The Kanye West song Rick Rubin saved from “the middle of the road”
Rick Rubin has worked with many people during his career. From Jay-Z to LL Cool J and even the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the super producer is highly versatile. That said, in 2013, when Kanye West invited him to work on his sixth album, Yeezus, eyebrows were raised. Although Ye is a fantastic musician in his own right, for inspiration, he brought Rubin on board to help him wrap up the critically acclaimed project.
The Def Jam co-founder wasn’t initially involved in Yeezus’ creation or the recording process. However, akin to when West asked Timbaland to help him with Graduation, the perfectionist wanted another legend to help him meticulously mould his 2013 album.
Rubin helped Kanye with several songs, but one of the most well-known tracks that the New York native contributed to was ‘Bound 2’. The track, which peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, was released as the second single of the project and is renowned for its iconic music video.
Rubin’s input into Yeezus was extensive. During an interview with the Daily Beast, he spoke about how he became involved in its curation, revealing, “Kanye called me. I’d just finished working at the studio for about two months on another album, and I was getting ready to go away on vacation for a couple weeks.” Rubin also explained how Ye wanted to play him an album for feedback.
Recounting what followed, Ruin continued: “So he came over to my house in Malibu. We listened. I thought I was going to hear a finished album, but actually we listened to probably three and a half hours of works in progress. I assumed that the album was scheduled to come out next year. So I said, ‘When are you thinking of finishing up?’ And he said, ‘It’s coming out in five weeks’.”
‘Bound 2’ was one of the tracks he heard, and West was attempting to release a song with sparse instrumentation. However, to achieve the sonic he was searching for, he knew he needed Rubin, the master of minimalism.
In an interview with the New York Times, West admitted that although he was a “minimalist in a rapper’s body,” he required Rubin to “bring all those vibes” to the album. Ye was even humble enough to accept that, at the time, he was still a student of the sparse production style. In 2013, he told the publication, “I’m still just a kid learning about minimalism, and he’s a master of it.”
The song included backing vocals and a mellow hook from the R&B legend Charlie Wilson. However, he wanted it to have a modest amount of instruments. The final product wasn’t how it sounded when Kanye showcased the track to Rick. Recalling how it sounded to him initially, Rubin once told the Wall Street Journal, “When he first played it for me, it was a more middle of the road R&B song, done in an adult contemporary style.”
According to Rubin, West had an exciting sample he wanted to incorporate into the song, so he worked some magic on ‘Bound 2’. Recounting the process, Rubin added, “Kanye had the idea of combining that track with a cool sample he had found and liked I removed all of the R&B elements, leaving only a single note baseline in the hook which we processed.”
When the single met West’s liking, he recorded the visuals, which people loved and hated. Revealing that they were inspired by his dreams, Kanye said, “That video is one of the closest things to the way that dreams look and feel, or the way joy looks and feels, with the colours.”
He concluded: “It’s a dream, and I think the controversy comes from the fact that I don’t think most people are comfortable with their own dreams, so it’s hard for them to be comfortable with other people’s dreams.”
Famously, Kim Kardashian features in the Nick Knight-directed video, taking fans through West’s mind. Fans love the track, but could have ended up as a “middle of the road R&B song” if not for Ye’s saving grace Rick Rubin.