Marley Marl
DJ Premier
Pete Rock
Dr. Dre
J Dilla

A good but hard question to answer due to a lot of factors.

Not in any order of priority but I'll say that it is tied between DJ Premier and Dr. Dre as my favorites.

1. Pete Rock

2. Marly Marl

3. Dr. Dre

4. Tone and Poke

5. DJ Premier

I think good cases can be made for Timbaland, Rick Rubin, Kanye West, Swizz Beatz,

J Dilla, Prince Paul, P Diddy, Pharrell\The Neptunes, Easy Moe Be,

and Big Daddy Kane (like a one man equivalent of the Bomb Squad) as a few examples.

I'd like to give honorable mention to DJ Red Alert.

It feel like KRS-One is underrated as a producer/emcee, just for what he made for BDP as well as acts like Ms Melodie and Steady B ("Ceereeus BDP Mix").

Larry Smith and Kurtis Blow also took hip hop to new levels in the early to mid 80s with their huge sounds (Whodini, Fat Boys).

DJ Quik

Johnny J

The Neptunes

Timbaland

Dr. Dre

*Battlecat

*Easy Mo Bee

*Pete Rock

*DJ Premier

*Marley Marl

*Herbie LuvBug

*Kanye West

*DJ Pooh

Man, this is tough lol