What is a “producer” in hip-hop music?

Question

I was having a look at some hip hop albums on Wikipedia and I noticed that on the track list, there's often a "writer" column and a "producer" column. I can see who the writers are, but what are the "producers"? Is that the equivalent of lead vocals in rock music? What is their role exactly?

(Edit: sorry i tried to add the tags "hip-hop" and "producers" to this question but none were available. I don't think the question is about theory of music but couldn't find a better tag.)

Answer 1

All kinds of music recording require a producer. It is not specific to hip-hop.

Do you know what a movie director is? Movies require a screenwriter, actors, and camera-operators, but they also require a director. The director is the person who manages everything and provides the final word in artistic direction.

A producer is to a music recording what a director is to a film.

It varies a great deal from recording to recording, but a producer is generally paid to manage a recording session or album. They either take a fee up front or they earn a percentage or royalty of the proceeds from the recording. A producer is in charge of renting the studio, paying for session musicians, managing the schedule, and keeping the project on schedule and on budget.

The producer is often the final authority on all the decisions about what songs are recorded, how they are arranged, and how they will sound. If the music you are listening to sounds a certain way, it is because the producer decided that is how it should sound. The producer put together a team of musicians to record that sound that he wanted, and the producer got the project completed.

Producers are particularly important for "solo artists" who don't have a band. A producer might select each of the songs on an album (written by many different writers), come up with musical arrangements (often with the help of a professional arranger or beat-maker) hire all the musicians backing up the artist, and personally supervise every step of the recording process, approving or disapproving of various steps and doing things over again until they get them right. Producers are usually also involved in engineering the recordings and mixing them down.

In many forms of pop music and in many cases the end result and the "sound" depends much more on the producer than on the "artist" or band.

If there is a record label involved that is advancing many thousands of dollars to an artist or act to finance a recording, then the producer is under contract to the record label and is given the task of making sure that the final recording is delivered in a fashion that pleases the record label and the people advancing the money, so they can sell the recordings. Reliable producers who can deliver hit records can become quite wealthy, more wealthy than the "artist" whose name is on the record.

Part Two

Laurent, I suspect producers are mentioned more prominently in hip-hop because hip-hop producers often make the beats themselves. We used to call them "DJ"s, short for "disk jockey". Thus, the producer is making almost all of the music himself while the rapper is, well, just rapping. And it also has to do with image and marketing. If fans see "Dr. Dre" or "Jay-Z" on the label, they care more about that name than they do about the name of the "artist" rapper. This is just my suspicion; I don't know much about hip-hop.

Answer 2

First, some background from the Wikipedia article on "Record producer":

A producer has many roles that may include, but are not limited to, gathering ideas for the project, selecting songs and/or musicians, coaching the artist and musicians in the studio, controlling the recording sessions, and supervising the entire process through mixing and mastering.

And specifically for the music producer:
^{(as opposed to executive producer that handles the finances)}

The music producer's job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music.

Many artists are dependent on music producers to help with the production to more or less extent, from finding suitable material to include on a record to creating arrangements for the music etc. How much the music producer need to do is depending on how much the artist have resources do him/herself.

In the hiphop genre, the artist usually have a very big part in the music creation, both lyrics and sound deep into the technical stuff required in a production scenario. It is also often not just the main artist in the group that contributes, but the entire group, as the music often emerges through a collective process. The hiphop artists have very personal music where they are very specific on how they want things to sound.

So the artists in hiphop handle themselves the different things that are normally a music producers responsibilities. This is why you here often see that the artists themselves are listed as producers.

Answer 3

Basically the Producer, in Rap music, is the term to refer to beatmakers, those who make the beat, the music base or instrumental track that rappers use to rap on.

So if you see

Song - Artist (Prod. by Random guy)

Random guy made the beat used by Artist. There is no reference to "money being given to support the project". The Producer can be the same guy who gave the money, but it's not included in the definition.

Answer 4

Producers are not hip-hop specific, but work across all genres of music.

A simple and very explanatory excerpt from Wikipedia's page on music producers:

an individual working works within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording (i.e. "production") of an artist's music

They can provide a very valuable direction or creative angle for an album, and work closely with the artists and engineers to produce the final work.

Update for @KMC - they make, or help to make creative decisions, sometimes including:

• Order of tracks on the album, and sometimes which tracks should be included on the album
• Overall feel of an album - should it sound more polished or more raw?
• Guiding the album creation to make it suit the target market, and sellable.

Executive producers are also decision makers, but they are focused on the distribution of media and merchandise, tours, publishing and promotion etc.

I don't really know how to describe this any more simply - they are like film producers, in the same sort of 'creative oversight' way - and the Wikipedia page is pretty self explanatory.

Answer 5

Quite simply, the Producer is the person who wrote the music (and perhaps the vocals). The term is commonly used on the electronica genres and their derivatives (yes, that includes Hip-Hop).

Contrast this to a DJ (one who mixes works others create).

Answer 6

Clearly, not many hip hop fans frequent this board. The Wikipedia entry for this is clear and concise as to what a Hip Hop producer is.

Hip hop production is the creation of hip hop music. Though the term encompasses all aspects of hip hop music, it is most commonly used to refer to the instrumental, non-lyrical aspects of hip hop. This means that hip hop producers are the instrumentalists involved in a work. Modern hip hop production uses samplers, sequencers, drum machines, synthesizers, turntables, and live instrumentation. A hip hop instrumental is casually referred to as a beat, and a hip hop producer is casually referred to as a beatmaker. However, in the studio, a hip hop producer also functions as a traditional record producer, being the person who is ultimately responsible for the final sound of a recording.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop_production

The more traditional producer term applies to some, but not all producers, and to some but not all tracks. It depends on when, where, a track may have been conceived and/or recorded, etc. To get the exact information of how much involvement a traditional hip hop producer had to do with the actual recording of a track outside of the beat one would have to consult the credits of the particular album.

Further more, many more famous and better paid hip hop producers are not single entities. They're more or less, the head of a team of sound engineers. More than likely, the more famous and well known hip hop producers will be more involved with a track than a lesser known producer as they have the resources, personnel, and know how to take on more traditional producer roles.

Examples of producers are The Neptunes, Just Blaze, 9th Wonder, Kanye West, Diamond D, etc, etc.

To sum it up, as other's have said, including the wikipedia, they're the ones that make the beats. And although they may do other things when talking about Hip Hop and Hip Hop production people are referring to the beat maker and nothing else.