Being a former huge Dre fan this hurts so bad to say...

[Gamestarr]

That fool never produces shit ? What is it that he does that is so great??
What does he do besides stick his name on any beat he likes and get other people to write his bars ?

Maybe I am just being ignorant. But finding out he never produces tracks by himself disappointed the hell out of me

[big mat]

well people say you gotta be a great musician to orchestrate some instrument players and tell em what to play and when to play. If he's great for doing that, many producers do all their shit alone and the result is great 2. The only so great about dre is the result. And that's the most important thing for most of the people who buy music

[Gamestarr]

well people say you gotta be a great musician to orchestrate some instrument players and tell em what to play and when to play. If he's great for doing that, many producers do all their shit alone and the result is great 2. The only so great about dre is the result. And that's the most important thing for most of the people who buy music

Good answer .. well said

[Snoopafly-1986]

I thought Dre always produces his own tracks? never heard of this before, I know he doesn't write his lyrics but he's more of a producer who raps not the other way around

[Chamillitary Click]

hes made sum lengendary beats. worked with pac, cube, snoop. i mean all the big dudes, and still is with today's big name rappers...eminem, 50 (GRODT 50 of corse  ), the list goes on maynee. dres a legend and a half

[Gamestarr]

I thought Dre always produces his own tracks? never heard of this before, I know he doesn't write his lyrics but he's more of a producer who raps not the other way around

He never does! Never! He always gets some other dude to do the keys n shit for him .. most of the time Mike Elizondo...

Really disappointing..


.. and yo.. this thread already has a million views but nobody cares to reply?

[REDZ]

meh, no one givs a fuk if he pruduces shit or not.

[NobodyButMe]

^^^ that JR Rotem paragraph breaks it down nice.

[XL Middleton]

loooook man....there is a huge difference between a producer & a beat maker. i wouldn't want to take anything away from either, but as it was stated earlier, Dre has the talent to orchestrate with other musicians and use their abilities to bring his vision to life, there's not many dudes in hip hop that can do that. that's why you got a dude on the level of Burt Bacharach down to work with Dre.

think about it like this - not giving Dre credit for his productions because he didn't actually sit down at the keyboard and play everything is like not giving Martin Scorsese his credit for directing movies because he didn't write the scripts himself.

[R-Tistic]

Y'all and those interviews have said everything that I would have said about it.

Just to add...being that I've been a producer AND a beat maker at times, those are almost different talents. There are people who can create their own beats from start to finish, but they wouldn't know how to put something together where other people are playing pieces of the beat...or if they got a beat structure from somebody else, they wouldn't know how to take it to the next level.

It's the same way that building houses and doing the manual labor and work is MUCH DIFFERENT from being the architect and writing out the entire blueprint, and laying out the structure of the house. You would never tell the architects that built the Eiffel Towel or the Emprie State building that they aren't architects and that they didn't do shit just because they weren't the ones using their hands to build it, you know?

[AboveTheLaw]

Dre's talent comes down to his ears and his ideas to guide the direction of what the artist he works with will sound like. Regardless of what he had actually produced in the past, Dre's signature quality in all his tracks (or on other productions) really comes down to the way he mixes. (NOT to be confused with Pre-Mastering) He arguably has the best sounding records as far as rap music is concerned. Add to that he also uses lots of live instruments in his sessions, (albeit other studio musicians) giving him a more natural sound.

The same people who've criticized him in the past for his productions (like Daz & Cold187um) have all offered their perspective on what Dre did or didn't do while in the same studio session. But these same producers are almost never able to mix own their tracks as good as Dre when on their own.

In terms of his audio quality, there's very little criticism as to who's doing what and that's always overlooked when simply arguing that Dre doesn't do shit in the studio. I would kill to have Dre's ears for mixing, let alone his strength (most of the time anytime) in knowing what will work and what doesn't work musically.

[Gamestarr]

Wow... just ... WOW ... Really impressed with these replies..
Maybe I should go a lil easy on Dre next time.. lol .. thank you all..


1

[HEC]

all you have to do is look at everybody who has worked with Dre in the past and compare their work with him and their work without him and you will see the difference Dre makes

[WC Gotti]

Good thing ya'll set this man straight...saying Dre aint one of the best producers (if not the best) in the game is like telling the Pope that God doesn't exists.

[mastdark81]

With that said I definitely appreciate his early work.  Tracks like California Love, Natural Born Killers are one of my memorable beats of his, not because of the songs but how they blend with so many different sounds in the entire beat without losing sync.  I mean you got cowbells and all types of shit in there that the normal guy wouldn't even think about putting in there, but Dre mixed them at the sound levels and panned them just right where they blend.  Its incredible.  If you have that good ear you definitely would understand what I'm talking about. 

Producers have to understand you have to work with a team.  You can't do everything by yourself if you want to maximize your track.  Today we are sampling so much because we can't fathom to do those same things that artists, bands did in the past.  They had teams.  Now you have one guy doing everything down to the cd cover.  In the past you had a guy that was super on the drums, a guy who played the sax like no other, a guy on the keys that was brilliant.

Take a look at Parliament.  They were a Dream Team of artists, George Clinton wasn't the guy that played everything but he got everything together ala DRE.

As much as I like Dre, just as a vocalist, rapper as years go by to me they lose the hunger and that edge that they use to have when they were younger.  I appreciate Dre's music alot more pre 2000 then 2000 to present.  Not saying that he haven't produced any good tracks but not years beyond and ahead of the competition like he were in the past.  He definitely is the measuring stick still.