Bay Area Hyphy drum pattern
A two-bar hyphy groove with knocking syncopated kicks, a slapping backbeat, an extra snare that shoves into beat 4 and sparse eighth hats. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 102 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Bay Area Hyphy
Count it as: 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a · two bars. The pattern is a 2-bar phrase in 4/4 (two-bar 16th-note hyphy pocket).
The Bay Area Hyphy pattern, hit by hit
Each character is one step of the grid and each group is one beat. X is an accented hit, x a normal hit, o a quiet or ghost note and - a rest.
| Voice | Bar 1 | Bar 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Kick | X--X ---- X-X- ---- | X--- --x- X--X --x- |
| Snare | ---- X--- ---x X--- | ---- X--- ---X X--- |
| Closed hat | x-o- x-o- x-o- x-o- | x-o- x-o- x-o- x-o- |
Tempo and feel
Rowdy and bouncing. The extra snare before beat 4 is the jolt; keep it strong but below the main backbeat. The default tempo is 102 BPM. It plays with 53% swing by default; move the Swing control toward 50% to hear it straight. Slow it down until every hit is controlled, then raise the tempo a few BPM at a time.
How to practise the Bay Area Hyphy
Play kick and backbeat with a short, punchy stroke. Add the extra snare on the a of 3. Keep the hats sparse so the kicks can knock.
Variations to try next
Move the extra snare to the and of 4. Add a kick on the and of 4 in bar two. Play the hats as 16ths for the hook.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include E-40 - Tell Me When to Go and Keak da Sneak - Super Hyphy. A played-kit study of mid-2000s Bay Area hyphy production: knocking syncopated kicks, a slap-heavy backbeat with an extra snare that pushes into beat 4 and sparse hats. It is a style study, not a transcription.