The Boom Bap drum groove
The pattern, step by step
One cell per sixteenth note, sixteen cells to the bar — exactly what the hub's drum machine plays. Downbeats are shown in bold.
90s Boom Bap
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kick | ● | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | ● | · | · | · | · | · | · | · |
| Snare | · | · | · | · | ● | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | ● | · | · | · |
| Clap | · | · | · | · | ● | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | ● | · | · | · |
| Hi-hat | ● | · | ● | · | ● | · | ● | · | ● | · | ● | · | ● | · | ● | · |
- Kick · 2 hits · steps 1, 9 · beats 1, 3
- Snare · 2 hits · steps 5, 13 · beats 2, 4
- Clap · 2 hits · steps 5, 13 · beats 2, 4
- Hi-hat · 8 hits · steps 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 · beats 1, 2, 3, 4 · eighth notes
Where to start
Kick on the 1, snare on 2 and 4, at 90 BPM. Then nudge one single kick very slightly off the grid. That is where the track comes alive.
What the hands and feet actually do
The sound matters as much as the pattern: drums sampled off an old record, compressed until they saturate. A boom bap that is too clean does not sound like boom bap, whatever the grid says.
The trap
Quantising to 100 %. The whole point of the style is the human slippage Dilla turned into a method. A perfect grid gives you an accurate, uninteresting track.
Listen to this
To hear the Boom Bap groove in its element:
N.Y. State of Mind (Nas) · Shook Ones Pt. II (Mobb Deep) · Mass Appeal (Gang Starr)
Drummers of this groove
Roger Linn
Put real drum samples into a machine, then invented the "swing" knob that created hip-hop's groove.
The LM-1 and then the LinnDrum replaced the TR-808's synthetic sounds with recordings of a real kit. But the decisive contribution lies elsewhere: the swing setting, which shifts the even sixteenths. Without that knob, hip-hop and house would sound like metronomes. An engineer's idea that became an aesthetic.
1999 (Prince)Sussudio (Phil Collins)J Dilla
Switched quantisation off on his MPC. The result, a deliberately wobbly groove, gave birth to neo-soul.
Everyone quantised to fix mistakes; Dilla kept the mistakes and made them the subject. His snare lands slightly late, his hi-hat slightly early, and the ear reads that as human breathing. Dead at thirty-two from lupus, he changed how a whole generation hears time.
Fall in Love (Slum Village)Nag Champa (Common)DonutsNeighbouring grooves
Play it right now
The Drum Hub's drum machine loads this pattern, plays it at any tempo and lets you edit it cell by cell.
Open the Drum Hub →Frequently asked questions
How do you play a Boom Bap groove on drums?
Kick on the 1, snare on 2 and 4, at 90 BPM. Then nudge one single kick very slightly off the grid. That is where the track comes alive.
What tempo is Boom Bap played at?
The usual range runs from 80 to 100 BPM. The hub's 1 pattern(s) are set to 90 BPM, and the tempo stays free inside the drum machine.
Is Boom Bap straight or shuffled?
Shuffled: the offbeats are delayed (0.6 of swing in the hub's pattern), which gives the shuffle feel.
Which drummer should you listen to for Boom Bap?
DJ Premier, Pete Rock, J Dilla. In the hub, Roger Linn, J Dilla are attached to this groove.