Hip-hop drumming: the rhyme may define, but the groove makes you move.

In this article, I investigate the use, creation, and manipulation of the drums in hip-hop. In most works on black popular music, whether referring to rock, jazz, blues, rap, or other genres, little attention is paid to the drummer beyond providing an overview. (1) I hope that this article can begin a dialogue about drumming to compare with that surrounding pianists, vocalists, guitarists, and other instrumentalists. I am not attempting here to uncover the social, diasporic, or cultural significance of the hip-hop genre; that has been and is being done by scholars whose interest and expertise lie in these areas (Gilroy 1991; Lipsitz 1994; Rose 1994); rather, I am concerned with analyzing the use of drums in this music and how that use exemplifies some of the musical attributes defining the hip-hop style in a broad sense. I have chosen musical examples that not only best illustrate my analysis but that also come from artists who are important to the hip-hop genre, such as James Brown and A Tribe Called Quest, whose 1991 album The Low End Theory is "hailed as a masterpiece of jazz/hip-hop fusion" (Werde 1999, 44). My goal is to provide a guideline for deciphering the drums within this music, whether they come from samples, a drum machine, a live drummer, or a combination.

The typical description of hip-hop states that the development of this genre was influenced by four distinct elements: (1) break dancing, (2) graffiti art, (3) emcees or tappers, and (4) DJs. Although each of these factors serves as a cultural marker, the lyrics stand out to many scholars and fans as the defining characteristic. Both Robin D. G. Kelley (1996, 186-194) and Tricia Rose (1994, 99-124) give evidence to show how lyrics are used to create real and imagined identities. (2) Greg Dimitriadis (1996, 180) states that "[t]he constant search for meaning through rap's vocal content alone has led to much cross-cultural misunderstanding." Furthermore, if what Ingrid Monson (1999, 52) tells us is true--that "[h]owever good various types of grooves may make us feel, ... they cannot be presumed to be innocent of power"--then we must examine how these grooves are established. Therefore, I will not argue the position of whether the lyrics should carry so much weight; rather, I will discuss the music that supports the lyrics, particularly the groove, as established by the drums. It is essential to examine not only how certain beats are manipulated but where they originated. Olly Wilson's "The Heterogeneous Sound Ideal in African-American Music" (1992) serves as a point of departure to address this issue.

Wilson suggests that to define what constitutes black music, we need to devise means through which to uncover meaning in black music, a task that he notes, is "made difficult by the fact that the music of black Americans exists within a larger, multicultural social context, like that of all ethnic groups within the United States" (327). He develops a concept called the "heterogeneous sound ideal," which he defines as the "core of underlying conceptions that define African and African-American music," noting that "there exists a common approach to music making in which a kaleidoscopic range of dramatically contrasting qualities of sound (timbre) is sought after in both vocal and instrumental music. The desirable musical sound texture is one that contains a combination of diverse timbres" (329). Wilson presents two ways in which this ideal is practiced that can in turn be related to hip-hop drumming.

Wilson's first point is that the heterogeneous sound ideal is "reflected in the nature of the 'sound' texture of musical ensembles, [meaning] the relationship of the resultant qualities of sound produced when several instruments perform simultaneously" (329). The basic drum set consists of three elements--a bell (hi-hat or ride cymbal), a high drum (snare), and a low drum (bass drum or kick drum)--each of which is generally discernible from the others. (3) Besides being audibly different from one another, each element serves both a singular and group function; that is, while each instrument is played independently, it is also contributing to the overall feel. This is not unlike the notion of coordinated independence in jazz drumming, which states that each limb should work independently to create a singular pattern. (4) Keil's (1995) notion of participatory discrepancies can help us understand how the various instruments of the drum set interact within their own set of participatory discrepancies beyond those that exist between the drummer and other members of the rhythm section. (5) That is, it is equally important to understand how the ride cymbal interacts with what the drummer is playing with the other three limbs as it is to understand how it is interacting with the bass, piano, and so on.

The bass drum is important to the beat because it signifies movement on the dance floor, largely through matching the rhythm and sonic force of the bass. (6) The bass drum in hip-hop usually does not mark the pulse, falling in a syncopated ostinato pattern. This is much like the concept within jazz drumming of dropping bombs, the placement of sporadic hits on the bass drum for the purpose of driving both the music and soloists (see Greenwald 1996). In hip-hop, the snare drum often emphasizes beats two and four, while the use of marginal and prominent ghost notes adds depth to the groove. The significance of the bass drum and its sonic properties and snare drum ghost notes will be discussed later.

One of the most-sampled beats used in hip-hop music comes from James Brown's "Funky Drummer" (1970), with Clyde Stubblefield on drums. (7) This recording demonstrates several aspects of the heterogeneous sound ideal. Throughout the recording, Stubblefield's playing varies a specified pattern composed of fairly unchanging straight sixteenth notes on the hi-hat, while the bass drum has slight deviations. The snare drum is the most varied, notably through the use of short press rolls. Around the five-minute mark, when Brown calls for "everybody to lay out and let the drummer go," Stubblefield plays alone for eight bars, slightly altering his pattern from measure to measure. In comparison, the remix version is basically one unchanging phrase looped together (see Ex. 1).

Within each instrument of the drum set, there are a variety of tones. Stubblefield plays straight sixteenths on the hi-hat and changes the tone by opening the hi-hat on the fourth sixteenth note of beat two and the second sixteenth note of beat four, as indicated by the open noteheads in the example. The snare drum marks beats two and four, but two is the most prevalent. The prominent use of ghost notes from the end of beat two through the end of beat four creates a variable sound texture within the snare sound. In addition, the bass drum plays loudly on the two eighth notes of one and softly on the second half of beats three and four, again creating a variable sound texture.

Three key aspects of this pattern help establish the groove. The first two, which are of nearly equal importance, are the bass drum strokes on each half of beat one and the snare stroke on beat two. The bass drum establishes the phrasing of the groove and grounds the pulse by defining the downbeat, while the accentuation of the first weak beat by the snare drum sets up the heavily syncopated feel of the rest of the phrase. The on-the-beat pattern of "boom-boom-cha" grounds the groove while also saying, "This is where things loosen up." The third key aspect of the phrase is the second sixteenth of beat four, which has both a bass drum stroke and an open hi-hat serving as a breath mark. Whereas the first two elements give a jumping-off point for the syncopation of the groove, the weight of the third signifies the return to the grounded first beat.

Wilson's second point is that "the heterogeneous sound ideal is reflected in the common usage of a wide range of timbres within a single line. ... Within that tradition, the single-line instrumental soloist is expected to explore a wide range of timbral variations, so much so that some observers have spoken of the tradition of making the instrument simulate vocal technique, or 'talk' or 'speak'" (Wilson 1992, 329). Regarding the variable sound texture within the snare sound, ghost notes (whether they are marginal or prominent) vary in tone color. A marginal ghost note, achieved by letting the stick come to rest on the drum head after an attack, tends to be faint and dull, whereas a prominent ghost note, achieved through a definite stroke, tends to be clearer and brighter. (8) Furthermore, there are gradations within these categories that allow for what Wilson calls a "wide range of timbral variations."

It is common in hip-hop to expand the timbral variety especially along the bell-type sonority, in effect replacing the cymbal sonically but not functionally. These "replacement sonorities" refer to the many idiophones (sleigh bells, chimes, triangles, cymbals, tambourines, handclaps, as well as scratching) that are available to most percussionists and producers in the form of actual instruments or through a drum machine2 Note that many of these "toys," as percussionists refer to them, have been part of the jazz drummer's arsenal for decades. Sonny Greer, drummer for Duke Ellington, surrounded himself with a wide array of percussion instruments ranging from orchestral percussion (chimes or timpani) to folk percussion (washboard and woodblocks). (10)

Two examples can serve to illustrate this use of timbral variety. First, in "The Dip," by Goodie Mob, a triangle and shaker are used instead of a hi-hat to establish the groove (see Ex. 2). This example has several distinguishing aspects. First, while the triangle and shaker play a one-measure ostinato, the bass drum and snare drum play a two-measure ostinato. This is significant because it alters the phrasing to allow the listener to hear the groove as either a one- or two-measure phrase, and it also creates a variety of polyrhythms that are reflected in the vocal rhythms. Another important element is that the timbral qualities of the triangle, shaker, and snare drum are distinguishable from each other as individual voicings, while at the same time blending into a dense soundscape.

Second, "Humble Mumble," by Outkast, features an eight-measure "break-down" section that uses a driving ride cymbal and scratching to keep the pulse as well as to add timbral variety (see Ex. 3). The ride cymbal, snare drum, and bass drum are constant, while the scratching features a different rhythm with a slightly altered pitch in every other measure, beginning with the second. It is difficult to assign a specific pitch to each note of the scratch, but there does seem to be a discernible high and low, which is represented in the transcription. The rhythm of the scratch as a whole is unsyncopated, yet if one looks at the pitch change within the scratch, a syncopated pattern emerges. This syncopated pattern can be seen both within the scratch and against the groove pattern established by the ride cymbal, bass drum, and snare drum.

Like snare drum ghost notes, the tones of the ride cymbal and of the scratching are varied within themselves. A ride cymbal has two distinct tones--the bell and the body. Within these tones, there are gradations, depending on where and how the stick hits the cymbal. For instance, using the tip of the stick on the bell creates a shorter, more piercing sound than using the shaft of the stick on the bell, whereas using the shaft of the stick near the perimeter of the cymbal will produce a more sustained sound than hitting the midsection of the cymbal. Scratching parallels cymbal playing; just as where the cymbal is struck and the part of the stick used affect the sound, what portion of the track is scratched and the rhythm of that scratch affect the sound.

With the basic understanding developed thus far of how the drums function in hip-hop, it becomes imperative to investigate other avenues that relate to hip-hop drumming: (1) the role of technology and its effects on hip-hop drumming; (2) the repetitiveness of the beat and its correlation to other African diasporic musics; and (3) the relationship of the rhythm of the vocals to the rhythm of the bass drum.

The most important element to come out of the technological developments in the hip-hop genre is the prominent use of the drum machine. Second to the drum machine is the use of digital sampling and audio systems. Paul Theberge (1999, 218-219) describes digital sampling as follows: "[Sampling] refers to the use of prerecorded sound and music ... in the creation of rhythm tracks for use in hip-hop and rap, in dance remixes, and in so-called 'mastermixes,' with the origins of the sounds being more or less recognizable depending on the intentions of the artists and the knowledge base of their audience." Digital sampling, when used as a form of musical (de)construction, dissolves the distinction between musician and listener as one's musical memory catalog recalls sampled pieces, thus bringing additional meaning and (re)construction to the music. Not unlike the advertising world, which inverts images and sounds into unified target audience categories, through this postmodern assemblage, technology acts as a bridge between varied demographics. As George Lipsitz (1994, 37) states: "Digital sampling in rap music turns consumers into producers, tapping consumer memories of parts of old songs and redeploying them in the present, ... [calling] into question Western notions of cultural production as property through its evocation, quotation, and outright theft of socially shared musical memories."

Tricia Rose (1994, 78) asserts that "[r]ap's heavy use of sampled live soul and funk drummers adds a desired textual dimension uncommon in other genres and that programmed drum machines cannot duplicate." Indeed, sampling has been used to recapture established drum beats, in which case the sampler may be considered a drum machine. There are two reasons I place greater significance on the drum machine (or sampler as drum machine) over sampling technology as a whole. First, the drum machine allows for minute alterations of a groove. Take, for example, the beat for "Funky Drummer" (Ex. 1). Perhaps a producer wants to move the emphasis of the second sixteenth of beat four ahead to its third sixteenth. The reprogrammed beat changes the feel to create a new groove. Second, the drum machine eliminates the necessity for the services of a live drummer yet does not allow for the elimination of drum (i.e., rhythmic) sense.

Because many producers understand that subtle changes in the beat can alter a groove or a song, they develop a sense of how to push and pull the feel, which has a twofold effect. (1) The effect of subtle changes answers the naysayers who claim that hip-hop is the same thing over and over again. Through minutely significant (e.g., the change in sonority from hi-hat to triangle) and significantly minute (e.g., altering the placement of ghost notes) changes throughout a chorus, song or album, the same thing is not happening over and over again. (11) (2) It addresses the issue of innovation. Hip-hop has been compared with bebop even by beboppers themselves, most notably by drummer Max Roach. Roach states that "[t]he thing that frightened people about hip hop was that they heard rhythm--rhythm for rhythm's sake. Hip hop lives in the world of sound--not the world of music--and that's why it's so revolutionary" (quoted in Lipsitz 1994, 38). And although the technological innovations are undeniable, the musical innovations appear to be more like musical renovations. As Keyes (1996, 224) puts it, "[h]ip hop represents ... cultural reversioning--the foregrounding (both consciously and unconsciously) of African-centered concepts in response to cultural takeover, ruptures, and appropriations." Said another way, the technical innovations lead to a (re)interpretation of the rhythmic elements and freedoms from bebop onto hip-hop.

One of the more prominent drum machines used in hip-hop is the Roland TR808 "because of its 'fat sonic boom,' because of the way it processes bass frequencies" (Rose 1994, 75). The TR808, a fairly large machine (twenty-two inches by twelve inches by four inches), is relatively easy to use.

   At its simplest level is step-time programming, which is a piece of
   cake. You just select a drum sound with the rotary selector and
   start pressing the coloured step buttons while the pattern is
   running, then move onto the next sound, building up your rhythm
   pattern, any mistakes are canceled by pressing the button a second
   time.... Real-time programming is just as easy. ... It's possible to
   programme a total of 64 different rhythm patterns into the 808.
   (Carter 2000, 1)

The facility with which a producer or artist can use a drum machine provides a plethora of sounds that can be combined to create a desired sonority. Just as rappers can change their vocal styles to convey different meanings, and just as a rock guitarist can use different electronic effects to convey different meanings, the multiplicity of sounds that can be used or sampled with a drum machine conveys many different meanings. For example, sampling a drum sound that reminds an artist of being "back in the day" to emulate nostalgia would be as appropriate as sampling a gun shot for a snare sound to emulate urban decay. Referentialists, according to Leonard Meyer (1956, 1) "contend that ... [music] communicates meanings which in some way refer to the extramusical world of concepts, actions, emotional states, and character." Drum sounds can be seen to garner the power of suggestion through reference.

As already stated, repetition is important in establishing the groove within hip-hop. James Snead (1984) notes that repetition is a crucial element in black music. He discusses repetition through the introduction of the "cut," which is the ability of performers to leave the music and pick up where they left off--a reference point: "The 'cut' overtly insists on the repetitive nature of the music.... The ensuing rupture does not cause dissolution of the rhythm; quite to the contrary, it strengthens it, given that it is already incorporated into the format of that rhythm" (69). This means that familiarity is the base of a musical pyramid as a "cut" brings a change or alteration of the musical elements, not its essentials. Repetition serves as a qualifying element, not a determining element; repetition enables musical progress, but the results of that progress are independent of the repetition itself. Scratching, then, is a form of a "cut" because it injects itself on top of the beat, like a drum fill, as a rhythmic diversion only to resolve or cut back to the beat in order to keep the feel going. (12) Ingrid Monson (1999, 46) discusses three aspects of repetition in African diasporic musics that can relate to hip-hop drumming. Her first aspect, "how repeating patterns such as riffs are layered and combined," is evident in the layering of various timbres used to create the drum pattern. Whether it is through the use of the Roland TR808 or through a standard drum set, the various timbres are often heard separately but listened to as a whole. Second, "how repetition supports improvisational call and response exchanges" call be heard through the scratching "cut" as well as through a vocally stylized "cut." Monson's third aspect of repetition, "how both shared and individualized patterns define overlapping stylistic areas," is evident through the analysis of the drum parts as both separate and unified entities.

In addition to the roles of technology and repetition, there is the issue of the bass drum rhythm in relation to the vocal rhythm. The bass guitar and the bass drum logically are often coordinated, which helps to perpetuate the desired "boominess" of the music, such as in the creation of Jeep beats designed to be blared from car speakers. However, this is less of an issue here than the rhythmic vocal patterns and how they interlock with the bass drum. As Keyes (1996, 232) argues, "What performers define as melodic qualities in rap, scholars refer to as tonal semantics.... Meaning is achieved, therefore, by accenting certain words or syllables in a rhythmic manner, thereby creating fluidity within the text." There are two fundamental elements within this relationship. First, there is the prominence of an accentuation of the downbeat followed by a syncopated phrase. As mentioned in the discussion of "Funky Drummer," the emphasis of the downbeat grounds the groove while setting up the playfulness of the rest of the phrase, as well as serving as a return from the "cut." For this reason, both the bass drum and vocals emphasize the downbeat while varying the remainder of the phrase.

Second, and this builds on the previous point, there is frequent use of the "Funky Drummer" beginning to establish phrasing in hip-hop tracks. This is clear throughout A Tribe Called Quest's album The Low End Theory. (13) On every track, the vocals and the bass drum emphasize the downbeat, and except for tracks five, six, and eleven (out of fourteen), the bass drum and vocals accent the "Funky Drummer" pattern of eighth-note/eighth-note/quarter-note (boom-boom-cha) to begin each phrase. The significance is not only in the coordination of the first two beats but also in the variation of the remaining beats. The vocal rhythm on top of the bass drum rhythm creates an interlocking pattern that gives movement or groove to the phrasing. Take, for example, track ten titled "Everything Is Fair."

In Example 4, a nonvocal example from "Everything Is Fair," it is clear that the "Funky Drummer" pattern begins each phrase, followed by a syncopated pattern that ends on beat four, thus allowing for a slight pause before the return to the strong emphasis of the downbeat. Example 5, a vocal example, shows the phrasing of the first four bars of the first verse. Throughout the song, the vocal rhythms change, except for the initial emphasis.

Example 5 illustrates that the rhythmic delivery of the lyrics in coordination with the drums is as important in defining hip-hop as the lyrics themselves. The drums provide the rhythmic canvas that allows rappers to portray their landscapes in unlimited ways.

Drums in popular music, even in jazz, are often overlooked. While scholars may acknowledge the importance of the drums, many stop their analysis here. The drums in hip-hop serve an important role; they not only establish the groove and emphasize vocal style, but they also act as a cultural signifier. The incorporation of various drumming sounds and styles (including scratching) into hip-hop adds breadth and variety to the music beyond the lyrical content. The drums in hip-hop define the music as much as any other element, musical or extramusical. As we further understand the significance of drums in hip-hop, we begin to see deeper layers of complex musical production and sophistication. We should be digging in the crates, listening for those backbeats, those grooves, that talented hip-hop musicians find and use referentially and creatively. It is quite clear that they acknowlege the importance of the drums, so why are we not listening?

Special thanks to Ellie Hisama and Robin D. G. Kelley for their insight and input in the development of this article.

(1.) There are important works that scratch the surface of the importance of the drummer, including Berliner's Thinking in Jazz (1994) and Monson's Saying Something (1996). My contention is that while these works (and others) offer great insights into the world of drumming, they do not explore the role of the drummer to the same depths afforded to other instrumentalists.

(2.) Neither Rose nor Kelley explicitly states that the lyrics are the defining characteristics of hip-hop, but they do spend a fair amount of time discussing the role of lyrical presentation and reception.

(3.) Kick drum is a term that I have never liked, but it is used for logistical reasons (it is played with the foot) and practical reasons (a producer requesting "more on the bass drum" wants to avoid confusion with more on the bass guitar). However, since I am relating hip-hop drumming to jazz drumming, where the term kick drum is not used, 1 use the term bass drum here.

(4.) The term coordinated independence was developed by Jim Chapin (1948).

(5.) A standard drum set is a combination of various percussion instruments from around the world, including cymbals from Turkey, tom-toms from Africa, and the snare drum from Europe. Just as a drummer simultaneously hears one groove as four separate parts and four parts as one groove, drummers approach the drum set as both a singular instrument and an amalgam of instruments.

(6.) My implications are that the bass drum and the bass provide the underlying pulse to which people dance. In this article, I do not address the issue of how the drums relate to movement, even though this argument is ripe for discussion. The topic of dance within the realm of popular music is often cited because movement as a conveyer of musical meaning helps us to understand both the performance and reception of music. For discussions of music and dance, see Fikentscher (2000) and Aparicio (1998).

(7.) The James Brown CD In the Jungle Groove is a collection of recordings from 1969 to 1972 and includes the original version of "Funky Drummer" as well as the remix version titled "Funky Drummer (Bonus Beat Reprise)." Stewart (2000) discusses "Funky Drummer" as

(8.) Ghost notes can be replicated on a drum machine, (re)producing the effect of a stick hitting the drum head with varying degrees of force and precision.

(9.) Scratching is a process in which a vinyl record is moved back and forth by hand while the tonearm is on the record, producing a scratching effect that is understood both for its musical characteristics and for the reference to the recording scratched.

(10.) I use. folk percussion cautiously because it is a dangerously loaded term. I am referring here to common items that have become employed as percussion instruments, notably the cowbell, woodblock, and sleigh bell, to name a few.

(11.) The recordings discussed in this article, notably A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory and Outkast's Stankonia, exhibit these types of changes.

(12.) This analysis of the "cut" is my own; however, it should be noted that Rose (1994, 61-72) has a similar interpretation of Snead.

(13.) This pattern can be heard in many different recordings. Listening to hip-hop on the radio in search of the "Funky Drummer" beginning will reveal the prominence of this pattern.

DISCOGRAPHY 

Brown, James. In the jungle grove. Polydor 829 624-2 (1986).

Goodie Mob. World party. LaFace/Arista 73008-26064-2 (1999).

Outkast. Staukonia. LaFace/Arista 73008-26072-2 (2000).

A Tribe Called Quest. The low end theory. Jive 1418-2-J (1991).

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JEFF GREENWALD is a professional studio drummer and an adjunct faculty member in the Fine Arts Department of College Misericordia in Dallas, Pennsylvania.