Producer vs. Rapper: Who Dominates the Hip Hop Sound? A Case Study

TL;DR

This study uses Self-Organizing Maps to analyze the distinct sound profiles of hip hop producers versus rappers, revealing producers' dominance in shaping the overall sound and the influence of producers on rapper collaborations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of SOMs to differentiate producer and rapper sound profiles and examines their influence in collaborative hip hop tracks.

Findings

Producers have unique sound profiles, especially in goniometer data.

Rappers tend to emulate producer sound profiles.

Producers dominate the overall sound of hip hop music.

Abstract

In hip-hop music, rappers and producers play important, but rather different roles. However, both contribute to the overall sound, as rappers bring in their voice, while producers are responsible for the music composition and mix. In this case report, we trained Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs) with songs produced by Dr. Dre, Rick Rubin and Timbaland using the goniometer and Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs). With these maps, we investigate whether hip hop producers have a unique sound profile. Then, we test whether collaborations with the rappers Eminem, Jay-Z, LL Cool J and Nas stick to, or break out of this sound profile. As these rappers are also producers of some songs, we investigate how much their sound profile is influenced by the producers who introduced them to beat making. The results speak a clear language: producers have their own sound profile that is unique concerning the goniometer, and less distinct concerning MFCCs. They dominate the sound of hip hop music over rappers, who emulate the sound profile of the producers who introduced them to beat making.