Rick Rubin

Creative Breakthroughs Begin With Ideas the Market Cannot Defend

Rick Rubin, the Def Jam co-founder and producer, argues that consequential creative work begins with ideas that cannot be rationally defended in advance—choices guided by intuition rather than market research, audience expectation or professional identity. Drawing on work with artists including Jay-Z, Kanye West, Johnny Cash and Linkin Park, Rubin says artists should protect the exploratory stages of making, accept the risk of alienating existing audiences, and treat commercial response as secondary to whether the work honestly reflects their point of view.