What is drill music and where did it come from?
Drill music is a strangely complicated subgenre of hip-hop that has gained considerable traction since its inception, but much of its evolution occurred outside the city where it was born.
Although drill music is popular, there is no doubt that since the early 2010s, the Atlanta trap sound has dominated hip-hop and is now the de facto sound of rap. The subgenre was popularised by acts such as Jeezy, Gucci Mane, Future, Waka Flocka Flame, and The Migos in the mainstream. However, these artists were simply bringing the sound to a broader audience as it was already highly popular across the South.
As trap continued to boom in the 2010s, a slightly darker, less mainstream variety of trap was being born in Chicago — drill. In the early 2010s, when trap exploded, Chicago was considered the most dangerous city in the US, becoming known as “Chiraq” due to its violent gang wars and high homicide rate.
Drill derived from trap music but had some noticeable differences in how it was performed, what was being said, and its production. Although this is not always the case today, drill music was distinct from trap in several ways.
Not only were the beats noticeably more haunting with their simple loops and distorted 808s, but the lyrics were almost always related to gang activity in the Southside of Chicago. Furthermore, the delivery of drill was noticeably more monotone and ominous than trap.
When the subgenre first began to emerge, Young Chop was the most notable drill producer, producing many of Chief Keef’s drill hits. Most drill instrumentals were made at around 60 to 70 beats per minute. However, this style began to change when the sound left the city. However, between 2012 and 2014, it was the main sound of Chicago.
Young Chop’s signature industrial snare sound remained. Still, unlike the first wave of Chicago drill that emerged in 2011, when the sound travelled to the UK, British producers didn’t have a variation of hi-hat patterns.
Instead, when drill began to take off in the UK around 2013, beatmakers gravitated to one particular pattern. The pattern can be heard in the first-wave 2012 Chicago drill track ‘Kill Shit’ by G Herbo and Lil Bibby.
This DJ L-produced hi-hat pattern on ‘Kill Shit’ is what started the trend and UK producers such as 808Melo, AXL Beats and Gotcha have all stuck to this pattern. Furthermore, UK producers introduced a style that has now become the default in drill music worldwide: the sliding 808. Although there’s a long story of why UK producers decided to add a sliding bass, it has since become a feature of modern-day drill music.
Aside from the change in the hi-hat pattern and the introduction of a sliding 808, the overall tempo got faster too, due to the standard tempo of UK rap being 140 beats per minute. These factors caused the UK style of drill to diverge from the Chicago style to such an extent that it became a new subgenre.
However, in 2019, the late Brooklyn legend Pop Smoke used an 808 Melo beat from YouTube for his track ‘Dior’ and later worked with Melo for ‘Welcome To The Party’. These beats, with all the signature UK sounds, became hits in the US, and since then, drill has continued to grow and prosper in this format. It is undoubtedly popular in New York, where the phrase “Brooklyn Drill” has emerged due to rappers such as 22GZ and the Blixkys.
What is drill music and where did it come from?
Drill music is a subgenre of hip-hop that arose from Chicago in the early 2010s. It is characterised by its dark, ominous instruments, its distorted sliding 808s, its staccato, skippy hi-hats and the monotone vocal delivery used by its rappers. It has evolved multiple times but is most commonly heard in Chicago, London and New York.
Some of the most notable artists in its journey include Chief Keef, G Herbo, Russ Millions, Digga D, Pop Smoke, 22GZ and Sheff G.