>You can divide hip-hop beat production into two major trends: the MPC-powered beat chopping of ’90s beatmakers like DJ Premier, and the spacious 808 beats of the trap style that developed in the ’90s and ’00s in Southern US cities like Atlanta. These two styles are not entirely independent of each other however, and many modern hip-hop artists incorporate elements of both. Our beat fits somewhere between the two – it’s powered by spacious 808 bass and includes a hint of trap’s signature triplet hi-hats, but our snare and clap are treated with a little lo-fi crunch emulating the sampling techniques of the ’90s. We’re also taking a little influence from the woozy, lo-fi sound of cloud rap. The overall effect is channelling adventurous modern artists like Tyler, the Creator who incorporates elements of multiple styles.
Sound-wise, aim for punch and power – hip-hop beats are designed to be rapped over, so you need to provide rhythmic thrust for your MC while leaving plenty of space for their voice. Our groove here is relatively straight; we’ve added about 5% swing and we’ve used a fixed velocity throughout for a mechanised feel. We have manually nudged our claps off the grid to make the beat feel a little wonky in places though. A classic bpm for hip-hop is between 85-100. We start with the KICK. This is a long, powerful 808 kick, tuned to the root of the track as it’s also providing the primary bass. By bouncing this and loading it into a sampler we get more control over the pitch and decay envelope. Kicks are placed sparsely, on the first beat of bars 1 and 3, but avoiding the first beat of 2 and 4.