Rubin's biggest trademark as a producer has been a "stripped-down" sound, that involves eliminating
cliché production elements such as
string sections, backup vocals, and
reverb, and instead having naked vocals and bare instrumentation. Another form of stripping down the sound of an album would be Rick Rubin's suggestions to have 'Gapless Albums' which are albums with songs that segue into each other, such as "
Minutes To Midnight" by Linkin Park and
Blood Sugar Sex Magik by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. However, by the 2000s, Rubin's style had been known to include such elements, as noted in the Washington Post: "As the track reaches a crescendo and
Diamond's portentous baritone soars over a swelling string arrangement, Rubin leans back, as though floored by the emotional power of the song".
His previous style began with his very first production effort, LL Cool J's
Radio, which consisted of little more than rapping and percussive beats (the liner notes credit for the album read "Reduced by Rick Rubin" rather than the usual "Produced by Rick Rubin"). He later gained a reputation for being able to restore the careers of veteran singers and bands, as somebody who could help them break out of the commercial rut they were currently in. He did this most notably with
Johnny Cash, achieving this with
Tom Petty and
Neil Diamond (on
12 Songs) as well.
On the subject of his production methods; Dan Charnas, a music journalist who worked as vice president of A&R and marketing at Rubin's American Recordings label in the 1990s, said "He's fantastic with sound and arrangements, and he's tremendous with artists. They love him. He shows them how to make it better, and he gets more honest and exciting performances out of people than anyone."
Rubin pioneered the fusion of rap and hard rock/heavy metal in his work with Run-D.M.C.,the Beastie Boys and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Later examples of his rap-rock fusion were
Jay-Z's 2003 song "
99 Problems" and
Lil' Jon's 2004 song "Stop Fuckin Wit Me". The latter
sampled Slayer's "Mandatory Suicide" and "Raining Blood", both originally produced by Rubin. He also co-produced
Linkin Park's latest album
Minutes to Midnight.
Another trademark has been having artists
cover songs where the covering band's style is different from the original version of the song. Rubin produced Slayer's cover of
Iron Butterfly's "
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", and produced
Rage Against the Machine's 2000 covers album,
Renegades. He also united the members of the band
Audioslave and produced their first two albums,
Audioslave and
Out Of Exile. He is also noted for signing the breakout rock act Luna Halo.
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