---
title: 'Hip Hop Production For Beginners (Step By Step Masterclass)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=o9YTH50ijcA'
video_id: 'o9YTH50ijcA'
date: 2026-06-30
duration_sec: 1318
---

# Hip Hop Production For Beginners (Step By Step Masterclass)

> Source: [Hip Hop Production For Beginners (Step By Step Masterclass)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=o9YTH50ijcA)

## Summary

This video offers a step-by-step masterclass on producing a hip-hop song in Ableton Live, from creating drum patterns and 808s to adding melody and vocals. The presenter, a professional musician, demonstrates the core formula used by top artists like Kendrick Lamar and Drake, emphasizing a simple, repeatable structure.

### Key Points

- **Introduction and Formula** [0:00] — The video introduces a core formula for hip-hop production, claiming all top artists use it, and emphasizes building a foundation for any style of hip-hop music.
- **Setting Up Drums** [1:00] — Sets BPM to 150, selects kick drum from Ableton samples (kick bricks), and builds a simple kick pattern. Then adds an 808 clap using Ableton's clap samples.
- **Drum Pattern and Clap Variation** [2:19] — Refines the clap by shortening it and adding a saturator for warmth. Adds a clap pattern every four bars to spice up the beat. Suggests using a reference track to copy drums if struggling.
- **Adding High Hats with Midi** [3:00] — Uses a midi track with Simpler, selects an 808 closed hi-hat, and draws in a pattern on the piano roll, including a specific ending pattern (da da da da da).
- **Adding Percussion/Rim Shot** [4:44] — Searches for a rim shot or percussive element, ultimately using a 'blip' sound from percussion samples to add character.
- **Saving the Project** [5:10] — Covers how to save session and collect all files to keep everything in one project folder.
- **Creating the 808 Bass** [5:37] — Explains two methods: using pre-made 808 samples (with pitch shifting) or using Simpler/VST instruments. Emphasizes knowing music theory (key of 808) for cohesive song production.
- **Music Theory for 808s** [6:57] — Stresses the importance of music theory, noting that the 808 is in E minor and that all mid instruments should be built around that key for consistency.
- **Refining 808 with Sub-Bass** [7:50] — Chooses a sub-bass sound from Ableton, adjusts decay, lowers overall volume using faders, and sets the 808 pattern.
- **Adding Mids and Melody** [8:22] — Explores Ableton instruments for mid sounds (strings, leads), draws in chords and melody, uses hot swap to audition different sounds (including third-party 'Play' brass).
- **Grouping Mids and Adding Effects** [11:05] — Groups mid tracks (Command + G) and adds EQ8, Redux, vintage sampler effects, and OTT multiband compressor to the group for cohesion and width.
- **Side Chaining 808 with Kick** [13:40] — Demonstrates side chaining the 808 to the kick to avoid clipping. Uses compressor with sidechain input from the kick, adjusting threshold so the 808 ducks when the kick hits.
- **Finalizing the Drum/Mid Arrangement** [14:50] — Adds a final quiet melodic element and creates a pre-chorus section where the 808 and drums drop out, leaving just a clap to build anticipation for the main beat drop.
- **Song Writing and Structure** [15:37] — Takes time to write a song (verse & chorus) over the beat. Shows the final arrangement with additional mids (lower horns) and vocal layers (lead, double panned L/R, harmonies, rap).
- **Final Advice and Plugins** [19:49] — Emphasizes that the core structure (drums, bass, mids, vocals) is key. Mentions using effects (riser, crashes) as optional. Touches on vocal processing and mic used (Microtech Gefell).

### Conclusion

The key to hip-hop production is a simple, repeatable formula: drums, bass, mids, and vocals. Focusing on making each element strong, understanding music theory, and applying the techniques are essential for creating professional-sounding tracks.

## Transcript

all right we're rocking and we're
rolling if you're wanting if you're
wanting to produce music like Kendrick
Lamar Jack harlo Lil NS X Drake Kanye
West or Tyler the Creator then you are
in the right place my friend I'm going
to show you exactly how to produce a
hip-hop song it's going to be super
simple for you to follow along because
they basically all use the same formula
I'm a professional I've toured the world
as a musician as a DJ got over 100
million streams on Spotify and I am
qualified to teach you so all that to
say buckle up and trust me you're not
going to want to skip this because this
is the foundation this is the building
block for you to be able to produce any
style of hip-hop music that you want and
it's going to be so sick okay once you
got able to open if you remember our
formula the first thing we need to do is
add some drums also some of you guys
with your Keen Eye you may have noticed
I'm in a new studio maybe I'll give you
guys a little tour at the end of the
video but it's kind of in the process of
being built out right now so I might
wait a couple videos to give you guys
the tour but it is so sick it's
definitely an upgrade first thing I want
to do is I want to build out a drum
pattern so I'm going to set the BPM up
here to the left in Ableton till like
150 that's a good Tempo and all I did
was just go to drums and click on Kick
and filters and go down to kick bricks
which I think is the best for hipop in
terms of Ableton samples also I'm going
to do my best to use all Ableton sounds
so that way you guys can follow along so
let's get a click
going D do now I hear the pattern in my
head and to bring it to life I can click
on the sample and press command C to
copy it and then click and press command
V to paste it so here's the pattern I'm
hearing for the
[Music]
kick and I'm just going to keep it
simple and I'm going to duplicate this
out a couple times and let's press
command t and make a brand new track now
I'm going to click on clap in filters
find a good
clap o 808 is pretty hard to beat let's
drag the 808 clap in here now we got our
drum
[Music]
beat okay so that's sounding decent I
kind of want to spice these drums up
just a little bit so what I'm going to
do is shorten this clap just like this
just holding command to get really
precise with the shortening and then
using the
Fades I want to be shorter and then I
also want to let's say add a little bit
of saturator on it maybe make it a bit
warmer
and we'll bring it way down cuz it's
super
loud and then you know we can use Redux
if we want we can try some
dust it's just a way to make it kind of
cool this is without those plugins this
is with them sounds like it's basically
just making them louder which it kind of
is then I want to add a little pattern
with a clap so it's
[Music]
like ah great so I want that to happen
every four bars sick so we got a little
drum pattern going if you're struggling
coming up with your drum pattern I would
just drag in a reference track and try
and copy the drums from that reference
track to do that all you do is just drag
in a song Maybe from iTunes find the BPM
on Google and then you want to click
warp and you want to change the BPM here
to the BPM of the song and that's going
to tell Ableton what the BPM of the song
is and then it will be lined up to the
grid and you can turn it off and you can
solo it and listen to it now I'm not
going to listen to the song cuz I don't
want a copyright strike but that's how
you drag in a song and you line it up
with a grid and then you can copy the
drums for that if you want okay let's go
ahead and get some high hats going
usually for drums you have kick then you
have clap or snare and then you have
high hats so for high hats I'm going to
do midi drums and all that means is I'm
basically going to make a piano roll and
play drums on the piano so to do that we
press command shift T that's going to
make a new midi track I'm going to go
ahead and highlight a new section on
that midi track and press command shift
M and then let's go ahead and go to
instruments and let's drag simpler right
onto that track now we need to drag a
high hat sound onto simpler so let's go
to Drums let's select high hat and I
think I'm going to go with probably 808
I'm going to search for 808
oh this classic closed data way is great
so if we click on the record icon right
here to the right and arm the track and
then we click on this little piano thing
right up here to the right we can use
our computer
keyboard as a media
keyboard it's kind of challenging and if
you have a midi keyboard you can
actually use a midi keyboard as well so
if you want you can click record up here
at the top and try and play in a
[Music]
pattern or you can just highlight a
section like I did before press command
shift M and then you can draw in your p
pattern here on the piano roll if you
want to be able to hear the notes as you
click them just click this little
headphone icon right here you can also
change the pitch which is sick let's try
that I'm just pressing command D to
duplicate these
[Music]
notes and at the end of this I want it
to go da da da da da da so it's like
[Music]
this and then here I want it to go let
me show you what I
mean yeah
[Music]
yeah sick and I want to kind of mix up
the pattern a little bit
[Music]
too sick all right last but not least a
lot of hip-hop beats kind of have some
sort of Rim shot or percussion element
or even like a laser type sound let's
see does this even have lasers that's
lazy maybe like a blip let's look under
percussion
[Music]
all right let's go ahead and save our
session before we forget and lose
everything on accident once you've saved
it go ahead and hit file collect all and
save and hit okay make sure all those
are yellow and now everything's saved on
one project folder so we can send that
to other computers share it with friends
all that kind of stuff what's also nice
about simpler is we can adjust the
length of this too the length of the
high hat
[Music]
okay so we have our drums now what's
next if you remember from our formula
base so there are two ways that we can
do 808s one is we can just drag in
samples I have 808s from my sample pack
for complete producer Pro which is my
paid
course so that's just the drag and drop
method just like we did with the
drums and that's cool you know we can
create different patterns with with that
as well just by pitching it up in
Ableton do something like this 1 2 3 4 5
6 7 maybe a pattern
[Music]
like but another way to do that is we
can either use simpler again and do
exactly what we did with the high hats
so we just press command shift T to make
a new midi track we drag simpler onto it
and then we drag an 808 onto simpler and
then we can use our our piano roll to
draw in notes or we can literally just
go to Ableton and go to instrument and
click base and just look through all
these different
instruments obviously you want to find
something that sounds like an 808 I'm
not sure if you guys have this base or
not but it sounds pretty
sick that one sounds pretty hard
too okay I'm going to try going with
this base but if you're having trouble
finding 808s just Google free 808 sample
pack or free subbase sample pack there's
tons of free stuff out there no excuses
that's what I had to do back in the day
and it worked fine and there's more
resources now than there have ever been
and another thing that's really going to
help us with this 808 is music theory so
just make sure you know the key of your
808s so for example in my sample pack
this Astro 808 right here if I drag it
onto a new track you can see it says e m
and that means it's an E minor so
basically we want to build out the mids
for the song in the key of the 808 which
is going to be E minor I'm going to go
ahead and draw in a pattern with our 808
sound here on the piano roll and if you
don't know music theory which you should
it's going to change the game for you
especially for all music production but
especially in hip-hop like you just need
to know music theory in order for your
song to sound professional and all the
elements to be cohesive I have a video
on it if you want to check it out it's
right up here just go ahead and click
that and then you can come right back to
this video and join us for our
[Music]
808s you know that's that 808 sound is
fine but I think I actually want to try
bbas which I know that Ableton has so
you guys can just copy this if you
want I'm going to adjust the Decay here
to get the length
right I'm going to go ahead and turn our
whole song down a little bit clicking on
the top track scrolling down holding
shift and clicking on our last track and
then just using these Fades right here
to the right the
[Music]
faders sweet so now we come to sort of
the song part of hip-hop music this is
when we get to mids now mids there's
just such a big range of mids that we
can use as far as instruments go in
Ableton most of the instruments I
believe are mid sounds and we can go
through any of these sounds that we want
we could even go to Strings we can click
on lead and once we find a sound that we
like we can just drag it onto a midi
track and then we can start chipping
away at some chords and a
melody and once you have a melody and a
progression that you like like
[Music]
this I really like the sound of those
notes notes I just don't really like the
sound itself but once you have that in
Ableton it's super easy to audition
different sounds so you can just click
on this little hot swap button right
here and audition different
sounds some of them are insane
[Music]
obviously that's kind of hot
[Music]
and then I want to add one other sound
with this maybe playing some chords so
because I know music theory which you
should watch the video if you don't to
find some kind of uh I want to say piano
and
keys let's try that something it's
[Music]
like dude there's so much latency on
this okay so now we have some cool
chords
[Music]
now if we wanted this to sound a bit
more like Jack harlo or Lil NX or
something we could just use brass and we
could Branch out of Ableton plugins and
we could go for something third party
what about play this might just crash
let's see oh my gosh it actually worked
pop brass
[Music]
they would probably do something like
this I just used play East West which is
like some good brass
[Music]
sounds and we can also add something
like these strings right
here
[Music]
gorgeous and what we do with mids for
hip-hop is what I like to do at least I
like to create almost like a separate
song this is like its own kind of
song and then I like to group all those
tracks together by clicking on one and
holding shift and clicking on the last
and pressing command G and then we can
mess with this whole kind of group and
we can go to audio effects go to
something like eq8 and we could put like
e base vintage on it and play with
[Music]
[Applause]
these we can even put stuff like Redux
on it vintage sampler kind of play with
that
[Applause]
[Music]
and then another thing we can do is we
can put Ott on this sample to really
make it huge so got to multiband
Dynamics drag Ott onto it and we'll drag
these guys down and drag these guys
[Music]
up and I'm loving the sound of these
strings like they're beautiful but the
problem is that they're just taking up a
bit too much space so I think what we're
going to have to do is have them play a
little pattern like this instead
and we could probably find something a
bit more
Plucky it's kind of
insane that's sick
yes big yes just going to EQ this a
little
bit I'm going to put some chorus on this
trumpet
lead not too much
but I just want it to be a little bit
wider in the mix and if you're watching
this and you're like H you know he's
using all these sounds I don't have all
these plugins like it doesn't matter
just use Ableton plugins there's a ton
of amazing sounds in Ableton if you're
willing to dig and if you're willing to
tweak some stuff I guarantee you can
come up with something
awesome now I want the 808 to be a
little bit
longer and you know there's one more
little thing I want to do with this 808
is I want to side chain it with a kick
now you may be a little confused on side
chaining but all it is is you just drag
a compressor on and you click side chain
click e Q so it's gray ratio all the way
up attack all the way down click on this
bent line bring the threshold down and
then we route it to the kick and you're
like great what was all that about now
what this does is now when our 808 is
playing and our kick is playing when the
kick hits it's going to make the 808
duck in volume so let me make it really
extreme and I'll solo the 808 so you can
hear
it you can hear the 808 tucking
volume that's because when the kick is
playing it's causing the 808 to duck in
volume the reason that we do this is cuz
if we don't when that kick and that base
are playing at the same time it's going
to cause clipping and Distortion and
it's just a mess in terms of sound
design so we just want to play this
threshold and we can solo the kick as
well by holding command and pressing
solo just making sure that those can
live together in the same space really
well
[Music]
yeah now we can also add one more little
element one more little mid-range thing
[Music]
so like
this and we'll have it pretty quiet in
the
[Music]
background and the reason I'm doing that
is cuz I want there to be a section kind
of before the chorus comes in where
there's no 808 maybe there's no drums
either and it's just like a clap
going something like this so that way we
can have it come in when the drums come
in and it could just be like a clap like
this
and then everything comes
[Music]
in okay so what I'm going to do now is
I'm going to take some time I'm going to
try to write a hip-hop song over this
I'm going to try to come up with one
verse and one chorus and then I'll show
you guys what I did and we'll kind of
wrap it all up it's going to sound super
sick and if you're following along right
now and you're making your own be just
make sure that you have drums make sure
that you have base and make sure that
you have mids and then you should be
pretty good in terms of having a beat
and if you want to structure your beat
out you just drag another their song in
and copy their song structure but I'm
going to go ahead and write something
over this and we'll be right back real
quick if you're enjoying this at all you
feel like you're learning something I
would really love if you would consider
subscribing and giving me the chance to
help you make the best music that you're
capable of that's what I'm here to do
and so yeah it's free for you and I'd
really appreciate it let's get back to
the video all right we are back I have
officially written a song to this it's
pretty sick actually I think some of you
guys might find it pretty hot I think
it's pretty hot let me show you real
quick what I did in terms of production
I did a little mixing as well but I just
added some mids
like some lower
horns and
this that's all them together and
then and if you don't have a horn sound
just look up horn samples you can find a
horn sample like a one shot drag it into
simpler like I showed you or just use
other sounds from Ableton it's no big
deal and other than that I just added
some vocals and I'm tentatively calling
the song Safari just for fun the lyrics
are kind of silly so without further Ado
I give you my hit hipop song tentatively
titled
Safari yeah tell them what it
is complete producer
Pro
yeah I'm just looking for
somebody to chop it up with me like
karate like karate I only tell them if
you really want me or we can keep it
private like Safari Safari Saar go I
said it once and I'll say it again and I
got enemies saying they are friend just
out the way they stay out the way unless
you got something they trying to get 10
years in I finally see through that b
shooting this comedy how these wab bees
want to be like me without working it
without working it yeah I know what I'm
doing just trust me there's no need to
rush things I can get rough like rug be
but let's take it slow cuz I'm Rusty
when you're talk it out I got just a
thing is called emphasis on recovery so
just hug me and don't bug me I'm just
looking for
some to chop it up with me like karate
like karate I only tell them if you
really
me we can keep it private like Safari
like Safari yeah like
Safari kind of sick right it's kind of
like Jack Carlo Lil nosx kind of that
territory if you want to sound more like
Kendrick do the same thing for drums
like get a sick beat going and then
instead of doing these mids just pull
another song into Ableton and just
sample it so like pull a song in double
click on the file on the song and then
pitch it up or pitch it down using this
where it says pitch right here and en
Ableton you can double click and create
warp markers and stretch it out and do
all this kind of stuff to sample
something but that's for another video
this is if you want to create your own
fully original hip-hop song vocal
processing I have a whole video on how
to process vocals using Ableton plugins
and third party plugins so if you just
want to use Ableton plugins or you want
to see my vocal chain go ahead and click
up here and you can see that video so if
you want to see my vocal chain you know
where to find it but structurally I just
had a lead vocal and just looking for
somebody and then I did a double so I
recorded the main vocal again two more
times and pan those left and right and
this is those I'm just looking for some
so that's super wide in the mix like in
your ears this is them together I'm just
looking for some and then I added some
harmonies which is
this which sounds so silly on its own
but this is all of it
together to chop it up with me like
a I only tell them if you really want me
or we can keep it private like Safari
and then I got the rap vocal here yeah I
said it once and I'll say it again again
I got enemies saying they are friend
just s the way they stay out the way
unless you got something they trying to
get pretty hot same vocal processing
that I talk about in that video I
believe and the mic I'm using cuz I know
there's going to be people who ask is
Microtech gell this is what it looks
like gmbh can't remember which one it is
but you saw what it looks like and it's
great and it obviously sounds freaking
sick so yeah with all this stuff the
biggest thing is just going to be
following that structure as long as you
can check those things off the list I
got drums I got bass I got mids I got
vocals then you're going to be good to
go I didn't talk about effects you can
definitely add
effects so you can add like a riser like
this sound right
here and just in context it sounds like
this I'm just
looking and you could even add the
[Music]
after and you know there's room to add
effects that's kind of the usual
production formula but really if you
just stick to those first four and
really focus on making each one of those
as good as you possibly can then I think
you'll be well on your way to making
awesome hip-hop music and so much of it
is about the song guys like so much of
it is about the lyrics the delivery
making sure the hook is memorable and
catchy you know there's tons of hip-hop
songs without singing hooks they're like
wrapped so if you're somebody who can't
sing or you struggle with singing on key
but you can rap like don't let that stop
you all that to say you're never going
to improve or make great music unless
you actually apply what I teach so go
ahead and open up Ableton take some time
try try to make a hip-hop beat you can
make a beat in like 10 minutes so at
least try to make a beat and you can
watch some more videos and learn some
more some of you guys love just chilling
on Youtube Learning a few things going
about your day there's going to be a few
of you guys who want to go above and
beyond and you really want to learn step
by step how to make professional music
how to produce like a pro and for you
guys I have a course called complete
producer Pro and that teaches you guys
how to write and produce professional
music all the way from the ground up
beginning to end it's very comprehensive
and it also comes with my new course on
EDM production so complete producer Pro
is all music with an emphasis kind of on
Pop music and then I have a course on
dance music there's also a mini course
on drill style beats within complete
producer Pro it's just a ton of
information and I think for a few of you
guys it's going to be an absolute Game
Changer so if you want to learn more
about the course just go to the link in
the description of the video and you can
check it out down there so all that to
say might I remind you to stop making
excuses and start making music
cheers also if you have any comments or
questions try to read the comments when
I can and respond so go ahead and
comment any questions or anything down
below CIA Bella