Thug Life Army

So the other night I had this interesting and compelling discussion about who is the greatest producer of all-time within Hip Hop. The discussion started off with me noting how often deejays in the middle of a party will change up the music and pay a musical tribute to the late J-Dilla.

There's no denying the immense contributions this man who is often dubbed ''your producer's favorite producer'' has had within Hip Hop. From his group Slum Village to Common to Busta Rhymes to Tribe Called Quest to De La Soul to Pharcyde and beyond, J-Dilla is a giant and will forever be considered one of the greatest to ever touch the boards.

With that being said, the question that arose during our discussion was, ''Is J-Dilla the greatest''? How does his body of work compare to fellow producers Dr Dre and DJ Premier who for years have been lauded as the very very best?

I mean when you look at Dr Dre and just the work and impact he had from his production with his first group World Class Wrecking Crew on up to NWA to his own land mark solo albums ''The Chronic'' and ''2001'', there's no way you can even mention Dilla in the same sentence.

If you add the production he did with artists ranging from 2Pac to Eminem to 50 and beyond, its simply staggering. J-Dilla may be a king but Dre is a God. That's how the argument started to unfold. It continued with the assertion that anyone who put Dilla on par with Dre was just too young and thus wasn''t able to fully appreciate all that Dre did.

The counter to that argument was that some of Dilla's best work came out at a time when Dre was also at his height and that it was fair to weigh the two producers side by side.

Adding fuel to this discussion was the type of impact and respect DJ Premier has garnered. He may not have spawned the same number of mega platinum hits as Dre, but his influence is undeniable especially amongst artists that are considered underground.

Premier touched everyone and when he laced them with beats things usually turned out for the better. Up until people started taking note of J-Dilla Dre and Primo were always mentioned in the same breath and considered two sides to the same proverbial production coin. From Gang Starr to to Freddy Fox to Jay-Z to Nas to Christina Aguiluerra and way too many to name, Primo has and will always be the the God equivalent to Dre

With all that being said lets take a hypothetical situation. Let's say you are an artist ready to put out what you hope to be a landmark album that will stand the test of time through the ages. You''re budget and label politics only allow you to mess with one producer. Who do you roll with Dre? J-Dila? or Premier? Are there pros and cons when looking at their work? For example, one of the arguments made is that J-Dilla was constantly evolving. The more he did the better he got and that if he was still alive he would''ve continued taking music to new heights.

Dr Dre in recent days has not lived up to his stellar reputation. For example, the production he did on Busta Rhyme's last album was actually kind of weak compared to what he's done in years past.

Primo was accused of having the same sound. So while he's dope as a producer, if you stick with him for an entire album, he would bore you to death with that same boom bap sound.

The counter to that is that Primo has always been diversified and that if you really take time to think about it, he's done so much that he's often overlooked. For example, Premier has laced artists like N''Dea Davenport, Craig David and D''Angelo. He's blessed everyone from KRS to Mos Def. Primo is monster and anyone short changing him is simply not a real Hip Hop head.

So there's the 64 thousand dollar question.. Who is Hip Hop's greatest producer, J-Dilla, Dr Dre or DJ Premier or should we have expanded the list to include people like Rza, Kanye West, The Neptunes, Timbaland and DJ Quik?

Please drop us a line, add to the blog and state your case.. May the battles begin!