Hip-hop drum beats

Boom-bap and breakbeat grooves to rap, write or play keys over. Press Play and the drums keep going until you stop them. Pick a tempo below or set your own anywhere from 50 to 220 BPM.

How a hip-hop drum beat works

Boom bap is a heavy kick ("boom") and a hard snare ("bap") with a slightly swung hi-hat. It is slower than it sounds: most of the energy comes from where the kick lands around the snare, not from the tempo.

How to play along

Rappers: count four bars per line and aim your stressed syllables at the snare. Keys and guitar players: loop a two- or four-chord phrase and leave space for the vocal. Try adding a little swing to your own sixteenths to match the hi-hat.

The hip-hop grooves on this page

Boom Bap is the classic sampled-break feel. Golden-Era Boom Bap is the late-80s and early-90s sampler sound of DJ Premier and Pete Rock. Hardcore Boom Bap is darker and heavier, in the Mobb Deep and Wu-Tang mould. Dilla-Style Drunk Swing plays the kick early and the snare late, the way J Dilla programmed. Jazz-Rap Ride Pocket adds a ride cymbal for the Tribe Called Quest and Gang Starr sound. Lo-Fi Hip-Hop is the soft, dusty study-beat feel. West Coast G-Funk is the laid-back Dr. Dre bounce. Old-School Drum Machine is the stark, punchy mid-80s drum-machine sound.

Common practice tempos

Start with 70, 80, 85, 90, 95 and 100 BPM. Each tempo has its own page with the right groove already selected, so you can bookmark the one you are working on.