What Instruments Are Used In Rap Beats

What Hip Hop Instruments Are Used In Rap Music 2022

Rap music, or Hip-Hop, is a genre of music that might have developed in Bronx, New York, but has expanded all over the world over. While rap artists derive inspiration from many sources, including personal life experiences, using the best rap beats for sale to create hip-hop music traditionally remains the same. That’s why having quality sound is important to any artist’s career in 2022.

Rap beats are created through instruments such as drum machines, the keyboard, pianos, turntables, and samplers. Although technology is not an instrument per se, it plays a vital role in producing today’s hip-hop music.

This post takes a more in-depth look at how these instrumentals are used in producing this popular genre of music.

Maschine Drum Pads (DRUM PADS)

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Drums are the most frequently used instrument in the production of rap instrumentals. It would not be incorrect to say that it would be challenging to produce rap music without a standard drum kit or some drum beat.

In the current music scene, synthetic drums dominate the sounds heard in hip hop and most pop music and dance music.

Two of the most common drums, part of almost every Digital Audio Workstation, would be the Roland TR-808 and the Roland TR-909. While the former was one of the first rhythm composers to permit programming rhythms instead of using presets only, the latter was the first drum machine produced by Roland to use sound samples, and MIDI.

Acoustic drums are not as conventional in Hip Hop music production, but some niche artists such as Questlove still use them.

Turntables

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Any music producer worth his salt will tell you how vital a turntable is in producing rap beats. Turntables assist in the manipulation of sound to create various perspectives of music from the same material. The turntable is the only instrument that can produce the familiar scratching sound that is part of almost every other piece of music today.

In many ways, the turntable brought about a revolution in music, long before hip hop and rap became the popular genre that it is today. However, there is no doubt that the turntable played a significant role in popularising hip hop as disc jockeys began to realize how sounds could be manipulated to add more beats and create additional layers of music over one existing sound.

Keyboard/Piano

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Remember Eminem’s iconic song, The Way I am It used a clean piano sound along with other instruments to create the beat of the song. Even before Eminem, the piano has been part of many other rap music producers’ arsenals, including from as far back in the day as Slick Ricks Children Story (1988) to 1994 hit The World is Yours by Nas when he had professional tracks at his finger tips.

With the usage of a Sampler, piano and keyboard sounds can be looped and arranged to create a steady beat to which words can be rapped.

Beat Making Software

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Again, while this isn’t technically an instrument, computer software has changed the game in rap music productions. Softwares such as Ableton Live or Apple’s Logic Pro X allow beats to be mixed and matched, to produce unique tracks. The software can also help replace traditional instruments through their ability to manipulate sounds.

While all it takes today, to produce a rap beat is an ear for music and some useful software, there’s nothing wrong with using traditional instruments to produce a beat. After all, as beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, appreciation of music lies in the ear.

 

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