Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg recently sat down with Stephen A. Smith, and the topic of modern hip-hop came up. Snoop first compared his mentor to retired college football coach Nick Saban, who, like Dre, is considered the best in his field and coached up his fair share of stars over the years.
Smith then asked what advice the legendary duo would offer aspiring artists today, and while Snoop answered to “be original,” Dre advised to “find your collaborator.” Adding, “I don’t like the fact that there are, like, nine different producers on one album. I like the idea of one producer on one album. Continuity is everything.” After Smith asked when the trend of having multiple producers contribute on a track begin, the West Coast legend answered, “I don’t know, but I don’t like it. If you a producer, you should be able to produce the entire album. That’s what I thought it was supposed to be. That’s what I was doing at the beginning.”
Timbaland, a legendary and influential producer in his own right, agreed enough to post the clip on his Instagram along with the caption: “Preach!!!! @drdre.” And he wasn’t the only major producer to co-sign Dre’s statement. Metro Boomin, who’s repping for the younger generation, was on the same page as well, commenting, “All facts!”
Snoop interjected by saying, “There’s a lot of beatmakers, though, Doc. That’s the difference between your era and this era, is that there aren’t too many producers as there are beatmakers. It’s so easy to make beats. They giving you all these computer packets that has the drum loop, has this… Y’all had to make the loop, change the sample.” Dre then answered back that he feels there’s a “change that’s happening from all this mumble rap thing and everything that’s happening right now.”
He continued by saying, “There’s somebody in somebody’s garage that’s happening right now that’s going to be the next Snoop and Dre, or next Prince and Michael Jackson that’s coming up with something that’s gonna change the game. It’s gotta happen right now and it’s wide open because everything that’s happening right now in the music game — especially hip-hop — is weird as f—.”
While this practice has become rare in mainstream rap, producers in the indie scene like The Alchemist, Daringer and V Don have made a habit of working with rappers like Boldy James, Rome Streetz, Larry June and others in crafting full projects together. And to Metro’s credit, he fully produced two albums with Future this year that both went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
You can watch the full interview here and check out the clip below: