---
title: 'MAKING A SOULFUL HIPHOP BEAT FOR RICK ROSS, J COLE, JAY Z (Soulful Beat Tutorial - FL Studio)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=cnUmBfJgsvs'
video_id: 'cnUmBfJgsvs'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 959
---

# MAKING A SOULFUL HIPHOP BEAT FOR RICK ROSS, J COLE, JAY Z (Soulful Beat Tutorial - FL Studio)

> Source: [MAKING A SOULFUL HIPHOP BEAT FOR RICK ROSS, J COLE, JAY Z (Soulful Beat Tutorial - FL Studio)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=cnUmBfJgsvs)

## Summary

This video is a tutorial on creating a soulful hip-hop beat from scratch, targeting artists like J. Cole, Rick Ross, and Jay-Z. The producer walks through the entire process, from setting the tempo and choosing chords to adding instruments, vocals, and drums. The final beat is played and explained, highlighting key production techniques.

### Key Points

- **Setting the Foundation** [0:25] — Set BPM to 80-82, start with a piano in a minor scale (G minor), and use thick seventh chords for an emotional feel.
- **Humanizing the Piano** [2:16] — Randomize velocity and strum patterns to make the performance sound human and organic.
- **Adding Melody and Layers** [2:48] — Add a counter melody on keyboard, then layer a saxophone and strings for depth.
- **Incorporating Vocals** [5:14] — Use vocal samples from Splice, fit to tempo and key, and apply reverb and delay for texture.
- **Drum Programming** [7:21] — Start with a hi-hat loop for realistic drums, then add kick, snare, and ride with velocity variations.
- **Adding Bass** [11:16] — Add a live bass guitar (Scarbee Rickenbacker Bass) and adjust notes to complement the chords.
- **Final Mix and Arrangement** [12:33] — Use a low-pass filter for the intro and before the hook, and a reversed crash as a riser.

## Transcript

yo what's good people it's jay cactus
and in today's video i'm gonna be making
a soulful hip-hop beat from scratch so
it's gonna be for someone like j cole
rick ross maybe jay-z we'll see when we
start cooking up i've seen a lot of
people commenting asking for something
other than drill so yeah we're
completely flipping the vibe today if
you like this style of video then
definitely let me know in the comments
and if you want new videos every tuesday
and thursday at 6 00 pm then think about
subscribing to the channel let's get
straight into it
alright so whenever i'm making soulful
beats the first thing i like to do is
set the bpm to around about 80 maybe
somewhere like 82 and then i like to
start off with a piano so something like
addictive keys the grand wire and
contact just any piano that sounds good
and i really just start with chords but
i want the chords to be quite thick and
emotional so i go for big chords like
seventh chords and i usually pick a
minor scale so i think i've got g minor
highlighted right now
so just because we've got g minor
highlighted doesn't mean that we have to
start with a g minor chord start with
something like a c minor
maybe invert the d sharp
so i could have
this chord play for like two bars
and then come down to the root note see
how this sounds
but i'll do the same type of inversion
so that sounded nice
and then from here because i wanted to
sound kind of emotional i wanted to go
lower and lower so from g we could go
to maybe d-sharp
and i'm just repeating that same process
see i'm feeling the way that sounds
and then let's try go down again
[Music]
[Music]
fill in the way that sounds too then i
need something here to take me back to
the first one and just try a different
quad
let's try this one
[Music]
that one might work actually from here i
just want to thicken them up by grabbing
the base notes can just copy them with
shift and click and then bring them down
active
[Music]
i want to make this as human as possible
so i'm going to randomize the velocity
bring it down a bit
and i'm also going to strum them but i
don't want every chord to be strum the
exact same way because again that's not
going to be human so what i like to do
is have these chords just strummed a
little bit
somewhere like there and then these can
be a little bit longer
[Music]
there we go
all right so i've got the cards that i
like the next step is to think of
account melody and usually i just play
this on repeat and then think of
something on my keyboard so i'm going to
record something in
[Music]
okay and i'm just adding this plate
reverb i've got it on a modern setting
and i just cut out some of the lows
and adjusted the wet and dry signal
then i'm just adding some delay got it
set to four
ping pong mode but i'm just bringing the
feedback
and input down
just so it's really so
and then after the keys i think a sax
would sound perfect in this so i'm gonna
pull up a saxophone contact
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
so it didn't sound amazing then
but when i increase this
sounds crazy
i just need to figure out how it's going
to work with the counter melody
of the piano all right and another layer
i want to add is just some strings so
i'm going to use session strings too i'm
going to copy the cards from the piano
and i'm not going to strum these i'm
just going to quantize them
okay so this is what the strings are
sounding like
just adding a ton of emotion
and then i think at the end here just at
the end of the phrase i could add a
couple notes
maybe just to build it up so even
something like this
there we go
all right the strings are sounding sick
the next thing that i want to add is
just some vocals and i found these in
splice
i'm just going to fit them to the tempo
we already have the bpm which is 90 and
already in the same key so i won't need
to do much with them but i might just
want to chop it and change it around a
bit
[Music]
these two sounds sick
so i'm not going to change this
[Music]
all right i'm gonna need to filter this
out
i'm just bringing the format up as well
just to get it sounding a bit different
and then just the same reverb as before
just to really wash it out
also in the reverb i've just increased
the decay time
blending in nice now and then in this
section instead of having that there i'm
just going to add a delay so i could set
it to a i could bring the volume down
set it to ping pong just increase the
panning and then i'll automate it i'm
only have it on for this one section
yeah there we go
and i'm also going to make this one
unique and i'll reverse it and see if i
can find something to end it
so try each of these
yeah maybe this one actually
all right and that's almost it for the
instruments i just want to find a few
textures to sit underneath everything so
i'm going to use arcade for this
like this one that might sound sick and
then this one as well this one might
work
[Applause]
[Music]
all right cool i think that's gonna be
it for the instruments i just need to
start adding in their drums and with
these type of beats i like to start with
a hi-hat loop sometimes just to get that
realistic drum feel so i could take
something like this i'll just fit it to
the tempo and then i can just chop it
and rearrange it a bit
it sounds sick but i don't want so many
open hats
[Applause]
so even something like this
[Music]
[Applause]
and then maybe cut this open hat out
here pop these over
[Music]
cut that
[Music]
this might work better
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
up in the snow plant just needs to be
like that
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
all right cool and then for the kick i
think i'm just gonna use the gold one it
just works in like every beat i could
use a real drum like an old vinyl boom
back one but i think this one's gonna
work all right
[Music]
so with the kicks as well you can see
that i'm bringing some of them slightly
off beat again just to get that
realistic bounce all right let's grab a
ride something like this we can just
boost that up a bit and for the rides i
like to have them on every four beat but
then i can play with the velocity and
bring some slightly upgraded so you'll
see what i mean
[Music]
so something like that and then these
can come off
[Music]
there we go
[Music]
all right a lot of crash in there as
well and this one to the right a bit
and then at the end i'm just going to
lay the kicks with the crash maybe the
snare as well
i need to bring some of these slightly
off
and then just adjust the velocity
[Music]
all right and the only thing i think it
needs now is a base i don't usually
leave it this late to add a base but
yeah i'm failing to add a live bass
guitar and i'm going to use my favorite
one in contact and that one is the
scarby rick and baka base it's just a
sick live bass guitar
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
okay so i've changed a few notes in the
pattern
keeping the velocity natural too
and then brought some notes up and up
here
like here
[Music]
all right cool so i think that's gonna
be it for the drums i'm just gonna
finish mixing it i'll arrange everything
and then show you the final outcome all
right so i finished mixing and arranging
the beat and i haven't really added
anything other than this app on the drop
and then for the riser i just took the
crash and reversed it the only other
thing that i did was use love filter to
add a low pass filter and that's just
for the intro and just before the hook
so yeah i'll just play it from the
beginning
[Music]
okay so for the intro i took the eq off
just so you can hear the bass of the
piano
[Music]
obviously i did some of the vocals in
and then yeah we've just got
the low pass filter gradually coming up
you can see what it's doing here
it's just a cut off
so for the hot
pretty much got everything played
[Music]
and that was the app i did
[Music]
so yeah this just plays once through and
then straight to the verse
[Music]
so yeah for the verse i felt like the
piano chords were enough
because it's such an emotional track i
feel like
an eyes can just be heard easily here
and then here's where i found space for
the sucks
just to switch things off
i felt like if the sax was in the in the
hook with too much
and then we've got love builder coming
in action again
[Music]
yeah i think this one turned out crazy
you know
really soulful emotional
[Music]
and then yeah just copy that over so i
hope you like the video and i hope
you're feeling the beat and just to
update everyone on the instrumental
album i've just got one more collab beat
that i'm working on as soon as that's
ready i'm going to release everything on
all streaming platforms i'm also
thinking about doing a separate album
just for beats like this so soulful
boombap kind of vibes if you think
that's a good idea then let me know in
the comments but yo i appreciate you for
watching the video once again much love
and i'll see you next time
[Music]
you