Dr.
Dre is not only the most influential producer in hip-hop, he is probably the reason that hip-hop will have to redefine what it means to be a producer. Today, everyone thinks that hip-hop means "
beat-maker". But many Producers of music are not
beat-makers. Instead they are the brains behind those who make the music and develop the lyrics. This is
Dre...and he's a beatmaker. Every artist who has worked with Dre seems to testify that Dre does much more than bring in tracks and records with them. Dre seems to be involved with every element from blueprinting the "layout" of the album, to helping the artist write and arrange their lyrics for the tracks, to editing tracks
done by other
beat-makers, to making his own beats for the artist. That's a producer -- and that is what Dr.Dre brings to the
table of not just his labelists, but the hip-hop industry as a whole.