Photo: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

The industry's finest producers and engineers gathered on 1/22 at The Village Studios in West L.A. for the 13th annual Recording Academy P&E Wing Grammy-Week Celebration, honoring Dr. Dre.

Those who spoke were Village CEO Jeff Greenberg, P&E Wing Managing Director Maureen Droney, P&E Wing Co-Chair Ivan Barias, Recording Academy interim President and CEO Harvey Mason Jr., Jimmy Iovine and Dre. Following the presentation, Aftermath/12Tone artist Anderson .Paak performed a rousing short set.

Attendees included Interscope's John Janick, Joie Manda and Steve Berman, Quincy Jones, Concord's Mark Williams, mixer Chris Lord-Alge, Pulse's Maria Egan, BMI's Samantha Cox, Apple Music's Julie Pilat, mastering god Howie Weinberg, producer Mark Needham, actor Mekhi Phifer, producer John Hanlon, Recording Academy L.A. Chapter President Evan Bogart & ZZ Ward, Peter Asher, Island's Paul Rosenberg, 12Tone's Steve Bartels, Secret Road manager Lynn Grossman, manager Jeff Jampol, Bootsy Collins, mixer Tim Palmer, producer Eric Robinson, Capitol Studios' Roey Hershkovitz, Lisa Loeb, and Lurssen Mastering's Reuben Cohen.

Producer managers were out in force as well, including Bennett Kaufman, Andrew Brightman, Jason Bernard, Frank McDonough and event sponsor Joe D'Ambrosio. Corporate sponsors of the event included Amazon Music, Audio Technica, Shure, Kali, Genelec and Jaxsta. The P&E Wing is made up of approx 6k producers and engineers.

Iovine spoke of hearing Dre's music for the first time and signing him to Interscope. In the early 90s glory days of that label, Iovine continued, they let producers do what they wanted creatively, and Dre is a shining example of that ethos. “I think Dr. Dre is the greatest pioneer in producing records of the last 40 years,” said Iovine. "There’s only one thing that he knows better than producing records, and that’s being a friend and a partner.”

Dre thanked and addressed all the music makers in the room, and humbly reflected that he has had a lifetime of collaboration with other producers, engineers and artists that made him look good. “Producing and engineering has been fascinating to me since I was a kid," Dre told the crowd. "We have the ability and the power to make people happy, excited, emotional, make people cry, give you goosebumps and create a lifetime of memories, and that’s super powerful. That’s what we do.”

Dre also praised Mason Jr. for being incredibly helpful back in 2015, having recreating old lost audio masters from the 80s for the N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton which Dre co-produced.

There was no mention during the speeches of any of the current turmoil in Grammyland, the only hint of reference was when Droney introduced Mason Jr. as “your interim President and CEO.” Otherwise it was business as usual, a momentous festive party for the ages.