Billboard created a list of “The 10 Greatest Hip-Hop Beats of All Time.”
The site says it looked for production that “stood the test of time.” It says that part of what makes a beat great is pairing it with “just the right rapper to complement it.” Each beat listed is made by a different producer or team.
The Neptunes are given the #8 position for their work on Snoop Dogg‘s “Drop It Like It’s Hot.” Besides crafting the beat alongside Chad Hugo, Pharrell has a verse on the track.
“With ‘Drop It like It’s Hot,’ the Virginia duo provided a breathable landscape comprised of fingersnaps, mouth clicks and a Juno 106 synth,” the site says, “that combined to form a beat that harnessed the pure keyboard sounds of the ’70s and surrounded it with highly experimental percussion that paid off.”
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Dr. Dre receives the nod at #4 for his self-produced track, ““Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang,” which features Snoop Dogg.
“Dr. Dre has consistently doled out classic beats for his own albums as well as sets from a wide range of artists like Snoop Dogg, Gwen Stefani and Eminem,” Billboard says. “Nothing epitomized the West Coast G-Funk sound more than ‘Nuthin’ but a “G” Thang,’ which established instrumental and percussive conventions that still dominate the area’s sound today.”
Billboard taps Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five‘s “The Message,” at the #1 beat, produced by Ed Fletcher, Clifton “Jiggs” Chase and Sylvia Robinson.
“Old school Hip Hop’s greatest instrumental masterpiece,” the publication says, “and the best sample-free Rap beat ever, made before the innovations of folks like Steinski, Rick Rubin and Marley Marl brought loops to the forefront. The mix of cascading synthesizers, guitar plucks and timbale fills was the perfect backdrop for what’s widely hailed as the prototype for sociopolitically conscious Rap.”
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To read the complete “The 10 Greatest Hip-Hop Beats of All Time,” visit Billboard.
For additional Dr. Dre coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
