Hyphy
A rubber-band bassline and a clap that turns up one sixteenth early.
The pattern
2 bars, sixteenth notes. Loops until you stop it.
The clap on the last sixteenth of each bar, at 80, is the element to listen for: it arrives a sixteenth before the downbeat rather than on it, and it makes the loop feel like it is tipping into the next bar. Kick gallops on 1, the a of 1 and the and of 2, then a single hit on the and of 3. Hats run straight sixteenths at 76, 44, 60, 44 with no swing at all, which at 104 bpm reads as speed rather than as the tension the same grid produces at Memphis tempo. Bar two adds a kick on the e of 4, a second clap on the e of 4 answering it, and an open hat on the and of 4 in place of a closed tick. Swing 50 percent, because hyphy is a fast straight music and shuffling it would make it lurch.
What it is
The Bay Area's answer to the south, running from about 2002 to 2008 and centred on Vallejo, Oakland and Richmond. Where crunk got heavy, hyphy got fast and bouncy: tempos in the hundreds rather than half-time, a bassline with a slide and a wobble on it, and an energy that was explicitly about dancing badly on purpose. Mac Dre, E-40, Keak da Sneak and the producers around them built beats out of cheap synths and hard claps, and the whole thing was designed for a car with the doors open. Its DNA turns up later in ratchet music and in a good deal of Los Angeles club rap.
What it sounds like
Fast, rubbery and bright. The bass slides between notes with a pitch bend rather than a filter, which is where the rubber-band quality comes from. A hard clap on the backbeat with an extra one arriving early at the end of the bar, dense sixteenth hats, and a kick that gallops rather than anchors. Synths are cheap on purpose: square leads, saw stabs, occasional talkbox. The mix is dry and loud with very little reverb anywhere, and the tempo is high enough that the whole thing feels like it is falling forwards.
Key elements
- The slide bassA synth bass using portamento between notes rather than separate hits, usually a square or triangle with a short glide. It slides up into the root and that is the hook.
- The early clapAn extra clap on the last sixteenth of the bar, ahead of the downbeat rather than on it. It is the detail that makes hyphy feel like it is tipping forwards.
- A galloping kickKick on 1, the a of 1 and the and of 2, running rather than sitting. At 104 bpm this reads as a stumble in the best sense.
- Sixteenth hats, no swingA straight sixteenth grid at a high tempo, which is a different feeling from the same grid at 76 in Memphis. Here it supplies speed rather than tension.
- Cheap synthsStock square leads and saw stabs from whatever was available, kept bright and dry. Polishing them removes the thing that makes the records sound like themselves.
How to get them
- BassMonophonic square or triangle, glide around 60 milliseconds, filter around 800Hz with a little resonance. Write the line so it approaches the root from a fourth below and let the glide do the work.
- ClapBright, wide and completely dry. Place the main hits on 2 and 4 at 112 and put an extra at 80 on the last sixteenth of the bar. That early hit is the whole idiom.
- KickTight and punchy with a click around 2kHz so it cuts at speed. Decay under 200 milliseconds. Any sub tail will blur the gallop into a rumble.
- HatsStraight sixteenths, swing at 50 percent, accents at 76 on the beat and 44 to 60 in between. Pan them slightly and keep them dry.
- ArrangementCut everything but the drums and the vocal for a bar at a time. Hyphy records use hard cuts rather than filter sweeps, and the abruptness is the energy.
Reference points
Mac Dre, E-40, Keak da Sneak, Traxamillion, Rick Rock, The Federation and Droop-E. Named as reference points for the sound, not as endorsements or as anyone to imitate.
The pattern is a starting point rather than a rule. If you want the theory underneath why any of it works, Battuto measures it.