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. The Amen Break is the most sampled drum break of all, busier and brighter; at slow tempos it sits under a verse, and at double speed it becomes jungle.
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.