Kanye West is unquestionably one of the most popular rap artists out today, whether you enjoy his music or not, and his production skills have a lot to do with it. From when he began producing lush, soulful beats for Jay-Z to his current auto-tune phase, Kanye has always come through with addictive and radio-ready beats on nearly every track he's made.
Here's a guide to making rap beats similar to those used by Kanye West.
1. Soul samples. Kanye West is famous for his use of sped-up soul samples, so dig through back records to find something that fits. You don't need to sample much of a soul song, but a well-sampled soul hook really adds a cool edge to rap music. Once you find it, you'll need to figure out the BPM (Beats per Minute) of the song and speed it up or even slow it down to match the beat that you're creating. Alternately, if it's too big of a shift, you can alter the BPM of your beat much more easily to match the song, but speeding up the track a little bit will make it sound a lot like a Kanye West production.
2. The TR-808. Kanye West uses a lot of different drum machines and occasionally live drummers (more on that in a second), but his current favorite is the TR-808, a classic Roland drum machine that has a lot of really famous samples. You can find the sample packs online quite easily to use in a digital drum machine. Start with a catchy snare and bass, and build more on the beat as you go along.
3. Live instruments. Songs like "Roses" and "Golddigger" use live musicians to give the recording a more at-home feel and to get around sampling costs (you'll still have to notify the original artist of any samples you use and pay as if you were performing a cover song, though). If you're adept in a studio, it's worth paying some local professional studio musicians to come in and record the bass lines, string, or drum parts that you've already got on your track, and if you've got friends that are musicians, hey, you might not even have to pay to end up with an awesome hip-hop beat. Make sure to get the cleanest sound possible, and above all, keep things simple, even if the parts are complex; use as few microphones as you can to avoid a muddy mix, and try to get in the rap track as soon as possible so you can tweak the beat as necessary.
