Rick Rubin Talks 'Yeezus' [VIDEO]: The Super Producer Behind Kanye West's 2013 Album Talks Completing 'Yeezus', Hints At Possible 'Yeezus' Sequel,

Rick Rubin, the man who is responsible for possible helping to produce the first hip-hop album with LL Cool J's Radio, continues to reign supreme as one of the top producers in the industry for more than three decades. The Def Jam Recordings cofound has lent his expertise to a slew of acts including Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Beastie Boys, Adele, and Kid Rock, and most recently Kanye West and Jay-Z.

In an indepth interview with The Daily Beast Rick Rubin talked talked about his workd on Kanye West's Yeezus. Rubin recounted how he started working on Yeezus, the pressure to meet deadlines and a possible sequel.

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Check the highlights from the interview below.

How did you come to work on Yeezus?

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. Then he called up and said, "Can I just come play my album?" And I said, "Sure." I always like to hear what he's working on. 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.

What did the album sound like at that point?

Kind of meandering, unfocused, usually without his vocals. 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." Like completely confident and fine.

He wasn't stressed.

Not at all. I said, "I have a record coming out in November that's a lot further along than this." He said, "Really? What are you doing for the next five days?" I said I was going to go away. Then he said, "Please help me. Would you be open to fixing it and shaping it and finishing it off?"

Did he realize how much more work it needed?

To me it seemed impossible what he was asking. I remember I wasn't feeling that well that day, and I was thinking, Is the music making me sick? I don't feel good about this. We ended up working probably 15 days, 16 days, long hours, no days off, 15 hours a day. I was panicked the whole time.

What was the process like during those 15 days? How did you find a direction for the album?

There was so much material we could really pick which direction it was going to go. The idea of making it edgy and minimal and hard was Kanye's. I'd say, "This song is not so good. Should I start messing with it? Can I make it better?" And he'd say, "Yes, but instead of adding stuff, try taking stuff away." We talked a lot about minimalism. My house is basically an empty white box. When he walked in, he was like, "My house is an empty white box, too!"

It's a good thing you were on the same wavelength, because the sheer logistics of finishing the album must have been daunting.

Three days before Kanye had to turn the record in he tells us, "I'm going to Milan tonight." There are probably five songs that still need vocals at this point. Two still need words! So he says, "I have to go to this baby shower before I go to Milan. I'll be back at 4 p.m., and from 4 to 6 I'll do the vocals. Then I have to go." I say, "OK," thinking it's not OK, and he says, "Don't worry. I'll score 40 points for you in the fourth quarter." Again it just seemed impossible, but that's basically what he did. He didn't come back until after 4, and we probably didn't start until after 5. He said, "I have an hour and 10 minutes. Let's go." And then it was full-on NBA finals [laughs]. It probably ended up taking two hours. Five vocals. He wrote two lyrics on the spot.

When he came to you with the record, did you have a sense of what needed to be done?

Initially, he thought there were going to be 16 songs on the album. But that first day, before he even asked me to work on it, I said, "Maybe you should make it more concise. Maybe this is two albums. Maybe this is just the first half." That was one of the first breakthroughs. Kanye was like, "That's what I came here today to hear! It could be 10 songs!"

So there might be another Yeezus in the pipeline?

Might be.

Click here for the rest of the interview.

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Rick Rubin is in the process of working on Magna Carta Holy Grail, Jay-Z's forthcoming album. He also collaborated with Kanye and Hov for their 2011 joint venture Watch the Throne. Check out the Rick Rubin, Kanye, and Jay-Z at work for the Watch the Throne Documentary.