Electro Hip-Hop drum pattern
A two-bar early-80s electro groove: quantised 16th hats, a syncopated machine kick, a hard backbeat and a cowbell line answering between the snares. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 127 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Electro Hip-Hop
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 quantised 16th-note electro pocket).
The Electro Hip-Hop 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- ---- |
| Snare | ---- X--- ---- X--- | ---- X--- ---- X--- |
| Closed hat | xooo xooo xooo xooo | xooo xooo xooo xooo |
| Cowbell | --x- ---x --x- ---- | --x- ---x --x- --x- |
Tempo and feel
Robotic and exact. No swing, no drag: the groove comes from syncopation, and every hit should land dead on the grid. The default tempo is 127 BPM. Slow it down until every hit is controlled, then raise the tempo a few BPM at a time.
How to practise the Electro Hip-Hop
Play the 16th hats perfectly evenly. Add the kick and backbeat. Fit the cowbell between the snares with the backbeat hand.
Variations to try next
Drop the cowbell for the verse. Play the hats on eighths only. Add a kick on the a of 4 in bar two.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force - Planet Rock and Hashim - Al-Naafiysh (The Soul). A played-kit translation of early-80s electro drum-machine programming: quantised 16th hats, a syncopated kick, a hard 2-and-4 clap-snare and a cowbell answering between them. It is a style study, not a transcription.