Who controls the session?

Agent Smith

Agent Smith

IllMuzik Junkie
ill o.g.
What do you guys think? during a recording session, who makes the final decision as to what goes and what stays? As an MC, i can appreciate the mc wanting to call the shots as far as how his track sounds but then again i produce so i know the gear and what decisions to make, whereas a lot of mc's don't. An interesting example of the producer in charge is 9th wonder working wth murs on murrays revenge. Murs talked extensively about how he would disagree with 9th on a lot of things and his method but ended up doing it in the end since 9th was "the producer". what do you guys think?
 
Sanova

Sanova

Guess Who's Back
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 9
I think the producer.. when I have sessions I run every fuckin thing and its almost annoying at times. Of course I'm also an emcee so I see it from both sides.

but imma still go with producer
 
O

open mind

Guest
depends on what decision is to be discussed, generaly i would say the producer has the last word.but it should be a teamwork but if no decision can be made then the producer should have the last word.
 
wrightboy

wrightboy

Formally Finnigan
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 7
the producer. if the producer is really a producer, they will know how to respect the artist's vision, but still manage the session in a way that they still have control over what's done. it' the producer's job to get the best sound possible as well as the best performance out of the mc.
 
Wizdom

Wizdom

Soul Collector
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 21
bthis!
I think it depends on who has the most experience. Whoever has the best body of work and knows what they are doing should "run" the session. If I produced Nas or Busta, I would listen to WTF they had 2 say and learn from their experience
 
sYgMa

sYgMa

Making head bangers!!!
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 26
I'd say that it's the most experienced too... then again, if you produce for someone, it's because they want you to produce. If they just want someone to record a track, that's something else.

My take is, if you work with an artist for the 1st time, you gotta wow them before you start working. You gotta talk and act like you know that's best for the track... like giving him a rough idea of how you see the track... you can also make him listen to a beat that you already produced. If he like what he hears, most likely will he let you do most of the decision making. If not, well, you know where you stand...

So far, that worked for me.

So my answer: Producer
 
bigdmakintrax

bigdmakintrax

BeatKreatoR
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 123
bthis!
I have been in session with some seasoned emcees and the first timers as well as seasoned engineer sessions also I sat in on, it all depends, the experience factor definitely comes in at the top of the list as the factor, but a producer that knows how to handle an emcee in a session, communicate with them and how the delivery should sound, whether it's too rushed, unclear words etc, you should quickly be able to point that out or a hook that is not so catchy, you should immediately be able to let the emcee know that on the spot even though you have the emcee there listening to your beat writing to it or having had time to work on writing before the session I myself prefer the emcees to have his shit ready but a lot of times they pick a beat and write to it at the session while another emcee is recording....
we all know that the pride of the emcee is to write and the producer is production and the producer's job is to create the overall feel and coming together of the whole project as a finished work, basically it would be hard to have a producer that has no clue on delivery or no clue of how a rapper needs to sound controlling any aspect of a recording session beyond the technical aspects and add in an emcee with no clue of how the beat should be structured, intro verse hook of the beat even though its true a good emcee should be able to rap over anything and that's true but I have seen seasoned emcees get a beat that is not even structured with room for his intro, the 16 bars and hook.....that will kill them and they will let you know straight up can you add a bar here, can you drop this or that part in your beat kills the energy etc....if you as the producer can't pick these things out it will be nearly impossible to control anything in the session beyond the simplistic.....mic'ing...distance...delivery possibly.....

so just because you might think you know how to produce, think about it because a seasoned emcee accustomed to writing to popular instrumentals or structured beats usually will want the track you produce to fit into the standard structure of the SONG template if you can make beats but cant write songs then you might need to brush up on that if you plan on producing with various levels of emcees and correctly running a session, I made some observations of a session with Red Cafe a few months ago where he was feeling a beat for 16 bars of it, did not feel the rest of the beat and just asked for it to be looped and felt that was sufficient and before he made that decision I was already thinking that as the track was playing when he was taking the hour or so to write to the beat.
 
MarkN

MarkN

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 55
the producer is who makes the decision the problem is a lot of people make beats and know nothing about production and so are in no better position to comment than the MC !

producers are used for a reason if MCs or bands were qualified to make those kind of decisions then record companies wouldnt waste the money on producers !
 
shadeed

shadeed

Go Digital or Go Home
ill o.g.
In my opinion, the answer to the question is below:

Sha: Do you rely on a good engineer to share your overall sound or do you take care of those areas yourself?

Skitzo: It depends on the engineer. I sit down and evaluate the overall engineer. If the engineer is trying to cater to every individual sound, then I'll take his input and let him do his thing. Other times if I'm not confident in his ability, I'm more direct such as "I want this and I want that." It's like the co-pilot and the pilot in an airplane. If he can't fly, then I'm takin' over.

Sha: As a producer, how important it is to voice your opinion with artists in studio sessions as far as how to record the song or do you leave it up to the artist to do what they do?

Skitzo: You always gotta put your foot down, if you have the relationship with the artist, you gotta tell him your opinion. Even if you don't have good chemistry, they're paying you so why shouldn't they listen? If you sell the track and the artist lays the vocals, that's 50% of the song, fuck that! He's doing your track. If you have no input on the overall finished product, you're a beatmaker, not a producer. It's a lot of beatmakers in the game today that front as producers. You must give your input and take charge, you gotta be in their face and active, otherwise people in this industry won't take you serious. People will say "he got hot beats, but he's not serious about this game". Even with Camron, I give him input as far as trying to do verses or what sounds right. He may listen, or he may feel otherwise, but I let him know my side of it, which he respects.

https://www.illmuzik.com/articles/articles.php?article_id=64
 
bigdmakintrax

bigdmakintrax

BeatKreatoR
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 123
bthis!
shadeed said:
In my opinion, the answer to the question is below:

Sha: Do you rely on a good engineer to share your overall sound or do you take care of those areas yourself?

Skitzo: It depends on the engineer. I sit down and evaluate the overall engineer. If the engineer is trying to cater to every individual sound, then I'll take his input and let him do his thing. Other times if I'm not confident in his ability, I'm more direct such as "I want this and I want that." It's like the co-pilot and the pilot in an airplane. If he can't fly, then I'm takin' over.

Sha: As a producer, how important it is to voice your opinion with artists in studio sessions as far as how to record the song or do you leave it up to the artist to do what they do?

Skitzo: You always gotta put your foot down, if you have the relationship with the artist, you gotta tell him your opinion. Even if you don't have good chemistry, they're paying you so why shouldn't they listen? If you sell the track and the artist lays the vocals, that's 50% of the song, fuck that! He's doing your track. If you have no input on the overall finished product, you're a beatmaker, not a producer. It's a lot of beatmakers in the game today that front as producers. You must give your input and take charge, you gotta be in their face and active, otherwise people in this industry won't take you serious. People will say "he got hot beats, but he's not serious about this game". Even with Camron, I give him input as far as trying to do verses or what sounds right. He may listen, or he may feel otherwise, but I let him know my side of it, which he respects.

https://www.illmuzik.com/articles/articles.php?article_id=64
Click to expand...

Yep exactly, but in most situations in the basement or in the case of most producers on our level, you got the engineer/producer rolled into one, you gonna have the workflow strictly between the producer and the artist, so it comes down to who has the most experience and who knows more about what's going on, but yeah for a more high post producer/engineer like in your article and much higher level workflow it probably holds true....everyone has their role in that situation, because for the most part you have an engineer who is totally doing his thing and probably knows exactly what he is doing, the producer who is overseeing the project and knows exactly what he is doing and more than likely you have an emcee with a lot of experience so everyone pretty much has their bases covered within the context of being a professional....the only thing to minimize at that point are thes egos and then the project probably just flows.
Just my 2 cents
 
themucka

themucka

"The man behind the Hits"
ill o.g.
The Producer Controls The Session 9 Out 10 Unless Hes Wit Behind The Ears.. Then Your Along For The Ride Basicly You Dont Hold That Much Weight...

Cuz Like Was Said In This Thread Previously.. "the One Whose Paying The Bills" Will Definitely Pull Rank If You A Rookie..
 
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