My Top 3 Rapper-Producers in the Game

A song has many ingredients to it. When I hear a song, the first thing that catches my ears is the beat. For me, 9 times out of 10 the beat determines if I will even allow the song to continue. Nowadays, the producer is almost as important as the artist, depending on who the producer is. Think about it...when you hear certain producer tag lines such as, "Yo Pierre, you wanna come out here?", "Metro Boomin want some more n****!", or "Southside on the track ayyeee!" it gets people excited to listen to the track because we know that the beat is about to be fire. Dr. Dre, Kanye West, Southside, No I.D., etc. are all great producers, who has built hall-of-fame careers and delivered classics upon classics. The thing that separates Dr. Dre and Kanye West from No I.D. is that Dr. Dre and Kanye are also artists. Kanye and Dre are special because they found a way to get people to not only care about their beats, but their songs as well. The term rapper-producer is pretty simple, it's an artist who solely came into the game as a producer and branched off to become a rapper. It's one thing to make fire beats, but the ability to make the beat and rap on them is a whole other ball game. For example, there's a difference between Pierre Bourne dropping an album and Metro Booming dropping an album. Due to the fact that when Pierre drops an album, he produces and raps the songs on the album, opposed to when Metro drops an album he produces the songs on the album, but doesn't rap on any of the songs and just has features. To be clear, this list is my "personal" top 3 favorite rapper-producers, not the "best" rapper-producers. With that being said, I wanted to rank my personal top 3 rapper-producers in hip-hop.

1) Kanye West

Alright y'all, let's get it out the way. Yes, Kanye West is one of my GOATS and I had no choice, but to be biased and put him as number one. Kanye West is clearly one of the greatest of all time and has influenced generations beyond measure. As we all know, Kanye started in the game as solely a producer, and has produced some of the most iconic songs in hip-hop history, from "Jay-Z - The Takeover" to "TI - Swagga Like Us". The documentary "jeen-yuhs", gave us insight into the depths that Kanye took to prove himself as an artist. He didn't take long to form his sound in the game, as he quickly built a reputation for his soul-sounding beats and usage of samples, heard on songs like "Through the Wire" and "This Can't Be Life". Kanye continues to innovate and has established himself as a musical genius, from his beats to his songs. Whether he's releasing an album or producing a song for another artist, it's always a must-listen for the culture. Whether you like him or hate him, you gotta respect him.

2) Dr. Dre

Coming in at number 2 is Dr. Dre. He is one of the greatest of all time and has delivered some of the most iconic songs in the culture. He is a pioneer in hip-hop and is responsible for some of the most famous artists in all of music. As we all know, Dr. Dre was a member of NWA, often producing most of their songs. Dre changed the game in 1991, when he released one of the most iconic albums of all time, “The Chronic”. This album changed the game due to the fact that Dr. Dre, who was known as a producer at the time, released an album as an “artist”. Dre produced all of the songs, as well as rapped on them, displaying his ability to do both. In my opinion, Dre is the forefather of the “rapper-producers” and deserves his flowers while he's here. Dr. Dre has turned himself into a mogul and is responsible for the careers of Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent, just to name a few. Dre's name is etched in stone and is going down in history as one of the all-time greats.

3) Pierre Bourne

Last but not least, Pierre Bourne is in at the number 3 spot. Pierre Bourne is one of my favorites in the game at the moment and has already established himself as one of the best producers of this generation. As mentioned above, when people hear "Yo Pierre, you wanna come out here?", 9 times out of 10 the song is going to be fire. Pierre began his career solely as a producer/engineer, working with the likes of Young Nudy, Lil Uzi Vert, Playboi Carti, etc. to begin. He burst onto the scene in 2017 when he produced, arguably the biggest song of that year, "Magnolia" by Playboi Carti. This song turned Pierre into a household name and his career has blossomed because of it. Pierre is now a solidified artist and has released 3 successful albums. Bourne has set the standard and a large number of his peers are trying to copy the blueprint. Remember I said it here first, Pierre Bourne is a young legend in the making..