Hip Hop celebrated its 50th birthday not long ago and while the genre has come on leaps and bounds since its infancy, one trend from its early days has come back in full force: the rapper-producer duo.
Before 1994, when Nas’ Illmatic changed the game by becoming the first rap album to be soundtracked by an all-star team of producers (DJ Premier, Q-Tip, Pete Rock etc.), Hip Hop was largely defined by partnerships comprised of one rapper (or rap group) and one producer (or production team).
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Think N.W.A and Dr. Dre, Public Enemy and the Bomb Squad, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, De La Soul and Prince Paul, Run-DMC and Larry Smith, Eric B. and Rakim, Guru and DJ Premier, Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth, Wu-Tang Clan and RZA, Kool G Rap and DJ Polo — the list goes on.
There are a number of reasons why this was the case: smaller recording budgets (this was before Hip Hop’s commercial boom, let’s not forget); technological limitations that made it easier to work with those in your vicinity rather than emailing files from hundreds of miles away; and a crew mentality that fostered originality as the genre was still finding its footing.
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Dr. Dre still holds this model in high regard, saying in an interview with Stephen A. Smith last year: “I don’t like the fact that there are, like, nine different producers on one album. I like the idea of one producer on one album. Continuity is everything.”
This trend hasn’t died out completely, though. A number of great duos have formed over the last decade, such as Freddie Gibbs and Madlib (MadGibbs) and Killer Mike and El-P (Run The Jewels). But this special dynamic between MC and beatmaker made a big comeback (and impact) in 2024.
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From Future and Metro Boomin‘s double dose of musical distrust and Kendrick Lamar and Mustard‘s death blow to Drake to new alliances forming between seasoned veterans like Common and Pete Rock and LL Cool J and Q-Tip, these partnerships not only produced some of the best music of the year but helped soundtrack what’s been called the greatest rap battle of all time.
With joint albums on the horizon from the likes of Nas and DJ Premier, Clipse and Pharrell, and JID and Metro Boomin, this welcome trend may well continue in 2025 and beyond.
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Future & Metro Boomin
The modern-day Snoop and Dre
Even before 2024, Future and Metro Boomin were already one of Hip Hop’s deadliest duos having joined forces for hits like “Mask Off,” “Where Ya At” and “Wicked,” not to mention What a Time To Be Alive with Drake. But more than a decade in, their partnership hit new heights last year thanks to not one but two collaborative albums We Don’t Trust You and We Still Don’t Trust You (both of which debuted atop the Billboard 200).
The titles were telling as “Like That,” the chart-topping hit from their first effort, lit the fuse for Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s riveting rap battle, while further shots were fired at their former collaborator across the two projects from the likes of A$AP Rocky, The Weekend and seemingly even Hendrix himself.
Cultural impact and commercial success aside, We Don’t Trust You and We Still Don’t Trust You highlighted every facet of Future and Metro’s well-honed chemistry. Guided by the spirit of the late Prodigy, the former was full of decadent, debauched trap anthems while the follow-up leaned into more melodic and atmospheric R&B.
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Kendrick Lamar & Mustard
The anti-Drake alliance that put the West Coast back in front
Kendrick Lamar’s GNX album may have been largely powered by his long-standing partnership with Sounwave, as well as a more surprising union with frequent Taylor Swift collaborator Jack Antonoff. But the Compton kingpin’s banner year will be best remembered for his work with fellow Drake disparager Mustard (sorry, MUSTAAARD!).
After putting the 6 God on the ropes with the cerebral and surgical “Euphoria,” “6:16 in LA” and “Meet the Grahams,” Kendrick delivered the knockout punch with “Not Like Us,” which beat the OVO hitmaker at his own game as it surged to the top of the charts while breaking numerous streaming records.
A Hip Hop funeral song if there ever was one, the combination of Mustard’s blaring hyphy production and Dot’s anthemic allegations was like loading hollow-point bullets into a high-powered assault rifle. It’s no wonder Aubrey went running to his lawyer.
“Not Like Us” was no fluke, though, as Kendrick and Mustard reconvened on the GNX tracks “Hey Now” and “TV Off,” the latter of which is a stadium-sized middle finger to Drake tailor made (no pun intended) for the Super Bowl.
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Snoop Dogg & Dr. Dre
Arguably Hip Hop’s greatest ever rapper-producer duo, reunited
More than 30 years after dethroning Hip Hop’s birthplace of New York with The Chronic and Doggystyle, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre returned to help the West Coast reclaim the crown with Missionary. Despite the long break, the legendary duo’s chemistry remained intact as Dre’s pounding, polished production paired perfectly with Snoop’s ageless flows. Like gin and juice, if you will.
What makes this partnership different to others, though, is the meticulous attention to detail and level of coaching involved. As Tha Doggfather told Complex: “[Dre doesn’t just make] a beat for me, but produc[es] the whole song, every element of the song — from what I say to the way I say it. Like, the projection of your vocals, listening to every fucking word.
“And when we listened to it back, I fucking love it because it challenged me and it put me in a position of where I’ve never been. People work with me and be like, ‘Oh, that shit was dope.’ This n-gga be like, ‘Nope, do it again. Do it again until it’s perfection.’”
Common & Pete Rock
A true school team-up that was waiting to happen
Kanye West. J Dilla. No ID. The Neptunes. Karriem Riggins. Common has a knack for locking in and finding a groove with a single producer (or production team). The latest name on that illustrious list feels like it belonged there forever: Pete Rock.
Though they had only worked together a handful of times in the previous decades, most notably on Common’s 1996 Ice Cube diss song “The Bitch In Yoo,” the Chicago and Mount Vernon natives sound like they were born to make music together on The Auditorium Vol. 1, their first of hopefully many collaborative albums.
Crafted old-school style in Pete’s basement studio, the project recaptures the magic of ’90s boom bap Hip Hop but with a fresh, soulful and spiritual sheen. Even the Recording Academy took note, with The Auditorium Vol. 1 up for Best Rap Album at the 2025 Grammys — Common’s fifth nomination in the category and Pete’s first ever nod as a lead artist.
“I feel like Pete and I went through all our experiences and then were able to be at this point and really be the vessels and be in alignment with the creator to allow this music to come through,” Common told Forbes. “To be honest, it was easier writing and on a practical level, the beats were just inspiring. Pete made some music that just really inspires me.”
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LL Cool J & Q-Tip
The Abstract and The GOAT
Despite being friends for decades and repping the same New York City borough, LL Cool J and Q-Tip had somehow never worked together before The FORCE. While the prospect of diving headfirst into a full album might be daunting to some, the two Hip Hop icons quickly discovered they were “kindred spirits,” as LL explained on Sway in the Morning, and crafted one of the best and Blackest rap albums of 2024.
The FORCE is a gift for fans of both artists. After “going back to the drawing board and learning how to rap again,” LL sounds reenergized, razor sharp and more racially conscious than ever. It’s like he reemerged from a cryopreservation chamber with a black, green and red medallion resting on his chiseled torso instead of a gold rope chain.
For Tip, the album is not only his most substantial offering in almost a decade but arguably one of his greatest achievements as a producer. His beats fuse the vibrant energy of The Roxy in its 1980s heyday with the psychedelic thump of A Tribe Called Quest‘s We Got It From Here…, culminating in highlights like “Saturday Night Special,” “Passion” and the explosive title track.
Well into their 50s, these kings from Queens further proved that Hip Hop is not a young man’s game but a “fresh ideas game,” as James Todd Smith put it.
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Big Sean & The Alchemist
The hardest interracial rap duo since Run The Jewels
Though they’ve only dropped two songs together so far, Big Sean and The Alchemist‘s chemistry is palpable. The somewhat unlikely pair teamed up last year on “Together Forever,” a standout bonus track from Sean’s Better Me Than You album and one of HipHopDX‘s 20 best rap songs of 2024.
The former G.O.O.D. Music MC is something of a jack of all trades when it comes to his sound, experimenting with everything from poppy piano ballads (“My Last”) and ’80s-flavored R&B (“Play No Games”) to club-friendly hyphy (“I Don’t Fuck With You”) and moody, speaker-rattling trap (“Bounce Back”).
But “Together Forever” felt like an immediately natural fit as Sean Don floated over Uncle Al’s divine gospel sample and smooth, head-nodding drums, even showing his comfort level by toying with different vocal quirks. Its accompanying video also featured a brief snippet of a yet-to-be-released song, hinting at harder and more menacing material from the duo.
A joint project between Big Sean and The Alchemist is officially in the works, and it could be the Detroit rapper’s finest hour yet.
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Other rapper-producer duos that are also carrying on tradition:
• Nas & Hit-Boy
• Roc Marciano & The Alchemist
• Larry June & Cardo
• Chief Keef & Mike WiLL Made-It
• Bun B & Statik Selektah
• Young Nudy & Pi’erre Bourne
• Boldy James & Harry Fraud/Nicholas Craven/Conductor Williams
• Saba & No ID
• Freeway & Jake One
• MIKE & Tony Seltzer
• Rome Streetz & Daringer
