>if so...id like to see how you distinguish him from diddy.
>
>ye just looped samples...used multiple collaborators...and
>could barely even program drum patterns. he had to *sample*
>the dr dre xxplosive drums for guess whos back (in 2002!). he
>had to have timbaland come in and *reprogram* the drums on
>stronger (in 2005!).
>
>yet people are mentioning him as an equal adversary to
>pharrell (who has produced some of the biggest records ever
>top to bottom from *scratch*) and you didnt seem to have much
>of a problem with that.
>
>please advise.

Well for starters I don't recall speaking on the Kanye/Pharrell hypothetical at all. Please advise if I did.

But that aside - as if it's not clear I'm pretty defensive of Dre haha. Primarily because he's the main reason I got into hip-hop in the first place, so I admittedly have a bit of a bias. But that doesn't mean I'm wrong.

The way I see it (my opinion) is that Pharrell, Kanye, and Dre are truer musicians than Puff, who I view as more of a businessman who just happened to end up in, and make, music. Pharrell, as you said, has made a ton of his music from scratch. Dre, for all this talk of his "stable" of producers and musicians, is a studio rat whose work on the boards is unassailable. Yes, he brought in musicians to recreate samples, and had co-production help pretty much throughout his career ... but I don't think it's any question that he was the top dogg in the studio at all times, dating back to NWA. He had first and final say on everything no matter what other contributions he had. I think Kanye was similar to Dre, but with less technical skills. In other words I think he was the mastermind behind the ideas and visions for the music, but didn't have the technical chops to put it together himself so he brought people in.

I don't think of Puff in that same way and maybe that's my bias/me not remembering. But while I know his name is on a lot of production credits through the years I think of him as the label head giving advice but not really contributing musically beyond just offering up an 80s song to rap over.