In honor of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary year, we’re looking back at the top artists, songs, albums, and producers of “The Genius Era,” 2009 to the present.
In the lead-up to Eminem’s 11th studio album, Music to be Murdered By, which arrived without warning in January 2020, Shady Records A&R man Mike “Heron” Herard sent an email to a bunch of producers asking for beats. It was an unusual way for Eminem to work, and it yielded some strong results. Upstart beatmakers d.a. got that dope—who’d made hits for Tyga and Kodak Black, among others—and Ricky Racks, who’d worked with Migos and Young Thug, contributed to the LP, giving Em fresh tracks to demonstrate his lyrical virtuosity over.
Not that Music to be Murdered By was completely a showcase for producers new to Eminem’s orbit. Seven tracks credit Em’s longtime mentor Dr. Dre, who presided over a team of frequent collaborators that included Erik Griggs, Dawaun Parker, Dem Jointz, and Trevor Lawrence Jr. “We’re a jam band of producers,” Parker told Rolling Stone. “That’s what makes us unique when we’re coming up with a groove.” The album also features the first-ever production credits from Eminem’s super-close Detroit buddy Royce da 5’9”.
As with most Eminem albums, Music to be Murdered By did extremely well on Genius. The deluxe version, Music to Be Murdered By – Side B, stands as the top hip-hop album of 2020 on Genius. And yet none of the beatmakers mentioned in those first two paragraphs has the distinction of being the top hip-hop producer of 2020 on Genius. That honor goes to Eminem himself. He’s credited as co-producer on 14 of the 20 tracks.
Em’s production skills have been central to his artistry since the beginning. On his 1999 major label debut, The Slim Shady LP, he’s credited as a co-producer on numerous tracks, including the angel-vs-devil morality play “Guilty Conscience,” featuring vocals from his co-producer Dr. Dre. On 2000’s diamond-selling The Marshall Mathers LP, Em co-produced “Stan” and took sole ownership of “The Way I Am.” “Lose Yourself,” the all-time inspirational classic from 8-Mile? Yep, Em co-produced that, too. And many others.
“It’s fun for me to make beats,” Eminem told Kxng Crooked I on the podcast Crook’s Corner. “But it’s not as fun as rap is.” Nevertheless, Kxng Crooked dubbed Em one of the Top 5 rappers that make beats.
Given the level of mystery that’s come to surround Eminem’s working habits over the years, it’s hard to say exactly how much he contributed to each Music to be Murdered By track. But given his perfectionist tendencies, it’s a safe bet he didn’t greenlight anything for the album until it sounded exactly like he wanted.
In an interview with REVOLT, d.a. got that dope, who co-produced the booming, propulsive standouts “Those Kinda Nights” (ft. Ed Sheeran) and “Godzilla” (ft. Juice WRLD), refused to say what, if anything, Eminem had done to modify his beats.
“I don’t want to reveal too much because Eminem is real secretive with how he works,” d.a. said.
Chatting with Billboard, Royce da 5’9” was more open about how his old pal had enhanced his beats. One of the instrumentals Royce sent Em became “Darkness,” a controversial song that interpolates the Simon & Garfunkel classic “The Sound of Silence” and puts you inside the mind of Stephen Paddock, the man responsible for the deadly 2017 mass shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas. “He called me and was like, ‘Yo. I got something to that beat. Send me the stems,’” Royce told Billboard, remembering how Eminem responded to his sonic sketch. “Em is a way more seasoned producer than me. He added like a lot of instruments on top of it and once he did that, after he laid his vocals, then it started to really, really become a record.”
The other Royce production on Music To Be Murdered By is “You Gon’ Learn,” a moody, murky track with slicing drums. Royce originally composed the beat for his own album—but then Eminem took a shine to it. “I can’t exactly remember how it happened, but I remember telling him, ‘You can have it if you want it? Don’t get it twisted. What’s mine is yours? You’re still my good friend,’” Royce said. “I gave it to him and he did his magic to it. He added instruments to it, he added his shit to it, murdered it and that’s how the blessing happened.”
On some level, it doesn’t matter what Eminem did or didn’t do to tweak the beats he received from other producers. Adjusting kicks and snares and whatever is only part of the process. During an interview with HipHopNMore, Dawaun Parker was asked to describe Dr. Dre’s specific role in the studio. Parker wound up giving a more thoughtful answer on what a good producer actually accomplishes.
“A producer is a person who helps bring the artist’s vision into fruition and there are different methods of achieving that,” he said. “Before there was ever a hip-hop genre, there were producers. So what did they do to produce a record? Did they make a beat? No. Did they play all of the instruments? No. Did they write the song? Not necessarily that either. But what they might have done was they might have put all of that together.”
Hip-hop, Parker says, changed the definition. Now we sometimes think of people who simply make beats or manipulate samples as producers—and that might be too generous a description.
“And that’s not to diminish them or belittle them, but the difference is, I can say it like this, and Dre has said this before, so I learned this from him, ‘Once you make the beat, you’ve still got to produce the record,’” Parker said.
1. Eminem
2. Ayo & Keyz
3. d.a. got that dope
4. SLAVA MARLOW
5. The Weeknd
6. TBHits
7. OZ
8. Illangelo
9. Alex Villasana
10. Jahnei Clarke
