boys and LL Cool J to the masses was brought in to help “focus” some of the tracks featured on the controversial rapper’s upcoming album. According to Rubin, the duo worked feverishly to get the songs completed before the label’s deadline.

Rick Rubin told The Wall Street Journal that he and Kanye West didn’t have a lot of time to put the finishing touches on Yeezus. In fact, several songs slated to appear on the album didn’t have vocals days before it was supposed to be submitted to the label.

“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,” Rubin explained.

The legendary producer continued, “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.”

Rubin said West was determined to deliver a “stripped-down minimal” sound for the album. While figuring out how the songs could be improved, the producer said West was more concerned with what he could remove from the tracks than what they could add.

Rick Rubin also gave Kanye West a lot of praise for bucking the trend in terms of commercial appeal and promotion. Yeezus doesn’t have a single or marketable cover art, facts which seemed to greatly impress the veteran producer.

“He is pure in his art and in a form where so many choices artists make are often the result of business consideration. Kanye chooses to let his art lead. He didn’t want a premeditated commercial [single] for his album as he looks at it as a body of work. Kanye proceeds on the road less traveled and I applaud him for it,” Rubin said.

Are you looking forward to Kanye West’s Yeezus? Are you going to pick up a copy of the Rick Rubin-produced album on Tuesday (June 18)?

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