Music Producers: Do they get enough credit?

You hear a new song on your favorite radio station by your one of the country’s current favorite artists. As the song plays, you start to feel goosebumps due to how well the song satisfies your preferred music style. Now that you start feeling the song, you decide to look it up on Spotify, and save it to your playlist. The next day, all of your friends ask you if you’ve heard the song. You then realize the song just hit 10 million streams! Every artist is complimenting the song’s singer, and every journalist starts talking about the abundance of different emotions and sounds the song itself gives the listener. But who was it that made those sounds, that gave you goosebumps upon your first listen? Yet another case in which a producer is left in the shadows.

Don’t get us wrong, music is an extremely cooperative industry, and it takes more dedication, passion and drive than anyone who’s not in the industry can imagine. Artists dedicate days at a time to perfect a single song, and for that, they deserve every ounce of support they earn.

However, many hit songs that take the country by storm don’t give enough credit to their producer, or in some cases, producers. Yes, there are some producers with accredited fame in the modern era of music like Metro Boomin, Pharrell Williams, and more. But where are the rest?

I remember I was on Instagram one day scrolling through a music page that I follow, and an interview with French Montana showed up. He was asked how working with the producer on one of his hit songs made the song famous. While attempting to answer, neither French Montana nor his publicity team was able to name the producer of the song that had pretty much given French a month of fame, granting him hundreds of thousands of dollars due to streams of that one particular song. Thus, the producer was left nameless.

Sounwave & Kendrick Lamar in the studio

The ongoing paradigm of lesser known artists unable to breakout due to the concept that mainstream artists take 100% of music’s fame fails to include producers into the argument. One example is Kendrick Lamar’s song “LOVE.” The song was one of the biggest hits off of his album DAMN., but people failed to recognize Teddy Walton’s major contribution to it. Producers don’t just make the music for songs, they invest concepts that they are unable to see (only hear) into a creative outlet. Once I learned Walton was the lead producer for the song, I looked into his discography, and found out he has produced several songs that I have on my ‘favorites’ playlist. From Jay Rock’s hit King’s Dead to A$AP Rocky’s Electric Body, Teddy has been around longer than I had anticipated, and has actually contributed more the hip-hop industry than most know.

There have even been instances where producers have reported to journalist sites and fellow workers in the music industry that famous artists that they make music with pay them much lower than what they usually get paid by lesser known musicians. It isn’t necessarily a scam, but it definitely is a problem.

Music producer E. Dan claimed he was only paid half of his normal rate for Wiz Khalifa’s 2016 hit album Khalifa, and when he brought up the situation with the directors and Wiz himself, they stated he was paid less because the album was deemed a “mixtape” by the record label. Another example of underappreciation and outright disloyalty is Lil Uzi Vert’s hit single “XO TOUR LLif3.” As of now, the song has gone 5x Platinum, but producer TM88 who produced the entire song has not been paid at all.

Teddy Walton in an interview with Genius.com on how he produced Kendrick Lamar’s song “LUST.”

One way producers tend to escape being neglected by the music industry is making music where home is. Hip-hop producer Sounwave, along with his production crew Digi+Phonics, serve as the main producers for Top Dawg Entertainment. It’s rare when the 4 producers (Sounwave, Tae Beast, Dave Free and Willie B) make music outside of the record label, and when they do it’s with others who are direct friends of the label itself. This helps Sounwave, especially, avoid not getting credit he deserves from artists that he hasn’t developed a bond with, or know personally.

It’s not being said that artists are wrong for not giving producers they work with credit, most likely they’re grateful, but it is true that the industry as a whole demotes engineering as a true art form in music. Many artists are just as creative and hands-on with their music as the producers are, but those that seep through the cracks of immorality tend to not show appreciation to the sounds of music, and instead focus on the words. The message is just as important as the sound it’s being delivered through. That’s where producers come in. They decide whether the song will make you feel upbeat and antsy, or make you feel solemn and appreciative of your loved ones. Moral of the story: The next time you listen to a song that you connect with, take some time to research who produced it. You’ll learn something new each time.