With Unlimited Love, the Red Hot Chili Peppers released not only their third-longest album to date today, but also the first featuring long-time guitarist and songwriter John Frusciante since leaving the band in 2009. This sees the band return to the line-up its best known for, including Rick Rubin taking over production duties once more. While Unlimited Love will only be eligible for next year's 65th Grammy Awards and Rubin's name is notably absent amongst this year's nominees for Producer of the Year, the Def Jam founder is nonetheless part of an exclusive club as our chart shows.
Since its inception in 1975, only eight people have won multiple Producer of the Year awards, with Rubin sharing third place with Greg Kurstin, Peter Asher and Arif Mardin. Kurstin is best known for his work with Adele, Sia and Beck, while Asher produced Linda Ronstadt and Neil Diamond and the late Mardin worked with a variety of artists in his 30-year career with Atlantic Records. Topping the list is Kenneth Brian Edmonds, better known by his stage name BabyFace, who gained notoriety for his work with seminal 90s R&B artists like Mary J. Blige and Toni Braxton.
After founding the legendary hip hop label Def Jam in 1983 and paving the way for acts like LL Cool J, The Beastie Boys and Run-DMC, Rubin went on to establish American Recordings in 1993 and serving as vice president of Columbia Records between 2007 and 2012. His latest production credits include albums by the late Tom Petty, Santana, The Strokes and Imagine Dragons.
