Muse-Letter 005- Rick Rubin's new book and confession, J Cole's humble collab and more!

Muse-Letter 005 - January 30th, 2023

Yoooo! What's up fam!

Welcome back to The Muse-Letter. This week we have some hot topics on music producers. Super-producer Rick Rubin has released a book on his creative process for music-making, and a music producer on YouTube was singled-out by well-known artist J Cole for a collab. It's sick to see aspiring producers gaining recognition and seeing the humble side of celebrities.

It's been wicked finding these articles and putting topics out there for my subscribers to read. I'm enjoying giving up-and-coming producers the limelight on my newsletter and keeping up with what is happening in the industry. I hope you've all been loving Muse-Letter and keeping up with them.

As always, I appreciate any and all feedback. So without further ado, let's get into it.

This Week in Producer News 📰

Super-producer Rick Rubin’s new book and his secret to music-making

One of the most admired and accomplished producers, Rick Rubin co-founded Def Jam Records in the early 1980s. He also launched the rock-oriented label American Records and even acted as co-president of Columbia Records.

Rubin had a genre-spanning career working with our favourite artists ranging from Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, Neil Diamond, Jay Z, Adele, Ed Sheeran, Eminem, and so many more. Name an artist or band and he’s probably worked with them. Rubin is the co-founder of Def Jam Recordings and helped popularize hip-hop with artists such as Beastie Boys, LL Cool J and Run-DMC. Considering his legendary work with all these artists, it’s been public knowledge for years that Rubin doesn’t know much about music and has no “technical ability” in the studio. In an interview with Channel 4 news, he said his creative choices partially come from avoiding what is popular or successful at the time.

“We each have a singular voice, we each have our own voice,” he said. “What I do is different than what you do…we all do something different and they’re not comparable. They have nothing to do with each other. It’s apples and oranges.” He added: “So if you make something today and you think it can be better, tomorrow you can improve it. You can continually make the thing you’re making better. You can learn and practice and do anything.”

Rubin was asked in an interview with 60 Minutes if he plays any instruments.

“Barely,” Rubin replied. He was then asked if he knew how to work a soundboard.

“No. I have no technical ability, and I know nothing about music,” Rubin said.

Rubin chats about his taste in music as having always been his motivation for all his creative decisions. He released his debut book The Creative Act: A Way of Being, where he elaborates on his creative process for creating music and collaborating with all kinds of artists.

“I know what I like and what I don’t like,” he said. “And I’m decisive about what I like and what I don’t like. The confidence that I have in my taste and my ability to express what I feel has proven helpful for artists,” Rubin admits humbly.

Rubin shares lessons he has learned about creativity through his career and life in his new book and shares his ideas and philosophy for creating music. There aren’t technical skills in there relating to creating music, but rather advice on letting go of your ego, and creating without instinct.

You can hear when Rubin has been involved on a track due to his famous trademark of a “stripped-down” sound, which includes removing production elements such as strings, backup vocals, and reverb, and choosing to use A Capella vocals and exposed instruments. Rubin encourages artists to challenge and embrace their limitations. His agenda is for artists to not be dragged down by rules, and to have confidence in their abilities. Try something new, even if it isn’t the hottest thing now, you could make it be.

Check out his book and the interviews linked in the article to explore Rick Rubin’s mind and his creative process. If you want to see a conversation between two great producers, check out the chat between Pharrell and Rubin on YouTube.

Article of The Week 📜

J Cole gives some love to an aspiring YouTube producer through collab

A budding New York producer has been releasing instrumentals on YouTube for over a decade. He was shocked when he found out J. Cole was 'inspired' and wrote a song to one of his beats.

Andrew Archer, also known as Bvtman, is a producer from New York who has been releasing his music on YouTube since 2011. Archer has been all the talk since J Cole found his beats and decided to make a sick new song with it. Archer spoke to Insider about how we came about producing music.

"When I was living on Church Ave with my dad, he had his little basement where he kept his music stuff, and he always had people come through and record in the studio," said Archer, 30. "So I would be there chilling at home, messing on the machines, and I just got into it eventually. And I took it seriously in high school, outside of rapping. I'm like, 'Yo, I need my own beats.' So, I just started making beats. And now we're here."

Archer was uploading his beats that were influenced by the late producer J Dilla when a friend suggested he add “type beat” to the titles to push his content. He took the advice and started releasing type beats inspired by a bunch of artists including Drake, Nipsey, Isaiah Rashad, and of course, J Cole. 

"I just started doing it every day. I'd see 10 views, and went to 100 views and 10,000 views, and then it just kept going up. I'm like, 'I figured this out," Archer said. "I chose those artists because I hoped to work with them one day. And now the J. Cole situation happened, so it's a blessing."

Archer received a phone call from J Cole’s manager, Ibrahim “IB” Hamad, who told him that Cole blessed his “The Reunion” instrumental which Archer originally released last June.

Archer was in disbelief and says, "As soon as I heard Cole in the beginning, I was like, 'This is real," he continued. " It was a moment of clarity for me, and a moment of joy, uncontrollable joy. That was a stamp of approval."

Archer has uploaded the song titled "procrastination(broke)," on his YouTube channel with the blessing from J Cole himself. It's currently at 2.6 million views as of late January 2023.

The cover art that Archer has used for the song is a screenshot of a message from Cole showing his thanks to Archer for the motivation to get back into the booth. Cole mentions in the track that he is working on the album but that he's finding it hard to get inspired these days.

Archer says, "What he did was a genuine and a human thing to do. He's a producer himself, so he understands the process, understands the emotions, the creating process, and the feeling you get when you make a good beat. If I ever get to meet him, the first thing I'm going to say is, 'Thank you.'"

The most wicked thing is that Cole didn't decide to upload this himself, but has given the credit to Bvtman. It's sick to see this side of celebrities as they all started somewhere and so they get how it is.

Archer’s final message to people is, "You got to have faith, you got to work hard, you got to be consistent. You got to manifest what you want. You got to put it out in the world."

Check out the track on Bvtman's YouTube channel and give him some love.

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Thanks for reading this week's newsletter. I hope you enjoyed it and look forward to providing you with more content that helps you level up throughout 2023. In the meantime, make sure to take a look at the top-quality sounds I use on my website! 👇🏿

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If you have any questions, ideas, or suggestions feel free to hit me up on IG! @prodbyocean

Appreciate you, fam.

-Ocean