Timbaland is generally regarded as one of the greatest producers of all time, and he feels similarly about a producer who got his start several decades later, Metro Boomin.
Talking to Rolling Stone in an interview published on October 18, Timbo shared what he feels makes Metro so great.
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“Every producer has that one record that makes you go back and listen to the ones before,” he said. “And I believe that ‘Superhero’ record was the one that made me go back and listen from the beginning. I was like, ‘Wow, he understands sonics. A lot of people clutter music. He only uses four or five sounds, but they felt like 30 sounds.’ To me, that’s what makes a great producer.”
He continued: “When you’re coming from the hood — my mom didn’t have money to go buy me equipment, so I used to beat on the lunchroom tables and use double cassette decks and dub ahead so I could record over them. If you can do shit with just four elements, that’s a masterpiece. Simplicity is easy to say but hard to do. If you listen to Metro’s hits, there’s a tone in there. That’s all you need.”
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Neither producer is very big on Hip Hop’s current trend of multi-producer albums, however.
Last month, Timbaland shared an excerpt of a recent interview Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg did with Stephen A. Smith where he criticized rap albums that feature beats from a large number of producers.
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“Find your collaborator. 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,” he said.
Asked by Smith where the trend came from, Dre replied: “I don’t know, but I don’t like it.”
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He added: “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 added a caption to the video expressing agreement with Dre’s sentiments.
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“Preach!!!!” he wrote.
Metro Boomin agreed, writing “All facts!” in a comment.
Other notable artists, DJs and producers weighed in as well. Scram Jones attempted to provide some clarification.
“People getting confused,” he wrote. “[You] can get outside beatmakers and still be the main producer of the album if u orchestrate what to do w those beats and control what vocals and formats are placed on those beats, and are in charge of sequencing and mixing the entire project.”
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Legendary producer Buckwild appeared to disagree, mentioning a few high profile albums Dre worked on that had a variety of beatmakers.
