Producers have always been as pivotal to the creative process as emcees. Anyone with a Wi-Fi-enabled laptop can whip up a radio-ready hit from his or her bedroom. Later hip-hop production transcends samplers and studios. By the time the Ad-Rock rapped, 'Well, I'm the Benihana chef on the SP-12' on 1998's ' Putting Shame in Your Game,' beat makers had moved on to the more 'powerful' SP-1200 and the AKAI MPC60. Released in 1985, the E-mu SP-12, the godmother of sampling machines, was considered an innovative musical instrument, albeit limited. Havoc recorded off cassette boomboxes and looped samples off the radio. Marley Marl nabbed kicks and snares from completely different records. Musical equipment wasn't originally designed for hip-hop beats, but despite the limitations of early drum machines, hip-hop producers made enduring art out of dirty sounds with whatever tools were available. Easy Mo Bee manually chopped up samples.
