10 Drum Patterns For HipHop Every Producer Should Know

10 Drum Patterns For HipHop Every Producer Should Know

I saw someone tweet out saying the drum patterns makes the style of the song. Basically if you take a reggaeton song and swap out the drums for trap drums, the song is know a trap song.

And that makes sense to me. The drums are the backbone of song and tell you, the listener, what type of song it is.

If you're a producer, you should know what makes up different styles of drum patterns. I'll cover 20 in the style of hiphop and pop to get you started.

The specific drum pattern genre's we'll cover

I'll use a drum sequencer to illustrate the patterns. Let's get into it


 

Modern HipHop Drum Patterns

Modern hiphop is in an intersting space. It currently influenced by trap, but also Boom Bap but at the same time holds true to it's early roots from Funk and where it really found its footing from the Golden Age.

We'll get to Trap and Boom Bap specifically, but here's a hiphop drum pattern that encapsulates the heart and soul of modern hiphop.

 

Here's the pattern.

And here's a more depth article on Four Essential HipHop Drum Patterns.

Modern HipHop Drum Pattern - Basic


Boom Bap Drum Patterns

Boom Bap beats tend to be not as complex. Simpler beats, but not basic. Simple, but not chill. They have a nice rough hard sounds to them. A unique trademark of boombap beats is a kick or snare sneaking in when you don't expect it.

And if sounds a bit loose to you, that's do to swing, a common characteristic in boombap drums. It's one of four tips to make amazing drum patterns.

Here's the pattern:

BoomBap Drum Pattern


Trap Drum Patterns

Trap drum patterns are characterized by the snare on the 3 and the 7 beat. And of course the packed in hi hats and hi hat rolls.

Here's the pattern

Trap Drum Pattern


R&B Drum Patterns

R&B is an interesting one. The drum patterns find a balance of being laid back but there's still a lot going on. Mostly you'll see more hats and percussion. For example you'll see a crash and simple tom fills.

Here's the pattern

R&B Drum Pattern


LoFi Drum Patterns

LoFi beats are a bit sparse and chill as it fits the LoFi genre. They should be laid back.

Here's the pattern

For more in depth on making LoFI Drums we have an exhaustive article covering the sounds of lofi drums, patterns, loops, and recommended plugins for lofi.

LoFi Drum Pattern


Reggaeton Drum Patterns

Reggaeton has a very specific drum pattern. There is the core reggaeton drum pattern and the four on the floor pattern for reggaeton. It all boils down to a main pattern that determines the reggaeton sound.

Here's the pattern

Reggaeton Drum Pattern


Drill Drum Patterns

Drill is characterized by a specific hi hat pattern and the snares on the 3 and the 8. Both of those are illustrated below. Follow that pattern for the drill sound.

 

This drill beat is broken down in this article: how to make a drill beat.

Here's the pattern

Drill Drum Pattern


Pop Drum Patterns

Most of pop drum patterns are characterized by the four on the floor pattern.

Here's the pattern

Pop Drum Pattern


Fills Drum Patterns

All beats should include fills to add variety. They don't have to be too fancy, simple fills will do. Below is an example of a simple fill.

Here's the pattern.

There's a TON of ways to do fills. Here's an article outlining ten simple drum fills.

Drum Fills Drum Pattern


Fading Out

There's ten drum patterns for HipHop every producer should know. These are obviously just the basic patterns and there's so much more  you could do. Check out the MIDI drum patterns and guides for a wide range of drum patterns.

Back to blog