Press Play for a hip-hop drum beat at 95 BPM. It starts with West Coast G-Funk, and you can switch to Boom Bap, Golden-Era Boom Bap, Hardcore Boom Bap, Dilla-Style Drunk Swing, Jazz-Rap Ride Pocket, Lo-Fi Hip-Hop and Old-School Drum Machine. One beat lasts 632 ms.
Playing over a hip-hop drum beat at 95 BPM
95 BPM is at the fast end for hip-hop. Stay relaxed: if your hands tense up or you start rushing, drop back ten BPM, play the part cleanly for a few minutes, then come back up.
What plays at 95 BPM
West Coast G-Funk is written at 94 BPM, so 95 BPM is its home tempo. In 4/4 at this tempo a quarter note lasts 632 ms, an eighth note 316 ms and a sixteenth 158 ms, which is the spacing of the hi-hat you hear. Switch to Boom Bap, Golden-Era Boom Bap, Hardcore Boom Bap, Dilla-Style Drunk Swing, Jazz-Rap Ride Pocket, Lo-Fi Hip-Hop and Old-School Drum Machine on the page and the tempo stays at 95 BPM.
How long is a phrase at 95 BPM?
Knowing how long a phrase lasts helps you plan a song, a solo or a recording take. The drums play a fill at the end of every four or eight bars, so these are the lengths you will hear.
Phrase lengths at 95 BPM
Length
Time
One bar of 4/4
2.5 seconds
Four-bar phrase
10 seconds
Eight-bar section
20 seconds
Three-minute song
about 71 bars
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.