You can probably remember the first time you spotted your favorite producer in the liner notes, or heard their name get shouted out on the track. But the odds are they were putting in work for years, if not a decade, before you knew the name, or could identify one of their tracks just by the drums. Some of them came up on the underground circuit and DJed before they knew how to make a beat, some of them were mentored by hitmakers that came before them, and a rare few just broke down the walls with a smash hit right at the beginning of their career. From Dre to Ye, these are the First Songs By Legendary Rap Producers...

Written by Al Shipley (@alshipley)

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