Just look at all of Dre's hits... Simple, Kick, Kick, Hard Snare, Kick - - Snare... Barley any hats, its the synths and bass that make up them hits.. QUOTE]
NO. that is NOT what makes them hits.
first of all, none of these recent "hits" are dre beats. niether of 50's singles so far, not one of lloyd banks, not one of young bucks, and none of eminems singles were.. the only current radio hit that i can think of is the gwen stefani, rich girl song.
second, songs become "hits" for lots of reasons other then "how" they were produced. if you really think that a synth and a bassline is the reason his songs are hits, then you really have very little understanding of how this works. you are over generalizing to a fault here.
timbaland built his legacy on groundbreaking ideas in hip hop/popular music- i dont care who argues with me, liisten to the first genuine/missy/ second aaliyah albums.... he was the evolution of the whole new jack swing era. the bottom line was, he made songs that were catchy, backed by major label support and promotion- same as dre.
to keep up with the topic at hand, there is no need to reinvent the wheel to be creative. i am using much simpler patterns today and my production is at an all time high. the real truth of the matter is that the drum pattern simply has to ride the music and melt into the bassline- thats the formula for a good drum pattern.