Make Your Beats Irresistible

The rhythm section of a band usually consists of drums and a bass guitar (or synthesizer, or whatever is providing the bass melody), plus whatever other percussion instruments are used (tambourines, shakers, etc.). In hip hop and rap beat making, the bass and percussion are almost ignored these days. If you remember back to the early days of hip hop you'll see that there was a lot of live instrumentation - meaning either there was a whole band that MCs rapped over, or sampled records of bands. Early hip hop was funky and soulful for this reason. It was an extension of funk, soul, disco, and african styles of music. You must remember to make this funkyness a priority when you make your own beats.

This leads perfectly to the issue of sampling. Rappers would often rap over sampled parts of records that had rudimentary drum machine beats spread over them, or create mostly original songs from parts of other songs. These original jazz, soul, funk, and african songs had great bass lines and lots of extra percussion. What does that mean to you if you are trying to make your own beats?

The bass is the instrument that "lays down the groove", so to speak. Never underestimate its power when making your own hip hop beats. The bass follows the chord changes and melody of the song while accentuating that the rhythm the drums are playing. The cold hard fact: most people making beats don't focus enough on the bass. Unless they are a producer and musician themselves, the bass gets little respect. If you pay attention to how the beats and the bass played off of one another in older soul and funk music you'll understand why it's so important and how it can help you in your own beat making.

Listen to the song "Let Me Ride" by Dr. Dre. The bass line is amazing. In this song he samples Parlaiment's "Mothership Connection", but the bass is obviously played by an amazing bass player. Another popular example is A Tribe Called Quest's "Can I Kick It". This song's main tune is sampled from Lou Reed's "Take A Walk On The Wild Side". This is another great bass line in another great hip hop song. Ever heard Jay z's "Takeover"? Kanye West sampled "Five To One" by The Doors on this one. Another very simple, great bass line in a great rap song.

My point is that if you shouldn't just want to make great beats, you should focus on making great songs. Making your own beats become memorable and great is a snap if your goal is to write a great piece of music.

While these groups sampled great songs to start with, you may not have the money to purchase the rights to use someone else's amazing music. Use the bass in your songs to add dimension, flow, movement, and anchoring to the melody. After that, spice it up even more with percussion instruments - shakers, blocks, bongos and tambourine.
There's a reason songs with these popular percussion instruments from the 1960s and 70's get sampled more than any others: people want to dance when they hear them.

Start learning music, arrangement, and how to be a producer now to take your music to another level. Raise your standards and be unique if you want to stand out. Don't be afraid to start from the ground up and learn everything from the basics. I guarantee Dr. Dre and Kanye know the basics inside and out.