>The instrument of hip-hop = production.

So you're saying that before Dilla there wasn't any emphasis on having solid production at the forefront?




If you think just of
>the beattape phenomena as a whole, yes beattapes existed long
>before dilla, but as a testament of a producer's work.
>Producers may have shared tapes prior to that, but the mark of
>the producer was in who had bought those beats not in th
>etapes themselves. How many beattapes were released last
>year. It's literally impossible to count. You can counter
>that with how many of them sold but that's just the surface of
>the influence.


I think that has more to do with the influence of the internet than Dilla.



>From out of the beattape phenom you get producers comfortable
>enough, in a hip-hop context to see themselves as the focal
>point of a project without the need to get a bunch of MC's to
>validate their work. Yes there were artists who had done
>instrumental hip-hop prior, and folk outside of the genre who
>could today be classified under the umbrella (sic), but it
>became phenomenality (lol) post dilla.

Isn't that the foundation of Hip Hop though? Where the DJ (often times the producer) was at the forefront of the music? I also don't see the widespread phenomenom you are referring to regarding beattapes as a showcase being something new. I see cats using the internet to showcase/sell their tracks, which makes this aspect of Hip Hop seem more visible BUT cats have been showcasing/selling their tracks long before Dilla.



>And that's still just surface.

I'm waiting for you to get deep though! lol



>He laid out the blueprint technique for sampling to escape the
>legal realms. <<< This is foreshadowing I won't be debating
>the point yet.

I would say Premo laid that blueprint before Dilla imo.