I've noticed that a lot of rap music (and I realize it's probably across the board), the vocals are commonly mixed such that they are very up front, with the kick and snare just punching through the vocals. the rest of the music is just behind the vocals - from a balance perspective.

to achieve this type of result, is it just a matter of balancing the vocals/drums/other samples and compressing the drums in such a way that the vocals become a thick layer that the drums punch through?

thanks for any advice...