edit: would just like to note that I don't have an official verdict on this album and I'm responding solely to Kanye as a producer as a job title. I'm not currently arguing whether he is GOOD at producing music, just that it is specifically what he does.


everything else is subjective, but this is saying Steve Albini or John Congleton (or Dr. Dre, or Rico Wade) don't produce just because they don't play the music themselves. They are both known as "producers", why is it that Kanye suddenly isn't just because he isn't in the trenches chopping up the samples.

And, to that point, who's to say he ISN'T? There hasn't been a Kanye album yet that doesn't sound like something that would only come from him; Life of Pablo may be a bunch of sketches, but these are clearly his sketches/collages.

Still, I mainly bristle at the primary contention that Kanye "doesn't even produce" anymore. If anything, he's producing more than ever before considering all the disparate elements that have grown to be a part of his sound since bringing Jon Brion on over a decade ago.

I look at Mike Dean, HudMo, Noah Goldstein, Charlie Heat et. al. as session musicians he employs to play specific parts he visualizes in a song, which has been a method of studio music recording and production for as long as the medium has existed.

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