Jazz Rap

What it is

Boom bap's cousin, made by producers who went past the funk 45s and into the jazz section. A Tribe Called Quest, Gang Starr, Digable Planets and the Native Tongues built beats out of Blue Note and CTI records, which meant the harmony arrived as ninths and thirteenths instead of a single minor chord, and the drums arrived swung because the source was swung. It ran from about 1990 to 1996 as a movement and never really stopped: Madlib, Karriem Riggins and the Los Angeles beat scene are its continuation. The distinguishing move is that the drum programming imitates a jazz drummer rather than a drum machine.

What it sounds like

Warm and loose. A ride cymbal or a brushed hat carrying swung eighths where boom bap would put a hi-hat, an upright bass walking rather than holding, and a snare that spends most of its time whispering. The kick is soft and round, often the sample's own kick left in place. Horns and Rhodes chords arrive in fragments of a bar or two and then stop. Everything is a little dark because the sources were vinyl and the samplers were twelve bit, and the swing is heavier than anywhere else in the family.

Key elements

• The ride, not the hatA ride cymbal carrying swung eighths is the fastest way to make a beat read as jazz rap. It has a wash the hi-hat does not, and it fills the bar without cluttering it.
• A walking bassUpright bass playing quarter notes that move through the chord rather than sitting on the root. Sampled whole where possible, because the fret noise and the thump of the string are half the sound.
• Harmony with more than three notesMinor ninths, major sevenths, altered dominants. Lifted from the record intact, because voicing them yourself takes a lifetime and sampling them takes an afternoon.
• Heavy swingNearer 58 or 59 percent than boom bap's 54. The source was played by a drummer with a triplet feel, so the programming has to lean the same way or the two fight each other.
• Ghosted snare conversationSoft snare hits scattered across the bar in uneven places, imitating what a jazz drummer's left hand does. Their irregularity is the point.

How to get them

• RideSample one off a record rather than using a kit sample. Roll off below 400Hz, mix it around minus 12dB, and vary the velocity every hit so the wash pulses instead of ticking.
• BassSample a two bar upright phrase and pitch it to your key rather than playing a bass patch. If you must play it, add fret noise underneath and let each note decay naturally instead of gating it.
• KickSoft, round, with almost no click. Cut 3kHz out of it. Here the kick is a pulse rather than an event, and a modern trap kick will flatten the feel completely.
• SnareOne crisp hit for the backbeat and a much quieter copy, high-passed at 600Hz, for the answers. Keep the answering hits between 26 and 50 and never place two of them symmetrically.
• Sample handlingChop the horn or Rhodes fragment to under two bars and let it stop. The silence between phrases is what keeps the record from sounding like a loop with rapping over it.
• SwingSet 58 or 59 percent, then nudge the ride hits by hand a tick or two either side. Perfect swing applied to every element is still a machine.

Reference points

A Tribe Called Quest, Pete Rock, Gang Starr, Digable Planets, Guru's Jazzmatazz, Madlib, Karriem Riggins and Nujabes. Named as reference points for the sound, not as endorsements or as anyone to imitate.