Hip Hop Producers
Hip Hop Producers
Industry's Finest
- Dr. Dre'
- Kanye West
- The Neptunes
- David Banner
- Jermaine Dupri
- Lil' Jon
- Timbaland
- The Alchemist
- Just Blaze
[ Hip Hop Producers ]
Dr. Dre
[ Hip Hop Producers ]
More than any other rapper, Dr. Dre was
responsible for moving away from the avant-noise and political
stance of Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions as well as
the party vibes of old-school rap.
Instead, Dre pioneered gangsta rap and his own variation of
the sound, G-funk. BDP's early albums were hardcore but
cautionary tales of the criminal mind, but Dre's records with
N.W.A. celebrated the hedonistic, amoralistic side of gang
life.
Dre was never much of a rapper -- his
rhymes were simple and his delivery was slow and clumsy -- but
as a producer, he was extraordinary. With N.W.A. he melded the
noise collages of the Bomb Squad with funky rhythms. On his
own, he reworked George Clinton's elastic funk into the
self-styled G-funk, a slow-rolling variation that relied more
on sound than content. When he left N.W.A. in 1992, he founded
Death Row Records with Suge Knight, and the label quickly
became the dominant force in mid-'90s hip-hop thanks to his
debut, The Chronic.
Soon, most rap records imitated its sound, and
his productions for Snoop Doggy Dogg and Blackstreet were
massive hits. For nearly four years, G-funk dominated hip-hop,
and Dre had enough sense to abandon it and Death Row just
before the whole empire collapsed in late 1996. Dre retaliated
by forming a new company, Aftermath, and while it was initially
slow getting started, his bold moves forward earned critical
respect. Dre (born Andre Young, February 18, 1965) became
involved in hip-hop during the early '80s, performing at house
parties and clubs with the World Class Wreckin' Cru around
South Central Los Angeles and making a handful of recordings
along the way. In 1986, he met Ice Cube, and the two rappers
began writing songs for Ruthless Records, a label started by
former drug pusher Eazy-E. Eazy tried to give one of the duo's
songs, "Boyz-n-the Hood," to HBO, a group signed to Ruthless.
When the group refused, Eazy formed N.W.A. -- an acronym for
Niggaz With Attitude -- with Dre and Cube, releasing their
first album in 1987. A year later, N.W.A. delivered Straight
Outta Compton, a vicious hardcore record that became an
underground hit with virtually no support from radio, the
press, or MTV. N.W.A. became notorious for their hardcore
lyrics, especially those of "Fuck tha Police," which resulted
in the FBI sending a warning letter to Ruthless and its parent
company, Priority, suggesting that the group should watch their
step.
[ Hip Hop Producers ]
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