No. 10 Marley Marl
Hip-hop’s “Golden Age” saw no shortage of superproducers (The Bomb Squad, Dr. Dre, Erick Sermon, Prince Paul, etc.) but no one’s sound defined mainstream hip-hop of the late ’80s/early ’90s like the genius armed with James Brown samples. He formed the legendary “Juice Crew” (Big Daddy Kane, MC Shan, Biz Markie, Kool G Rap), ghost-produced Eric B. & Rakim’s classic album Paid In Full, and crafted hits for everyone from LL Cool J to Bell Biv Devoe.
