Home / Publications / E-library page
Only AES members and Institutional Journal Subscribers can download
In hip hop music, rappers and producers play important but rather different roles. However, both contribute to the overall sound, as rappers bring in their voice, while producers are responsible for the music composition and mix. In this case report, the authors trained self-organizing maps with songs produced by Dr. Dre, Rick Rubin, and Timbaland using the goniometer and mel-frequency cepstral coefficients. With these maps, the authors investigate whether hip hop producers have a unique sound profile. Then, they test whether collaborations with the rappers Eminem, Jay-Z, LL Cool J, and Nas stick to or break out of this sound profile. As these rappers are also producers of some songs, it was investigated how much their sound profile was influenced by the producers who introduced them to beat making. The results speak a clear language: producers have their own sound profile that is unique concerning the goniometer and less distinct concerning mel-frequency cepstral coefficients. They dominate the sound of hip hop music over rappers, who emulate the sound profile of the producers who introduced them to beat making.
Author (s): Ziemer, Tim; Kudakov, Nikita; Reuter, Christoph
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Department of Music, Frankfurt, Germany; University of Vienna, Musicological Department, Vienna, Austria; University of Hamburg, Institute of Systematic Musicology, Hamburg, Germany
(See document for exact affiliation information.)
Publication Date:
2025-01-07
Import into BibTeX
Permalink: https://aes2.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22793
(853KB)
Click to purchase paper as a non-member or login as an AES member. If your company or school subscribes to the E-Library then switch to the institutional version. If you are not an AES member Join the AES. If you need to check your member status, login to the Member Portal.
Ziemer, Tim; Kudakov, Nikita; Reuter, Christoph; 2025; Producer vs. Rapper: Who Dominates the Hip Hop Sound? [PDF]; Max-Planck-Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Department of Music, Frankfurt, Germany; University of Vienna, Musicological Department, Vienna, Austria; University of Hamburg, Institute of Systematic Musicology, Hamburg, Germany; Paper ; Available from: https://aes2.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22793
Ziemer, Tim; Kudakov, Nikita; Reuter, Christoph; Producer vs. Rapper: Who Dominates the Hip Hop Sound? [PDF]; Max-Planck-Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Department of Music, Frankfurt, Germany; University of Vienna, Musicological Department, Vienna, Austria; University of Hamburg, Institute of Systematic Musicology, Hamburg, Germany; Paper ; 2025 Available: https://aes2.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22793