HILLARY: As 2018 comes to an end, we decided to look at the producers of the year, Genius style,
by gathering our most searched songs and their producers.
At no. 10, we have Louis Bell, who produced songs like Halsey's "Without Me," and Post Malone’s
“Better Now" and “Psycho.”
HILLARY: At no. 9 is Atlanta’s Mike WiLL Made-It, who crafted a slew of tracks this year, including
Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar and Future’s “King’s Dead.”
HILLARY: At no. 8 we have New Jersey’s Ronny J for his work on Kanye West and Lil Pump’s
“I Love It” as well as Machine Gun Kelly’s withering Eminem diss track, “Rap Devil.”
HILLARY: Coming in at no. 7, is Memphis’ Tay Keith who had 3 Billboard Hot 100 Top 5 hits,
one of them being co-production on Travis Scott’s “SICKO MODE.”
HILLARY: Not only that, Keith graduated from Middle Tennessee College and scored his very
first no. 1 hit in the same week.
In July, he spoke to Genius about what’s made him so successful.
TAY KEITH: I’d say my sound is kinda like that Memphis original down South bounce sound
mixed with the new sound too.
HILLARY: For no. 6 we have IllaDaProducer, who crafted Eminem’s MGK response track, “Killshot.”
HILLARY: And according to Illa, the song wasn’t originally for Eminem,
but when Slim came calling, he answered.
ILLADAPRODUCER: So when I originally started the beat for Killshot it was actually for Giggs.
He always asked me for these horror movie beats.
That’s what I was thinking when I made the Killshot beat was just something mean, gritty, grimey.
HILLARY: At no. 5 we have Canada’s Frank Dukes, the man behind The Weeknd’s “Call Out My Name,”
which may’ve been about Abel’s ex, Selena Gomez.
HILLARY: Dukes executive produced The Weeknd’s somber March 2018 EP, “My Dear Melancholy.”
Next at no. 4 we have the German twins CuBeatz, who also co-produced Travis Scott’s “SICKO MODE,”
along with Nicki Minaj and 6ix9ine’s “FEFE” with Murda Beatz.
HILLARY: No. 3 is John Cunningham, the late XXXTENTACION collaborator
and executive producer for ‘Skins.’
HILLARY: In October, Genius spoke with Cunningham ahead of the release of X’s first posthumous
album about the process and he said quote:
“We basically started making this next album right after ? (Question Mark) came out.
The songs and the ideas and the vision of it all was done or very close to being done.”
HILLARY: Coming in at no. 2 is Kanye West, who led the production of five albums,
released over the span of 5 weeks in May and June.
But his biggest hit was with Lil Pump.
HILLARY: Finally, at no. 1 is Canada’s other golden boy, Boi-1da, who produced and co-produced a slew of songs
this year, including Drake’s tear-jerker, “God’s Plan.”
HILLARY: Boi-1da and Drake go way back, and he also worked with Drizzy on another early 2018 track,
“Diplomatic Immunity.”
BOI-1DA: You just know what you’re getting with him.
You just know that it’s gonna be a hit song, you know it’s gonna be a moment,
you know any time Drake drops something, everybody stops to hear it so you just know it’ll be something great.
HILLARY: So, who’s YOUR favorite producer of 2018?
Let us know!
I’m Hillary with Genius News bringing you the meaning and the knowledge behind the music.