Are Producers becoming more important than rappers?

[ryshy]

Think about it, when you listen to hip hop these days usually your listening for a good beat as you usually know what youll get from the artist lyrically (since no one talks about shyt anymore). The only part of hip hop thats still really evolving and exciting is production, right now the game is driven by the top producers honestly, it used to be a feature would put you on but now all you need is a sonny digital beat and youve made it. This has probably been true for a while now but i think people are starting to realize whats happening, you got guys like lex and mike will who have reached almost superstar status, then you got guys like yung lean an robb banks who are completely carried by production. Plus we have a nice hierarchy of producers where the top ones make most of the heat, furthering the idea of a star producer.

I just thought about this listening to future, hes the perfect example of this. Future is in essence the creation of mike will, along with sonny digital and now metro boomin. Wiz had cardo, sledgren, and id labs, yg has dj mustards untalented ass, rick ross is the definition of being carried by production he has a team of great producers, Drake has always been boi1da 40 and t minus, gucci an waka are lex luger and the rest of 808 mafia, clams casino made both asap rocky and lil b (to an extent, they both have a lot of talented producers behind them). Producers have always been critical in hip hop, but i think we might be witnessing the point where theyre more important than the rapper now.

Edit: almost forgot, 2012 was the year of young chop. Dude was one of the most influential artists in hip hop and put chicago on the map again

 

[Medio]

do you fools listen to music or do you just skim through it?

 

[Matt504]

producers are VERY important now, especially when rappers like Future can marry his flow to the beat and let greatness ensue.

Young Thug unlocks new flows ONLY because he marries himself to the production, tapping into the mind of the production like Professor X.

 

[thewave]

producers got more money than these rappers these days

 

[mortuus est]

joey fatts is now making beats for Diddy

only heard these two by him





a lot of producers have been doing their thing, for me, they are both on the same level really

 

[JustCKing]

People have been saying this for the past 10 years though. Producers kind of dictate the direction of the music. One could argue that it started with producers becoming MC's. For example, Dr. Dre drops Chronic and it pretty much becomes the sound and a lot of artists from every region were making their own versions sonically. We had Jermaine Dupri's interpretation of The Chronic and Doggystyle when So So Def dropped Da Brat's Funkdafied. Kast also cited the sound The Chronic for inspiration for Southernplayalistic. Same goes for Biggie's debut.

Kanye dropping College Dropout is another example. Then you have producers like The Neptunes and Timbaland who practically ran last decade and dominated. Every rapper had one of their beats on their album. It was almost a requirement.

 

[*L*E*G*A*C*Y*]

There's no money in rapping.

 

[CELL]

This isn't 2003 breh producers are irrelevant now.

You could literally hear a beat on a full rap project from some 23 year old nobody in his mommas basement. shyt all it takes is a few months of playing with a bit of software and the right guy to stumble on your stuff.

 

[Ciggavelli]

Producing has been like this for a while now.

That being said, producers need rappers. Instrumental albums don't sell numbers

 

[MegaTronBomb!]

producers got more money than these rappers these days

These days?

Producers been getting more money than rappers for the last 25 years breh.

 

[FreshAIG]

Producer has always been more important than the rapper. This isn't new

 

[FreshAIG]

As Kool Moe Dee said there's very few people that listen to rap songs mainly for lyrics. That is a very minuscule, niche subculture of fans that are that into lyrics. Majority of people listen for great beats they can bump and a rapper that can flow good enough that it enhances the song or at minimum doesn't distract from the beat.

 

[Colilluminati]

I can go for days with the no names with a sonny digital beat.

 

[observe]

No producers have never been more important than rappers simply cuz they're never in the lime light..the rapper will always be the star..but producers actually play more of integral role in hip hop, cuz the beat is everything..you can listen to a wack rapper with a dope beat, but you can't listen to a dope rapper with a wack beat..the only exception is Gangstarr

 

[theflyest]

I've always considered Producers more important

When Beats By the Pound left, nolimit was finished
Beats by the Pound basically created artist. Nolimit had some guys with skills, but the majority of them were street nyggas. They weren't rappers.

When the diplomats weren't getting those heatmakerz beats, they were finished imo

I'm sure you got people here who have been in the studio with artist & were completely unimpressed. The producer had to make them sound good.

Hell you can create an artist. Get someone with a good voice, give him some production, & hand him some lyrics & tell him to spit it.