Gooch over at XXL asked one of those rhetorical, seemingly non-threatening Hip Hop questions that tends to get people riled up. "Is the era of the super-producer over?"
The one hit wonder has put the super producer out of business. And why? Probably for a few reasons, but the main one being that super producers just aren't very reliable when it comes to making hits anymore. They recreate a sound that worked once, over and over again, and consumers are too smart for that nowadays. They're not buying it.
Although Super Producers made #2 of our 25 Things That Killed (and are Still Killing) Urban Music list, we would hate to see them sacrificed on the alter of the YouTube star. But...
- How exciting would it be to go back to a time when artists (namely R&B) could reclaim their thunder? When a hot single was about the vocalist and not the producer?
- When the producer wouldn't use another artist's output to prop up his own solo release?
- When the only people doing backup were hired backup singers and not ad-libbing beatmakers?
- Or, how about not being able to correctly identify the producer on the first measure of a track because you've heard the same beat ten times in the past year with only slight variations?
It would be nice wouldn't? About ten years ago, when I was obsessed with things like liner notes, I would pride myself on being able to identify the producer of a track within seconds. But maybe they made it too easy. Maybe the sound was too branded. It continues to this day, when I could care less and have shorter patience for such things. This isn't to say that the producers implicated in Gooch's post aren't dope; it's just that they are ubiquitous and oftentimes it's difficult for the vocalist to emerge from the producer's shadow.
I think there needs to be a re-balancing of the scales.
Is the Era of the Super Producer Over? [XXL]
