Come on, how's that rude? And no, you guys don't understand what a COMPOSER is. RZA, for example, is a composer. A producer and a composer can use samples or not, but the true difference is that a producer doesn't have any technical musical knowledge, they just throw shit together, whereas a composer is more experienced with actual musical theory. Of course, like Menace said, I producer is different in hip hop than anything else, but w/e. Basically, a composer is to a producer as an emcee is to a rapper. Composers have actual musical knowledge. A composer knows how to write musical phrases, they know what notes make what effect -- they can basically make the music talk, whereas a producer can simply make a nice beat. Also, a composer knows how to make the music actually move somewhere, rather than a continuous stagnate beat (doesn't mean they always do though). Listen to Clutchy Hopkins' album "Walking Backwards" for an idea of what I mean. The way the beats progress and everything just follows everything else, that is an example of what I mean. Listen to composers like John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and then go back further; Beethoven, Bach, etc. That is what I mean when I talk about a composer. Someone who has a TRUE musical knowledge. Someone who can read musical notation and write it. Someone who can tell you what he's/she's trying to say without using words. You feel me?
