[throwaway1004]

Accepting the conceit that the music industry is a meritocracy and that demand drives supply, Rick Rubin is clearly a 10Xer genius who gets the best of the best out of the best of the best while the tape is rolling.

Entertaining the conspiracy theory that the music industry is a cartel ran by a group of unscrupulous and insular gangsters with functionally-unlimited ability to promote and push garbage on the public, with marketing dollars and pay-for-play airtime being the primary means of popularity, one might assume that Rick was involved in projects whose success was a fait accompli, and that Rick's presence and observance in the studio goes beyond music.

Personally, I've noticed the wild variance in artists' opinions about working with Rubin: some say he's a genius and inspirational, but just as many say he's a useless loafer who checks-in from time to time without adding anything creative or useful. It seems, to me, that the former group come from "non-muscian" backgrounds: they are "artists" who usually contribute vocalisations which are a component of tracks created by producers; the latter group tends to include musicians and bands who are self-starters capable of producing songs on their own but expecting a pro producer to help the effort.