WOMEN WE LOVE: Music Producers Edition!

Women’s History Month might be over, but that doesn’t mean we have to stop shedding some light on the talented women in the music industry who put in a great amount of work to make themselves known. Women artists are not a new concept to the world, especially after having such icons like Taylor Swift,Megan Thee Stallion, and so many more dominate the charts, but the ladies behind the scene are almost always overlooked. According to Music Getaway, women make up around 20% of all musical artists, and only 2% of them are music producers. Although they are small in numbers, these women have become pioneers in the music industry and have left behind a legacy. 

Here are some women producers in the music scene that deserve a lot more recognition.

1. Sylvia Robinson

Sylvia Vanderpool Robinson was an African-American singer, songwriter, musician, record label executive, and record producer, mostly known for her work as the founder and CEO of the Sugar Hill Records hip-hop label. Robinson helped produce pioneering rap song “Rapper’s Delight” and “Love is Strange” – a song she performed as a duo with Mickey Baker -- and “You Talk Too Much” with Joe Jones. The song “Rapper’s Delight” is generally considered to be the first mainstream hip-hop song to be a hit and influence the commercial hip-hop market. Because of such an accomplishment, Robinson was seen as “the Queen of Rap”, and from that, she continued to grow as an artist and a producer.

2. Ester Dean

Ester Dean is a Grammy Award-nominated songwriter, record producer, singer, and actress. She is one of the industry’s most in-demand hit-makers -- hits that you and I all have heard of and love to this day: "Firework" by Katy Perry, "Rude Boy" by Rihanna, "Super Bass" by Nicki Minaj, "Mr. Know It All" by Kelly Clarkson, and "Come & Get It" by Selena Gomez, just to name a few. At the 54th Annual Grammy Awards in 2012, Dean was nominated for Album of the Year for Rihanna's Loud, featuring smash singles such as "What's My Name?" and "S&M", which was written by Dean. She broke into film with the animated comedy Rio, in which she sang both "Let Me Take You to Rio" and "Take You to Rio". In 2015, she released her own original music with an R&B/soul EP titled Miss Ester Dean. Ester Dean has given herself many hats to wear in the entertainment industry, which is what makes her so talented. Her music is not so hard to find. It is literally everywhere!

3. Catherine Marks

Another woman producer who has become a total master in the industry, Catherine Marks won the prestigious Music Producer Guild Award for Producer Of The Year in 2018, becoming the first woman to do so. The following year, she triumphed at the Grammys for her work as a mixer when St. Vincent’s "Masseduction" won Best Rock Song. Her biggest hits include "Wolf Alice" and "The Big Moon" alongside the likes of Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, The Amazons, and Frank Turner – Catherine producing the latter’s 2019 concept album, No Man’s Land, which celebrated the lives of several women whose work was overlooked by history due to their gender. With mentors like producer Flood and Alan Moulder, there was no way she wouldn’t learn to be a hit machine. Her latest works include artists like Skegss, Palace, Natalie Imbruglia, and Paris Jackson.

4. Sonia Pottinger

Sonia Durrant worked as an accountant before marrying Lyndon Pottinger at the tender age of 21. Lyndon Pottinger himself was a reasonably well-established record producer who already produced many hits. He began recording at his house in Kingston on the Gaydisc label in 1961. In effect, Pottinger became the first Black owner of a recording studio. In 1965 at age 34, Sonia made the full transition into music production on her own when she opened her record shop Tip Top Records at 37 Orange Street in Kingston. In 1966, Sonia Pottinger had her first taste of recording success with the slow romantic ballad from Joe White and Chuck entitled “Every Night”, which was recorded at Federal Recording Studio. Some of the hits from her catalog include such sweet-sounding rock steady gems as Delano Stewart’s “That’s Life” and “Stay A Little Bit Longer”, Ken Boothe’s “Lady With The Starlight”, and “Say You”. Others included “Build Me Up” and “Close To You” by Brent Dowe, “I Have Little Nut Tree”, “Swing And Dine”, and “ Nola” by the Melodians, and “Hard To Confess” and “ABC Rocksteady” by The Gaylads. All of these tracks were released on her Gayfeet and High Note labels. Her songs have all reached the top ten on the Jamaican charts and had very distinguished Pottinger sounds. In October 2004, the Government of Jamaica accorded Her the Order of Distinction for her contribution to the development of Jamaican music.

5. WondaGurl

At 24 years old, Canadian producer Ebony Oshunrinde — better known as WondaGurl —built a career most of her music business seniors would envy. She got her first major credit on Jay-Z’s Magna Carta Holy Grail when she was still in her teens, and she has since produced more than 100 tracks for Travis Scott, Drake, Lil Uzi Vert, Rihanna, and other top acts. Her biggest credits include multi-platinum hits including Scott’s “Antidote” and Rihanna’s “Bitch Better Have My Money”. She is currently one of the few women regularly getting A-list production work in any genre; female producers in music account for less than three percent of production credits on the 900 most popular songs of the past nine years. With a dream to be a music producer, she accomplished many things, so she decided to dabble in hits for herself. She is preparing a solo album but will not talk about it with anyone. But “one day, Melonie Fiona told me I didn’t have to specify ‘female’, that I didn’t have to point that out,” she tells Rolling Stone. “We’re all equal in a way. If a man could make beats, a girl could too, and can just get just as far in this industry as well.”

6. TOKiMONSTA

The Los Angeles-based Jennifer Lee was diagnosed with an extremely rare and potentially fatal brain disease called Moya-moya at the end of 2015, and eventually regained her ability to comprehend music. In 2010, her debut album, Midnight Menu, was released on Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder label and cemented her reputation as a presence to admire in the then-emerging West Coast beat scene. In 2011, Brainfeeder released her ​Creature Dreams E​P. She recorded “I Wish I Could” featuring Selah Sue, and followed that with Lune Rogue, which earned her a Grammy nomination in the Best Dance/Electronic category. After regaining much of her memory and music-making talent, in March of 2016, Lee made her triumphant return with jaw-dropping performances at SXSW and Coachella. TOKiMONSTA’s journey and tribulations gained more widespread attention after having starred in the season finale of the Vox-Netflix series ​"Explained" ,​narrated by Carly Rae Jepsen. TOKiMONSTA continues to be active in the music scene -- She headed a virtual event entitled “Every Woman” to highlight women in music through panels and performances for Women’s History Month in 2021.  

While the women in the industry are scarce, we should listen to the ones we’ve got and appreciate the masterpieces they present us with. It can’t be too hard; they produce many of the hits we already know and love!