Rap Backing Tracks, Where do I start?

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Rap Backing Tracks, Where do I start?

Postby UltimateRiff » 28 Aug 2013 19:20

So, I've been wanting to get started with making backing tracks for rap, especially with this coming up, and I was just wondering how I should start. I'd like feedback from both rappers and producers as to what's easiest to use and what you do to make them, respectively.
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Re: Rap Backing Tracks, Where do I start?

Postby itroitnyah » 28 Aug 2013 21:31

First, you buy a vengeance club essentials sample pack, then you go to the drum loops section of the sample pack, ???, victory.

Jokes aside, rap is a very repetitive genre in everything except the lyrics. But the big thing is the drums, the kick especially. Make sure the kick is pounding out the beat, with the snare making it catchy, and not all rap has hats but you can make it with hats if you so choose.

The next most important part is a catchy bass pattern, or in some cases, (Eminem's "Not Afraid") a nice pad pattern.

You can also choose to have a sorta melody of the song, a short melody that can be repeated over and over in the song, such as the one in Eminem's "Till I Collapse".

A combination of the pattern and melody can make a song very good, but then a regular pattern could make a rap song good as well, and the same goes with the melody.

But the drums are very important, they can make or break a rap song.

Another thing to note would be that when transitioning between a chorus and a verse there isn't usually a riser of any sort beyond the rap vocals getting a bit faster and/or more intense. Transitions consist of usually a little catch pattern such as a neato chord progression or melody.

Structuring is simple, and you don't often change up the beat. Except for choruses and verses.

Also, I don't listen to rap a whole lot, so if somebody who does comes and corrects me, they're probably right, haha.
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Re: Rap Backing Tracks, Where do I start?

Postby DerpyGrooves » 28 Aug 2013 22:21

Who influences you as a musician? Personally, I take a lot of cues from MF Doom, and his series of instrumental albums "Special Herbs" is a goddamn masterclass.



You might also want to look into badbadnotgood for some killer inspiration.



Seriously, rap is a simple or as complex as you want it to be. That said, who influences you? That's the real question.
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Re: Rap Backing Tracks, Where do I start?

Postby UltimateRiff » 28 Aug 2013 23:10

Well, I listen to just about anything except modern rap, and most modern country, so I've got a lot of influences from all sorts of places. In terms of rap and hip-hop, I enjoy listening to Pretty Lights, Pony Swag, Feel Good Inc, iBringDaLULZ, TobyMac, and various 90's rap songs, (Ice Ice Baby, Gettin Jiggy Wit It, U Can't Touch This, etc).
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Re: Rap Backing Tracks, Where do I start?

Postby colortwelve » 28 Aug 2013 23:26

UltimateRiff wrote:Pretty Lights

Well, if you really wanna get away from the repetitiveness of most popular hip-hop music, you could just go for that route and produce really IDM-inspired hip-hop. If you can manage to blend a good beat with a nice atmosphere, you can end up with something like this - haunting, I think. Shit like that is one of the reasons Swizz Beatz is regarded so highly in hip-hop.

So yeah, using samples and loops is a good place to start, but never hesitate to add your own little touches to it. What usually works for me is to take a short, relatively untouched sample from a full mix of a song, then play the progression by ear and elaborate from there.
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Re: Rap Backing Tracks, Where do I start?

Postby Mr. Bigglesworth » 04 Sep 2013 04:44

eery wrote:Find yourself a jazz/soul/whatever old music record, cut out like 8 bars of it, put a drum break on it, and repeat for like 3 min with variations. Add a bassline if you want to get real fancy.

And voila


ok off topic but that is seriously fucking cool
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Re: Rap Backing Tracks, Where do I start?

Postby vladnuke » 04 Sep 2013 13:44

just listen to rappers and listen to the beats backing them. like listen to what the beats are implying and what mood they're imparting in conjunction to the rap. when you listen to Yeezus, and hear that hard ass electro beat backing him up on "On Sight", or when you hear the particular sample in "Blood on The Leaves" you can infer on exactly what he's referencing and what image and what meaning he is conveying. Rap is not minimal or complex, we are minimal or complex.
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Re: Rap Backing Tracks, Where do I start?

Postby Stu Beef » 04 Sep 2013 20:49

^ I like what he said.


Jeez really, just listen to more hip hop; go watch that fuckin hip hop history documentary on youtube too. Learn the vernacular (rap backing track?).

It started as dudes just rapping over looped breaks from dance songs or whatever, what you hear now is EXPRESSION. Don't worry about a formula other than a snare on 2 and 4 maybe, production is about taking YOUR personal history of sound and creating a sort of mosaic.

Dude's liked soul and funk so they sampled that and made new ideas with it.
I've made shit by sampling metal groups cause that's what I grew up with!

On Black on Both Sides Mos Def said, "People talk about Hip Hop like it's some giant living in the hillside...We are Hip Hop...so next time you ask yourself where Hip Hop is going ask yourself 'where am I going? How am I doing?' and you get a clear idea."

Listen to tracks from different eras, from different styles of hip-hop (east coast dudes definitely had a sound distinct from the southern dudes...it's a little more homogenized now though). I swear there are like 4-5 possible drum patterns in hip hop; if you wanna replicate that, recognize that. The interplay between the drums and the bass could be like 90% of your beat with the rest being color. Hell, all I personally care about is if your drums are driving and sound cool.

Uhh, examples:

classic boom bap


Texas shit...more soulful...southern rappers like triplets or something lol


wacky electro...hell El P does shit sometimes that could be called EDM, but it's all pretty hard


club type shit's cool too...I like to move


Curren$y said some (pretty simple) shit that changed the way I look at a beat (bout the first minute)




I've said this before (about writing) and I'll say it again, inundate yourself. Fill yourself with music until you CAN'T HELP but create. Listen to some rappers/producers and use them to go find more. Stay up late studying this shit, live it. Let it be apart of you and then guess what, the music will come FROM you.

Damn, son.



e. Don't listen to Macklemore, that's some white people shit.

Here's a (fuckin great) white rapper instead:
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