We've all gone back and forth about the best or our favorite producer(s).

But I had the question floating around my mind over which producer had the best peak? Peak meaning the best three to five album run.

There are some great runs out there.

Dre - Efil4zaggin, The Chronic, Doggystyle

RZA - 36 Chambers, The Purple Tape, Ironman, Wu Tang Forever

Premier - Born to Earn, The random singles he produced for Biggie, Nas, Jay, OC and others, Moment of Truth

Tip - The Low End Theory, Midnight Mauraders, Crooklyn, and some random singles

Organized Noise/Earthtone - ATLiens, Aquemini, Still Standing

Pete Rock

Dilla

Soulquarians - Things Fall Apart, Like Water for Chocolate, Black on Both Sides, Reflection Eternal (?), Mama's Gun, Voodoo, Phrenology

The Neptunes - Their run during the Aughties

Timbaland

Bomb Squad - Fear of a Black Planet, AmeriKKKas Most Wanted, Apocalypse '91


My heart wants to vote for Tip or Earthtone but it's hard for me to not vote Dre.

Definitely add on others if you like.

Hard to Earn, The Sun Rises in the East, and then the work he did for Biggie and Nas?

I think Just Blaze from like 01-04 deserves a mention. The Blueprint joints he did, What We Do(and most of that album),Breathe, PSA, Roc Da Mic, etc.

I guess it depends if you like Moment of Truth-era work more than the Hard to Earn period or vice versa if you think his peak ran for only half the '90s. But he had some iconic songs throughout the decade. His peak may have been the longest out of the Mt. Rushmore types.

Just's career is interesting. I wasn't a fan of a lot the East Coast stuff at that time, but Just's records always stood out to me as quality. I can't say that I hold him as highly as you do but I don't think you're far off in your assessment.

He was still the best in the late 90s. I think 94 was his best year and that alone is all he needs in a discussion like this. But he was still elite for a long time after that. Hell, he’s had the best produced rap album as recently as 2014, IMO.

Early 00s, I feel like anytime I heard a dope East Coast single that really knocked - it was produced by Just.

Maybe a homer pick here, but I think early 00s 9th Wonder had a hell of a run too.

Maybe like 92-94 Pete Rock has a strong case for #1 too. Even though I think Primo objectively has the strongest catalogue in terms of peaks, Pete was/is my personal favorite. And he’s still got it too! Amazing.

Especially cause his overall prime seemed to last longer than just that peak period you mention. Maybe he wasn't quite *as* potent as that mid-90s time period, but he was still (and kinda still is, with some lulls/valleys in the meantime) a monster as the turn of the century came about.

Preem's a national treasure.

He was still that the best. Even in the early 00s he was doing Pitch Black - It’s All Real, Golden Chyld for Ras Kass, Boom for Royce, 2nd Childhood, Doobie Ashtray, even that joint for Snoop. He got “formuliac” at times, but who cares? It was a needed formula in that era.

Some of it got repetitive but by and large he was still throwing heat all over the place. I think the primary "issue" (if it was even an issue) was that he was in such high demand at that time that he probably just didn't have the time to dedicate to each beat that he used to/wanted to, so he fell into some habits.

But again - most of that shit still came out banging.


>He was still that the best. Even in the early 00s he was
>doing Pitch Black - It’s All Real, Golden Chyld for Ras
>Kass, Boom for Royce, 2nd Childhood, Doobie Ashtray, even that
>joint for Snoop. He got “formuliac” at times, but who
>cares? It was a needed formula in that era.

Right - all of that shit was fire. The CNN joint, too. I must've played that CNN song a trillion times in that time period.

He also did that Oh No Remix w/Mos, Pharoahe, and Nate that was absolute flames.

So yea. He stayed killing it.

Then he worked with effing Christina Aguilera in 2006, which at the time I thought was kinda wack and never really gave a fair chance. But I revisited his work on that album within the last few months and yep - flames. The backstory is cool, too. Guess her ex-husband (husband at the time) was a big hip-hop head so he reached out to see if Preem would be on board and he was.

Went in the studio and made "Ain't No Other Man" and a few others. All were pretty damn good for that kind of collab. Especially in hindsight w/my hip-hop snobbiness a thing of the past lol.

>Hard to Earn, The Sun Rises in the East, and then the work he
>did for Biggie and Nas?
>
>I think Just Blaze from like 01-04 deserves a mention. The
>Blueprint joints he did, What We Do(and most of that
>album),Breathe, PSA, Roc Da Mic, etc.


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Hard to Earn
Living Proof
Sun Rises In The East

All within 18 months of each other. We talking complete albums, all classics.

And this is before you consider the side work Premier was pushing out

Hot singles is one thing. A cohesive album with straight bangers? Not too many can do it.

...there was never a producer this "hot" ..and to do it in that era?? wow.

Not just Pete’s best, but THE best period. That album will forever be my shit, right down to and maybe especially due to(?) the damn interludes. That album just never ceases to amaze me.

RIP Dilla .. undeniably a great

RZA didn't stay the same RZA but he's still gawd level

Pete is untouchable but I didn't like Soul Survivor 2 or that instrumental joint that came out after it but he came back on NY Finest

Tim almost always delivers but he threw out alot of filler
Pharrell ditto

Bomb Squad peaked at FOABP

Dre underdelivered by rarely producing whole lps or he would be goat

Soulquarians were dope ..great for what it was but everyone branched out

Tip produced 3 masterpieces..
the other 3 ATCQ weren't as good but BRAL has gotten better with age and I still love TLM and Thank You

I never thought Organized was that excellent..not on the other names' level at least

>RE: Primo stayed great with hardly any misses to this day
>RIP Dilla .. undeniably a great
>
>RZA didn't stay the same RZA but he's still gawd level
>
>Pete is untouchable but I didn't like Soul Survivor 2 era
>
>Tim almost always delivers but he threw out alot of filler
>Pharrell ditto
>
>Bomb Squad peaked at FOABP
>
>Dre underdelivered by rarely producing whole lps or he would
>be goat
>
>Soulquarians were dope ..great for what it was but everyone
>branched out
>
>Tip produced 3 masterpieces..
>the other 3 ATCQ weren't as good but BRAL has gotten better
>with age and I still love TLM and Thank You
>
>I never thought Organized was that excellent..not on the other
>names' level at least

Timbo and Pharrell were like the polar opposites to Dre. Too much output vs. too little. There's a middle ground there.

Agree with pretty much everything else you said. Preem had some "lulls" but nothing to the point where I was like "dude's wack now".

Even Pete had "meh" moments.

I think Dilla was and is a technical wizard but maybe wasn't as potent in terms of impact as Preemo, which is the only negative thing I can really possibly say about him. Preem made grimey NYC shit that impacted EVERYONE in hip-hop, from the underground to the mainstream. And like you said, never really fell off.

He's gotta be the standard bearer IMO.

Maybe that Christina A joint but that shouldn't count. Even The Mall is a decent instrumental..

I think some of Prhyme joints could of been better but they were still good.

As for Pete Rock, I listened to Soul Survivor 2 today and it's much better than I remembered it..

>Maybe that Christina A joint but that shouldn't count. Even
>The Mall is a decent instrumental..

It may not be music I'd listen to a lot, but going back I respect it and they actually seemed to have some chemistry together. I mentioned this above - I recently revisited their collabs and found that they were accctually kinda dope lol.

But that may be just me.


>I think some of Prhyme joints could of been better but they
>were still good.

PRhyme 1 was flawless IMO. My favorite album of the 2010s.

PRhyme 2 left a lot to be desired but I hesitate to call any of the beats "wack" per se, just wasn't the album I necessarily wanted from them.


>As for Pete Rock, I listened to Soul Survivor 2 today and it's
>much better than I remembered it..

I gotta revisit a lot of Pete's non-PR&CLS, late 90s/early 00 stuff.

of these discussions. it's a travesty.

Outside of Madvillainy, what fully produced album does he have that can compete with the others?

I'm not a close follower of his career but while I like some of his work, he released so much stuff the great moments got 'watered down' by adventurous but lesser-quality music.

He's had a nice run tho.

DJ Premier
Hard To Earn (fuck is Born To Earn son?)
The Sun Rises In The East
Livin’ Proof
Wrath Of The Math
Moment Of Truth
Countless of joints for top tier MCs in the 90s

Pete Rock
Mecca And The Soul Brother
The Main Ingredient
Center Of Attention
Soul Survivor
Petestrumentals
Various artist joints plus remixes...who else can remix a Preemo joint and make it better?

RZA
Enter The 36 Chambers
Tical
Return To The 36 Chamber: The Dirty Version
Only Built 4 Cuban Linz
Liquid Swords (how the fuck did you not mention this in your original post?!!?)
Ironman
Forever

J Dilla
Beats, Rhymes & Life
The Love Movement
Like Water For Chocolate
Fantastic, Vol. 1
Joints for Pharcyde, remixes...and Stakes Is High!

To me...

DJ Premier has the longest catalogue of absolute bangers.

Pete Rock at his best is better than everyone.

RZA has the best run of albums...and not even just from a beat making perspective but from an executive producer perspective

J Dilla is probably the one with the most range and proved to be relentless with his craft on some student became the teacher shit.

Marley gets overlooked a lot when these GOAT producer conversations come up.

And there's not even a close second to Primo. I know cats give Dre props for his influence, but the amount of shit Chris Martin has put out and CONTINUES to put out?

The biggest "what if" is RZA's basement not flooding. The "all time" conversation would be a lot more interesting.

I guess he had some lulls over the years where you didn’t hear much from him while Primo never really had those lulls, but Pete’s still putting out heat. The album he did with Skyzoo and the EP he did with Benny the Butcher and Smoke DZA were two of the better produced projects last year IMO.

>I guess he had some lulls over the years where you didn’t
>hear much from him while Primo never really had those lulls,
>but Pete’s still putting out heat. The album he did with
>Skyzoo and the EP he did with Benny the Butcher and Smoke DZA
>were two of the better produced projects last year IMO.

And I'll admit, his trail went cold some times, but you said it, Primo kept putting shit out. I'll check out those joints you just listed, good lookin....

they were smashing EVERYthing for a good minute

Something like The Blueprint or Late Registration (albums of that time).

But their nearly ten year run of hit singles won't be matched by anyone in the future. I think if they had their run now when albums aren't as important to a rappers rep, they'd be more revered.

If it was me, I’m probably going with 98-00 or so, but others may have a different take?