What BPM is hip hop?
Hip hop is 80-100 BPM, and 90 is a fair single number. The machine above is playing hip hop at 90 BPM - press Space to hear it, then move the tempo and listen for where it stops sounding like hip hop.
Why hip hop lives at 80-100 BPM
Hip hop is 80-100 BPM as a whole, and most of it is within a few beats of 90 - but the genre is really four tempo bands that share a snare on 2 and 4. Lo-fi sits at 70-85, boom bap and East Coast at 88-94, sampled-break hip hop and G-funk at 94-100, and old-school at 100-115. Then there is the modern half of the genre: trap at 130-150 and drill at 138-145, which are written at double the tempo they are felt at because the snare only lands on beat 3. A 140 BPM trap beat and a 70 BPM lo-fi beat have the same pulse; one just has twice the hi-hat resolution.
So the honest answer to "what BPM is hip hop" is that it depends which decade. Everything sampled from a record sits at the record's speed pitched down a little (88-96). Everything made on a drum machine after 2010 sits at 130-150 with a half-time feel. If you are making a beat and do not know which, start at 90 with 20 swing and a snare on 2 and 4 - that is the middle of the genre - and move from there.
90 BPM in milliseconds
For setting delay times, checking a sample's length, or programming by ear: at 90 BPM one bar of 4/4 is 2,667 ms and a 16th note is 167 ms.
| At 90 BPM | Length | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| One bar (4/4) | 2,667 ms | 0.38 Hz |
| Quarter note (one beat) | 667 ms | 1.50 Hz |
| Dotted 8th | 500 ms | 2.00 Hz |
| 8th note | 333 ms | 3.00 Hz |
| 8th-note triplet | 222 ms | 4.50 Hz |
| 16th note | 167 ms | 6.00 Hz |
| 32nd note | 83 ms | 12.00 Hz |
The genres either side
Tempo windows overlap, and what separates neighbours is usually swing and where the snare falls rather than the number itself. Hip hop with its nearest neighbours by tempo:
| Genre | BPM | Typical | Felt pulse | Swing | Family |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lo-Fi Hip Hop | 70-85 | 78 | as written | 30-40 | Hip hop |
| Hip Hop | 80-100 | 90 | as written | 0-40, by style | Hip hop |
| Boom Bap | 88-94 | 91 | as written | 16-24 | Hip hop |
| Reggaeton | 88-100 | 96 | as written | 0 | Latin |
Frequently asked
Why do trap beats say 140 BPM when they feel slow?
Because the snare waits for beat 3 instead of hitting 2 and 4, so the felt pulse is half the written tempo: 140 feels like 70. Producers keep the 140 label so the hi-hat rolls can be written as 16ths and 32nds instead of 32nds and 64ths. The music is the same either way.
What BPM should I make a hip hop beat at?
90 if you want boom bap, 78 for lo-fi, 140 half-time for trap. Every one of those is a page on this site with the genre playing at that tempo, so you can hear the difference before choosing.
Can I make hip hop at a different tempo?
Yes, and the edges of the window are where the interesting records live. The point of the range is that inside it a listener hears hip hop before they hear anything else; outside it, the same drum pattern reads as a neighbouring style. Drag the tempo on this page to hear the crossover happen.
Go deeper
Every genre's tempo
- What BPM is lo-fi hip hop?70-85 BPM
- What BPM is boom bap?88-94 BPM
- What BPM is reggaeton?88-100 BPM
- What BPM is funk?95-115 BPM
- What BPM is afrobeats?100-115 BPM
- What BPM is amapiano?110-115 BPM
- What BPM is disco?110-125 BPM
- What BPM is afro house?118-126 BPM
- What BPM is house?120-128 BPM
- What BPM is UK garage?130-135 BPM
- What BPM is techno?128-140 BPM
- What BPM is the Amen break?136-137 BPM
- What BPM is trap?130-150 BPM · half-time
- What BPM is drill?138-145 BPM · half-time
- What BPM is phonk?130-160 BPM · half-time
- What BPM is dubstep?138-142 BPM · half-time
- What BPM is jungle?160-175 BPM
- What BPM is drum and bass?170-176 BPM
- What BPM is neurofunk?172-176 BPM
BAP Studio is inspired by classic 16-pad sampler and drum-machine workflows. It is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Akai Professional, Roland, or any other manufacturer.
Made by Max Berggren.