Boom bap drum pattern

Boom bap is the kick (boom) and the snare (bap) of 90s hip hop, played with a lazy swing. Here it is at 90 BPM with 30% swing, four parts and room for a sample on top.

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BOOM BAP90 BPM · SWING 30%
Kick 01
Snare 02
Closed HH 07
Shaker 06
Edit it in the drum machine →

These are real sounds from RAW POWER, 179 royalty-free house and tech house drums and loops. Hear them all ·

The basic boom bap beat

Strip the pattern down to kick, snare and closed hat and you have the basic boom bap beat: the part that makes it boom bap before anything else is added. Start there, get the kick and bass sitting together, then bring in the rest. Press Basic beat above to hear it and download it as MIDI.

How the pattern is built

Kick 01
Kick on beat 1, then two hits before and after beat 3. The kick plays around the snare rather than on a grid.
Snare 02
A fat snare on beats 2 and 4: the bap. It should be the loudest thing in the beat.
Closed HH 07
Hats on the eighths. The swing pushes every second one late, which is where the head-nod comes from.
Shaker 06
A quiet shaker just before the snares, filling the gap the way a sampled break would.

Make it your own

  • Add a kick on step 16 to drive into the next bar.
  • Try 85 BPM and 40% swing for a slower, dustier feel.
  • Put a ghost snare on step 8 at low level.

Tempos for every genre: BPM by genre. Or let the beat generator write variations. All 20 patterns as MIDI in one zip: free drum MIDI patterns.

More drum patterns

Every sound in this pattern is from RAW POWER →179 royalty-free house and tech house drums: 25 kicks, 21 snares, 20 claps, 43 hi-hats, percussion and 16 loops. $29, instant download.

Or start with the free pack: 24 sounds from all three packs, and a 25% code for the full packs a few days later.

Questions

What BPM is boom bap?

Usually 85 to 95 BPM, with plenty of swing.

What is the difference between boom bap and trap drums?

Boom bap is slower, swung and puts the snare on 2 and 4 with a full kick pattern around it. Trap is faster, straight, with a half-time snare on beat 3 and fast hats.

How much swing should boom bap have?

Somewhere between 20% and 40% on the sixteenths. Old samplers like the MPC were known for their swing setting, and it is a big part of the sound.

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