Nov 12, 2015

Hey,

I'm a musician in a rock band who recently (1-2 years) got into hip hop, and I got very curious about the process behind making an hip hop album. Particularly the complex ones, such as Kendrick's 'To p---- a Butterfly'.

In rock the process is usually quite straightforward - Songwriter writes songs, plays it to bandmates, they rehearse and come up with an arrangement and their parts (sometimes with a producer), than record it, sometimes adding more parts in the studio.

However, I don't quite see the hip hip equivalent. TPAB is such a complex album, with so many precise musical moments, I'm just wondering who's the mastermind here. (I'm using TPAB as an example but it really applies to any album that's more than rap+beat).

I assume it begins with Kendrick writing at home. Does he only writes lyrics? Does he come up with melodies, arrangement ideas as well?

There's could be 10 writers for each song, 'Blacker the Berry' has 8 writers and 3 producers... how does it work? Kendrick writes the basic and a lot of people cowrite? I thought that's those are his personal lyrics...

Each song is produced by someone else - who decides who does which song? based on what? How is it even possible to have like 20 different producers on a record and still make it sound consistent? Who's putting everything together?

Some songs have a live band, some are programmed, who decides who does what? The live band ever rehearse the song with Kendrick? or just record in the studio?

Who comes up with the musical ideas? such as the transposition in the King Kunta verses? The breaks? Who has the final word on how the song is mixed?

I'm honestly curious. I love this record but have no idea how it was made. How big was Kendrick's role in all this? A lot of this is attributed to his personal genius, while in reality there's dozens of producers, writers and players working here. What's the process in creating an album with so many people? who does what?

I'll appreciate any answers/relevant links.

Thanks a lot.

 

Nov 12, 2015

you get into a special zone

 

Nov 13, 2015

Strong first post.

 

Jan 6, 2016

threads like this are the reason why sxn80 is goat

 

Nov 12, 2015

Welcome to the forum!

I'm not an expert on this, there probably are a few on the forum. Perhaps in the Creative section.

When it comes to Kendrick's lyrics, he does have a lot of people credited as writers for this song. But a lot of them are the singers from samples he used (e.g Tupac on Mortal Man). But I'm pretty sure Kendrick would write his verses and would have some assistance on the hooks.

For the production I'm not sure. But Dr Dre, Top Dawg and Dave Free are the executive producers and probably would have the final say. I'm not sure if it was done on this album but some producers don't even hit the studio with the artists and just send them a beat they made at home.