Makten att tolka rap är kanske inte en alla borde åtnjuta. Skaparna bakom Genius — tidigare Rapgenius — såg dock ett koncept i detta och beslutade sig för att ge varenda fanatiskt fan med ett tangentbord chansen att överanalysera Kendrick Lamar och J Coles låtar. Hemsidan har sedan sin start varit en växande succé och ett epicenter för genanta tolkningar av raptexter. En duglig kompensation för detta är dock de artister som med Genius verktyg har gett omvärlden en inblick i deras skapelseprocess.

Den senaste att göra detta är den legendariska producenten Rick Rubin. Förutom hans magnifika och uråldriga skägg — som kan få varenda skeptiker av kroppsbehåring att kontemplera en söderfiering — så ligger Def Jam-grundaren bakom klassiska album inom alla dess genres och renässanser för artister som Johnny Cash. Efter studiotid med alla möjliga — från Slayer till Kanye West — så öppnar nu Rubin upp sin låtskatt.

51-åringen är med andra ord i nostalgisk toppform och har hittills kommenterat över 60 av sina produktioner, ta del av några smakprov nedan.

Dixie Chicks – Not Ready to Make Nice:

Taking the Long Way was really fun. I like albums where there’s something controversial going on. They basically were the biggest female group in history, most successful female group in history, and then Natalie Maines made a comment about George Bush during a 2003 show in London.

”Just so you know, we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.”

And almost every country station in America stopped playing them. They went from being the most-played artists to being turned off. And have still never really been turned back on, by the way. They’ve completely been eliminated from their main market.

We made a new album after that happened, and a lot of it talks about that, and it ended up winning Grammy Album of the Year, and it’s a spectacular album. It really is a good album. “Lullaby” is great. There are some really good songs.

Kanye West – Bound 2 med Charlie Wilson:

Something we talked about with Kanye was doing an alternate version of Yeezus,because there are so many versions of songs, great versions. There are versions just as good as what’s on the album, just different. I know as a fan of the album, I’d like to hear that. Maybe some day, whenever he wants. But it exists! That shit exists.

Johnny Cash – Hurt:

For all the records we made together, he would play me songs and I would play him songs until we got to the point where we both liked the songs. There were always hundreds of songs in play, not necessarily recorded but discussed.

You can usually tell which ones I brought to the table. “Rusty Cage” was mine, “Hurt” was mine. He wouldn’t have heard those. Something like an old Jimmmie Rodgers song, chances are he brought it.

There are some exceptions. He brought in a Sting song, a modern Sting song, “I Hung my Head” which is really good. He brought in a Springsteen song, although I don’t know if we ever put it out. He brought in some modern stuff.

There were a lot of songs that he needed to be convincing about. Eventually, he trusted me enough that if I felt strongly about something, he’d do it. I would send him compilations of CDs of songs to listen to, and I remember that on several compilations in a row, “Hurt” was the first song. There’s just something about it. I imagined him saying those words being very powerful.

What I came to realize about that whole Johnny Cash experience was that he was a great storyteller. The song didn’t matter — all that mattered were the words. All that mattered was if the character of Johnny Cash — the mythical Johnny Cash, the man in black — would say those words. If that’s what you would want to hear him talking about, then that would be a good song to do.

So it was never about like melody, it was just about if the lyrics were right.

Geto Boys – Mind of a Lunatic:

Geffen refused to put out the Geto Boys because of “Mind of a Lunatic.”