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

Ziemer T, Kudakov N, Reuter C. Producer vs. Rapper: Who Dominates the Hip Hop Sound? J Audio Eng Soc. 2025;73(1/2):54-62. doi:10.17743/jaes.2022.0183

@article{Ziemer2025_22793,
  author = {Ziemer, Tim and Kudakov, Nikita and Reuter, Christoph},
  title = {{Producer vs. Rapper: Who Dominates the Hip Hop Sound?}},
  journal = {Journal of the Audio Engineering Society},
  volume = {73},
  number = {1/2},
  pages = {54--62},
  year = {2025},
  month = jan,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  doi = {10.17743/jaes.2022.0183},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2022.0183}
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - Producer vs. Rapper: Who Dominates the Hip Hop Sound?
AU  - Ziemer, Tim
AU  - Kudakov, Nikita
AU  - Reuter, Christoph
T2  - Journal of the Audio Engineering Society
J2  - J. Audio Eng. Soc.
VL  - 73
IS  - 1/2
SP  - 54
EP  - 62
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/01/07
DO  - 10.17743/jaes.2022.0183
UR  - https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2022.0183
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - 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, the authors trained self-organizing maps with songs produced by Dr. Dre, Rick Rubin, and Timbaland using the goniometer and mel-frequency cepstral coefficients. With these maps, the authors investigate whether hip hop producers have a unique sound profile. Then, they 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, it was investigated how much their sound profile was 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 mel-frequency cepstral coefficients. They dominate the sound of hip hop music over rappers, who emulate the sound profile of the producers who introduced them to beat making.
ER  -