dr. dre

Dr.Dre is not only the most influential producer in hip-hop, he is probably the reason that hip-hop will have to redefine what it means to be a producer. Today, everyone thinks that hip-hop means "beat-maker". But many Producers of music are not beat-makers. Instead they are the brains behind those who make the music and develop the lyrics. This is Dre...and he's a beatmaker. Every artist who has worked with Dre seems to testify that Dre does much more than bring in tracks and records with them. Dre seems to be involved with every element from blueprinting the "layout" of the album, to helping the artist write and arrange their lyrics for the tracks, to editing tracks done by other beat-makers, to making his own beats for the artist. That's a producer -- and that is what Dr.Dre brings to the table of not just his labelists, but the hip-hop industry as a whole.