Tips for Producing & Structuring Your Beats for Rappers
What do rappers look for when selecting a beat? How do I know that my beats can be rapped on? These are a few of the many questions you might be asking yourself when attempting to produce rap beats. A significant part of the answer is to always keep the artist in mind when producing. The beat maker must consider leaving space for the rapper to insert lyrics and most importantly inspire them to write something to it. Prospective clients don’t just want to hear a beat that slaps, they need to be able to picture themselves on stage performing, they need to see the music video, they need to see the heads bobbing and the people dancing, they need to see themselves exactly where they want to be in their careers. My goal as a producer is to get them to visualize their wildest dreams in order to get the best material out of them. That is why I gravitate towards r&b samples. I like to feel the emotions of a song that I sample with hopes of transferring the vibe onto my own beats.
Compromise Between Your Own Style & Rapper’s Style
The added challenge to making rap beats for the purpose of selling to a rapper is staying true to your sound. However, most rappers will be looking for a specific sound. While working as a recording engineer at 17 Hertz Studio in the Bay Area, I missed countless opportunities to get my beats out to well known Bay Area rappers. My time at the studio took place during the aftermath of the Hyphy Movement and the Bay Area definitely established a distinct sound. In the few chances I did get to play my beats in a session, I failed to impress. Which is unfortunate because the one song I did for a group with clout generated a decent amount of views and plays for me. In hindsight, I should have built off of the success of that track and made more beats with a similar feel. Better yet, I should have adapted my style at the time to reflect what most rappers were looking for. Even something as simple as replacing drums with an 808 kit would have helped my chances. I took the failure as a sign of me not fitting in rather than as feedback to try different samples and sounds. On top of that, I should have pumped out new beats at a more frequent rate increasing my chances and improving my skills in the process. I had no excuses, I worked in a recording studio and I booked my own clients. I had all the time in the world. Well, you live and you learn. At the end of the day the hip hop instrumental becomes the rapper’s song. It only makes sense to do what you can to adjust your the beat to fit his or her style.
Don’t Sweat The Technique
Don’t worry about technology or techniques. Do you think the artist gives a damn that you quantized to a groove, used side chain compression, or pitch shifted the drums? Hell no, don’t get too caught up in techniques that you “must” use in order to legitimize your effort. They don’t notice that shit. I was proud of this one beat I produced because I played all of the instruments myself and used zero samples. Did that fact make the rapper want to rap on it even more? Hell to the nah. Keep your purpose in the back of your mind when making the beat: to inspire a rapper to write lyrics to it. Now if the technique helps you achieve that slap factor, then implement it. For example, your prospective client is into trap beats. So it might pay off to watch a tutorial on how to pitch shift your hi hats. But when compiling a list to play for artists, I have to admit, I do have favorites just because of the technique I used on a particular beat. Sometimes you need a fresh pair of ears to give an opinion. I love all my beats, they’re are all my babies. But I can’t have that approach when trying to sell my beats.
Learn To Rap
Back to keeping the rap artist in mind when laying down the tracks. It helps if you have experience rapping yourself. Is the beat something that you would write too. If you don’t rap, you can even try to recite a verse from your favorite raps songs. If you don’t know any or they don’t fit, you can just spit gibberish along with your beats to see if there is a cadence can fit. If you are good enough to make beats by adding layers, then you are good enough to imagine rap lyrics over the beat. You also might be surprised by what rap artists actually like. Some of my best selling beats have been my least complex productions.
Song Structure
Now that I have my approach and philosophy established, I can consider the structure and the technical aspects of my beat. I typically let the sample dictate what kind of tempo I want to take it. Once I have cut out sections of the sample that I like, I will time stretch it and experiment with different tempos such as 65, 70, 80, 90, 95 BPM. I usually start out by producing what would end up being the verses by creating a 2 bar loop (one 8 count). A standard format that most rappers write to is 16 bar verses and an 8 bar hook. For me, 16 bars feels like a really long time for BPM’s of 65, 70, and 80 so I make those verses 8 to 12 bars. If a rapper needs a longer verse, it can always be extended. Because I understand that a rapper will want to write verses and a hook/chorus, my initial goal will be to create 2 different loops with the sample. One for the verses and one for the hook. When I look at it in this way, the task of creating an instrumental masterpiece seems less daunting. So again, I am merely creating 2 different “mini beats.” But what if they are too different? With sampling, I like to think of it like wine pairing. In the book What To Eat With What You Drink the author provides the following rule of thumb: “If it grows together, it goes together.” When applied to sampling, if i gather two different parts from the same song, chances are they will go together. Same goes for an album, if you want to go the extra mile. Some albums were recorded with the same instruments and vocalists. If you can match the correct keys, it can unlock more possibilities for your beat. So how do you make a 16 bar verse interesting if it’s really just a 2 bar looped 8 times? The human brain likes to hear change, so it can be as simple as dropping the drums out at a certain point during the verse or adding another layer. I strive to make a small change or addition at the end of the 4th bar, a slightly bigger change at the halfway mark of 8 bars and end the 16 bar verse with a big change such as a drum fill with toms or an instrument build up to the chorus. Sometimes a simple but dramatic pause will suffice. Another way to make the verse loop more interesting is to add stabs and hits of samples throughout the verse. You will likely find something in the original song you sampled. It could be a quarter note delayed single piano hit that happens at the start of every 5th bar or it can be a vocal that you filter and loop starting halfway through the verse. (include zoomed in screenshot of this trick) If you are stuck and can’t figure out a decent transition from the verse to the hook you can always repeat the 7th beat leading into the hook or repeat the 5th beat 3 times and on the 8th beat, drop out the entire beat except for the snare and add a long reverb to it. Try this trick for a dramatic re-entry to the beat. (include zoomed in screenshot of this trick)
The Hook
Now for what should be the catchiest part of the instrumental hence the name “hook.” A good rapper should be able to do all the work for this section with unforgettable chants. But the producer can always help him out in a number of ways. As I mentioned before, I aim to make an A section for the verse and a B section for the chorus. If part A sounds strong enough on its own, you may be able to get away with simply adding another layer onto to it to create part B.
This can also be vocal samples in the form of “oohs,” “aahs,” and “yeahs.” What I typically like to do is give the rapper an assist and find some vocal samples with lyrics to supplement the chorus. It helps the artist find a direction for their lyrics and the sample can also supplement their raps. See some examples below.
The chorus (starting at 0:38) “someday maybe someday maybe someday far away” worked well with the rapper’s adlibs and could have worked well on its own. Shark Sinatra cleverly used this portion of the song to draw his listeners closer with an intimate talking cadence. In this example I used my method of adding vocal lyrics over the a section to create part B. A time stretched vocal singing “over now, this time will be over now” is layered underneath the main beat. Rather than writing around the vocals like he did in Maybe, the rapper treated it as a background instrument layer and rapped a chant over it. While the technique worked perfectly fine for this particular song, I like to challenge myself to create more tension and more build up in the chorus. Sometimes you can cheat and use sample the verse parts of the original song and use it for your verses and then find the original song’s chorus or bridge to create the hook for your beat. Take this example for instance (0:48):
I simply drop the drums out at the end of the 16 bar verse and go into the chorus which samples the original song’s chorus. This worked well for this rapper because he tends to write full 8 bar lyrics for his hooks so the B section required a significant change. Not only did it have to be different from the verse but it also had to elevate the song to maintain the listener’s interest. Another way to make the hook sound more epic is to create tension. In other words as a break from the verse I try to make the B section build up to the point where it can only be resolved by bringing the verse back. Listen to the chorus here (0:40):
the first 4 beats are repeated without resolution. Halfway through the hook the 5th beat is merely repeated until it loops back to the first 4 beats. This gives listener a sense that this part of the song is important and Tantrum cleverly lays down his message with a rhythmic cadence. The listener is finally given relief from the tension with a snare roll and a return back to the main verses. Change ups like this make the song interesting.
Intros & Outros
Now that you have an instrumental for the verse and the hook, you can focus on sections like the intro, outro, and if necessary the breakdown or bridge. An intro can consist of the sample or instruments without the drums and the verse kicks in when the drums come in. Again, it all depends on what the artist wants to do in that portion of the song but for the sake of trying to get a rapper to choose my beat, I prefer to get to the point and leave the intro no longer than 4 bars. It’s all a matter of preference, but we live in an age of shortening attention spans so I like to get to the meat and potatoes right away. A rapper can usually decide if he or she likes a beat within the first few bars so the intro cannot be misleading or take away from the beat when it drops. I typically look for samples that come with a bassline in it. If I choose to go the route of removing drums for the intro, I will filter out the bass before the beat drops for added effect. For an even more dramatic entrance I will even bring the volume down of the intro by 4 to 6 db so the overall volume slaps extra hard when the beat drops. In the Shark Sinatra – Maybe track, I used this technique for the intro. It is very subtle but the impact is felt when the verse starts. As for outros, I will typically end the beat with the hook with no empty space afterwards. I want to make sure the entire beat plays back perfectly on a loop. The rapper will want to write to it, so it would be helpful if the track can loop on its own when put on repeat. That’s why I try to keep my intros short and in the form of 2 or 4 bars. It helps the writing process when there are no pauses and skips to impede creativity.
The Breakdown
Should a rap beat have a bridge? Again, something like this is all a matter of preference. Most of the time I leave out the bridge but there are times when a bridge works, especially when there is a singer on the chorus. There are a few simple ways to accomplish this. You can filter out all of the hi’s for 8 bars to make a breakdown. This can take place after a chorus and last for 8 bars then go right back into the chorus. Another way is to create an entirely new loop. Create a part C to follow your A and B parts. Hopefully you can creatively chop existing parts or find more pieces to sample from the original song. One way to cheat is to find the bridge of that original song and sample that for the bridge section. Here is an example of a bridge that I created during the mixing process. The chorus part of the beat pretty much used the same loop as the verses so I had to break up the monotony by creating some kind of bridge. The singer for the hook already laid down his parts so I just rearranged some of his background and harmony layers to create a bridge. As for the beat I just used the first 4 counts of the original loop and found different part to sample for the second half of the loop. I also changed the drums, added, reverb, and removed the hi hats to make it feel more dramatic.
