Rick Rubin

American music producer — co-founder of Def Jam Records — who has produced albums for Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Jay-Z, and Kendrick Lamar — the most commercially successful and artistically diverse record producer in history — author of The Creative Act.

Creates the producer-as-creative-conduit model — Rubin's approach (he often cannot play instruments, does not engineer recordings, and focuses entirely on the artist's vision and energy) is the most influential alternative to the traditional producer-as-technical-expert model; his results across country, hip-hop, heavy metal, and folk are the best empirical validation of this approach.