I want to be a Hip Hop Producer

Since bursting onto the scene in the early-80s, hip-hop has arguably become the most popular style of music of the last quarter century.  Hip-hop is as lucrative, glamorous and exciting as any area of the music business today. 

While once solely the domain of rappers and DJs hip-hop has increasingly become dominated by the producer.  Producers discover talent, create beats, make backing tracks and ultimately are the ones who create the hit songs.

If you’ve ever seriously told someone, “I want to be a hip-hop producer,” then it’s just possible that the rap game is the life for you.

Becoming a successful hip-hop producer requires four essential things: talent, a love of hip-hop, ambition and connections.

While talent is perhaps not something that can be taught, it can be encouraged and developed.  But hip-hop producers don’t come out of classrooms.  Still, going to recording school may be a good option for some.  At recording school one can learn the basic skills involved in recording music.

But recording schools can be academic and insular.  And too much time in the classroom can arguably dull the edge of one’s talent.  And more importantly, it’s difficult to impossible to make industry connections while attending school.

If you’ve looked yourself in the mirror and said, “I want to be a hip-hop producer,” then you owe it to yourself to do everything in your power to make it.  Hip-hop is a competitive game.  Without connections even the most talented aspiring producers often don’t even make it out of the gate.

Mentoring programs, such as those offered by Entertainment Connection, offer participants some good opportunities.  Unlike sitting at a desk and learning in a classroom, mentoring apprentices learn the recording business while working in a real recording studio with real recording professionals as their teachers.

Mentoring programs offer invaluable first hand experience in every aspect of the recording process.  And more importantly, mentoring programs are designed to help participants make the connections they’ll need to get a foothold in the record business.

And unlike conventional internships, mentoring programs are open to anyone, not just college students.

Talented hip-hop producers are ultimately the ones behind all the songs one hears on the radio or in the club.  Top hip-hop producers like Sean Combs and Timbaland are celebrities in their own right.  The sky is truly the limit when it comes to success in the hip-hop world. 

But the hip-hop world is competitive and at times ruthless.  If you really want to be a hip-hop producer, don’t sell yourself short.  Mentoring programs can help you to learn who and what you’ll need to know to make it in the game.