HI TEK
I saw this thread and IMMEDIATLEY checked to see if anyone would mention Hi-Tek...I think three did...Not only underrated, but I think the most ****ted on and overlooked by the industry...I think Kweli should have brought him along more...This guy I don't think has ever lacked in drum production and knows how to use texture...He can take an artist anywhere and I don't think people know that...
DJ PAUL/JUICY J
And about the DJ Paul and Juicy J stuff...I don't think many are always giving recognition because they tag them with southern production made with 808's...The abuse the 808 yes...but I tell you what, they know how to juice a sample and make that **** steam forreal...Have the haterz heard any of the older stuff that they were making on ****ty four tracks in '93-96? It's incredible, they flip samples that ALOT of those heatmakers producers would flip and have been doing it...They are a hard duo...And watching DJ Paul on the tables is sick too, cause he got a ****ed up hand, but puts a swagger with that ****...These guys are ALOT more knowledgable than even the bull**** hollywood folks give them...
STOUPE
From the oldest Jedi Mind Tricks - PsychoSocial album to the more recent demonstrations since the group has split, Stoupe has been demonstrating the power of darkness that can be harnessed in a sample...He's got beautiful production and chooses the best vocal samples and dialogues to put the mood in your ringer...The kid is sick with it...The downfall is a bit of one-sidedness...
NECRO
Talk about a guy whose image is seriously causing heads to sleep...Some don't like his voice, but play ANY Necro track to a virgin-eared hater and he'll ALWAYS at least say, "I don't really feel his flow, but that's a sick beat"...And it's true...While I like hearing the man spit, I am always willing to workout to a nice instrumental mix of his funk-drum infested, chop and groove sampled creations...More than smut and macabre, Necro is ill with the beats...
EL-P
If you haven't heard of El-P he was the cat who all the internet thought was going to seep into mainstream via MTV's embrace of the emcee/producer...Remember dude's **** on Company Flow? Sick...Just stepped it up another level a few years later going from organic to a more layered and "tampered" sound, which I ****in' dig on cause he captures the destruction of this world in music...But can still break out a NY banger whenever he wants...Can't front on the cat, though we don't always wanna hear what he has to say...
MANNY FRESH
Everyones already bigupped dude enough, and I'm glad...He's on a whole nother level and makes the best basslines...My favorite work of his is Juvenile 400 Degreez...It's not too layered, soulful, dynamic, crunk, smooth, funky...This man knows music weather you know it or not...
RZA
Not hated on by the hip hop community of the 90's but of recent and by the mainstream save for some Kill Bill rec, RZA gets no love for how sick he really is and how much of this **** cats are doing now just wouldn't be around or done quite the same...The man's sample game is tight, the man's program/composition game is tight and is the Osama of the slew of wu-tang producers he's got behind him taking his craft to each of their own ideals...I always imagine RZA just meditating above the bull**** of the game and all his underratedness...
PRINCE PAUL
De La Soul is all I need to say and that he allowed the freeformness to enter the production world to be fed to the masses...I think nowadays he's just been doing half-assed side projects because he's been forced to be one of those genuises who gets no recognition and is forced into unstable mind states due to underappreciatedness...But this guy could flip samples like no other and always comes correct on drums and percussion...He's not all goofiness either, he'll stab your heart with a touching beat no homo...
Honorable Mention:
DJ SHADOW: Isn't just the style of "entroducing" and "private press", can bang out a beat for anyone, he'll show the world soon
ANT: Finds the best samples, has improved drums and overall production since atmosphere's earlier work, but I still get tired of his redundant drum programming he so often gets entangled in...But still, he holds a strong style that many emcees can get on...
OVERRATED:
Scott Storch
Kanye