The Afrobeat groove
A bell timeline and interlocking congas over a broken kick and a snare that arrives a sixteenth early.
What makes it feel this way
Afrobeat grew out of West African highlife and Yoruba drumming meeting American funk: the bell plays a fixed timeline (x..x..x...x.x...) that never changes, and everything else is measured against it rather than against a downbeat. The kick shadows the first three bell strokes and then leaves beat four wide open, so the snare's main accent lands on the "a" of three, a sixteenth ahead of where a rock backbeat would be, and the cross-stick mops up the beat it skipped. Underneath, the shekere runs unbroken sixteenths with its weight on the last one of each beat, which is what makes the loop lean forward, while the high conga walks a dotted three-step cycle that cuts across the four and only resolves at the end of the second bar. The kit is voiced from the modal side: a real membrane bass drum, a wire-and-shell snare, and two hand drums an octave and a half apart, with the analogue voices held back for the metal, the shekere and the two bass notes. Listen for the pull between that conga cycle and the bell: nothing speeds up, but the groove keeps feeling like it is about to. In the stripped section the weight goes and the shekere, the bell and the open hat stay, so the room never actually stops moving.
What BPM is afrobeat?
The afrobeat groove on this page runs at 114 BPM, swing 14%, over 2 bars. Change the tempo in the transport if you want it faster or slower - the pattern keeps its feel because swing and velocity travel with it.
Wondering about tempo? What BPM is afrobeats? - 100-115 BPM, and why.
It is loaded and playing
This page loads the groove as a full four-part arrangement - a main groove, a variation, a stripped-back section and a fill - chained together, on a kit built only for this rhythm. Press Space to hear it, open EDIT to see every hit on the step grid, and change anything you like. SHARE copies a link that rebuilds your version.
Other grooves
- Boom Bap91 BPM · HIP HOP
- Chipmunk Soul91 BPM · HIP HOP
- East Coast Hip Hop92 BPM · HIP HOP
- Trap Hi-Hat146 BPM · TRAP
- Dubstep140 BPM · BASS
- Four on the Floor124 BPM · HOUSE
- Disco120 BPM · DISCO
- Techno136 BPM · TECHNO
- Two Step134 BPM · GARAGE
- Motorik146 BPM · ROCK
- Jungle174 BPM · breakbeat
- Liquid Drum and Bass174 BPM · drum-and-bass
- Neurofunk Drum and Bass174 BPM · DRUM AND BASS
- Ragga Jungle170 BPM · breakbeat
- Amen Break174 BPM · BREAKS
- Amen Chops165 BPM · BREAKS
- Funk Break102 BPM · BREAKS
- Half-Time Shuffle92 BPM · ROCK
- Bo Diddley Beat136 BPM · ROCK
- Second Line92 BPM · FUNK
- Dembow96 BPM · DANCEHALL
- Bossa Nova136 BPM · LATIN
- One Drop Reggae74 BPM · REGGAE
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.