What is drill music? Drill is a dark, menacing style of rap built on sparse trap-influenced production, booming 808 sub-bass, rapid hi-hats and cold, minor-key melodies, usually paired with blunt, first-person lyrics about street life. It began in Chicago in the early 2010s, then mutated into distinct regional sounds in London and New York. This guide covers where it came from, how fast it runs, what makes a drill beat recognisable, and the artists who defined each era.
Below we keep the history honest and the theory correct, so you can hear the difference between Chicago, UK and Brooklyn drill instead of guessing.
Where drill music came from
Drill was born on the South Side of Chicago around 2010 to 2012. The word “drill” is local street slang — loosely, to retaliate or to do something with relentless intensity — and Chicago rapper King Louie is often credited with pushing the term into wider use. The sound crystallised around a teenage Chief Keef, whose 2012 single “I Don’t Like,” produced by Young Chop, became the genre’s breakout moment after Kanye West remixed it and pulled the scene into the mainstream.
The early Chicago blueprint was raw and nihilistic: gloomy synth and piano lines, thunderous 808 drums, and deadpan, threatening delivery. Alongside Chief Keef, the first wave included Lil Durk, Lil Reese, Fredo Santana, King Louie, G Herbo (then Lil Herb) and Katie Got Bandz, with Young Chop and DJ L among the defining producers. This original strain is now usually called Chicago drill or “bop”-adjacent street rap, and it set the emotional tone every later branch inherited.
How drill spread: UK drill and Brooklyn drill
Drill did not stay in Chicago. By the mid-2010s, producers and rappers in South London had taken the Chicago template and rebuilt it around their own tastes, heavily influenced by the UK’s existing grime and road-rap scenes. UK drill, pioneered by collectives such as 67 and 150 out of areas like Brixton, developed a signature that Chicago drill did not have: the sliding 808 — a bass note that glides between pitches — plus skippy, syncopated drum patterns and an even darker, sparser mood. Producers like Carns Hill, M1OnTheBeat and AXL Beats shaped this sound, and rappers including Headie One, Digga D and Unknown T carried it. A later, more melodic offshoot runs through Central Cee.
Then the UK sound bounced back across the Atlantic. Around 2018 to 2019, Brooklyn rappers began rapping over beats made by UK producers, most famously the late Pop Smoke, whose “Welcome to the Party” and “Dior” were produced by UK beatmakers 808Melo and AXL Beats. This is Brooklyn drill: UK-style sliding 808s and drum patterns, topped with a distinctly New York cadence. Sheff G and Sleepy Hallow are often cited as early Brooklyn drill figures, with Fivio Foreign becoming one of its biggest names. So the lineage runs Chicago → London → Brooklyn, each city keeping the dark core while changing the drums and bass.
What is drill music built on: tempo, 808s and dark keys
Strip away the region and three ingredients define the sound. Learn to hear these and you can identify drill in seconds.
- Tempo. Most drill is produced around 138 to 145 BPM but written in a half-time feel, so the snare lands every two beats and the track feels like a slow, heavy 70 BPM. Early Chicago tracks were often notated slower, around 60 to 75 BPM, which is the same groove counted the other way.
- The 808. A deep, distorted 808 sub-bass carries both the low end and, in UK and Brooklyn drill, the melody — sliding between notes rather than staying on one pitch. That gliding, pitched bass is the single most recognisable trait of modern drill.
- The harmony. Drill lives almost entirely in minor keys. Producers lean on the natural minor scale for a cold, hopeless feel, and often reach for the harmonic minor (a natural minor with a raised seventh) or the Phrygian mode (a minor scale with a lowered second) when they want extra menace and tension.
If those scale names are new to you, our guides to what a scale is, major versus minor keys and musical modes explain exactly why minor and Phrygian sound so dark. You can also hear it for yourself on our free virtual piano: play A, B, C, D, E, F, G (A natural minor), then flatten the B to B♭ for A Phrygian, and you will hear the beat turn instantly more sinister.
The drums and 808 slides that define the sound
Drill’s rhythm is where the regional accents show up most clearly. The kit is standard trap — kick, snare or clap, hi-hats, 808 — but the placement is specific.
The hi-hats run in fast rolls and triplets, skittering across the bar with sudden bursts of double- and triple-time. The snare or clap sits in a half-time position, hitting on beat three of every four, which is what gives drill its dragging, heavy swing. What separates UK and Brooklyn drill from the Chicago original is the drum syncopation: the kicks and snares fall in an off-kilter, “skipping” pattern rather than a straight grid, and the 808 slides follow the vocal rhythm, dipping and rising in pitch. Chicago drill, by contrast, tends to keep the 808 on steadier, punchier root notes.
Melodically, drill beats are minimal — often just one or two elements. A common recipe is a lone bell, plucked-string, flute or dark piano loop playing a short minor or Phrygian phrase, plus ominous sustained strings underneath. There is deliberately a lot of empty space so the 808 and the vocal can dominate. If you want to reverse-engineer a loop from a track you like, our chord detector will name the chords for you, and the scale and chord finder will show which scale they belong to.
Notable drill artists and subgenres to know
Because drill spread city by city, the easiest way to map it is by region:
- Chicago drill: Chief Keef, Lil Durk, G Herbo, Fredo Santana, King Louie, Lil Reese; producers Young Chop and DJ L. The raw original.
- UK drill: 67, Headie One, Digga D, Unknown T, and the more melodic Central Cee; producers Carns Hill, M1OnTheBeat and AXL Beats. Home of the sliding 808 and skippy drums.
- Brooklyn drill: Pop Smoke, Fivio Foreign, Sheff G, Sleepy Hallow, built on UK-made beats from 808Melo and AXL Beats. The sound that took drill fully mainstream in the US.
Beyond these three hubs, drill scenes have grown in the Bronx, Detroit (which blends it with its own uptempo, comedic street-rap style), Ireland, Australia, Ghana (asakaa) and France, each adding a local accent to the same dark, 808-driven core. It has become one of the most globally influential rap styles of the last decade.
Making your own drill beat
Getting started is simpler than the finished tracks make it sound. Set your DAW to about 140 BPM. Program a half-time snare or clap on beat three, add a kick pattern with a few syncopated, off-grid hits, and layer fast hi-hat rolls with the occasional triplet burst. Pick a minor key, write a short, cold melody using the natural minor or Phrygian scale, and then bounce your 808 between the root and a couple of other scale notes so it slides — that glide is the drill signature.
If you want to sketch a full arrangement quickly before you commit, Solmi can generate a starting track in a dark, drill-adjacent style that you can then pull into your DAW and rework — a fast way to test a melody or mood. From there, the real craft is in the 808 slides, the drum swing and the space you leave around the vocal.
Want the theory that underpins all of this? Browse the rest of our music theory and songwriting guides, and if you are new to the vocabulary, our glossary of music terms explains the words producers throw around.
Frequently asked questions
What tempo is drill music?
Drill is usually produced around 138 to 145 BPM but written in a half-time feel, so it sounds and moves like a heavy 70 BPM track. Early Chicago drill was often counted the slower way, roughly 60 to 75 BPM. Both describe the same dragging, weighty groove — it depends only on where you place the snare when you count.
What is the difference between drill and trap?
Trap and drill share the same drum kit — booming 808s, fast hi-hats and half-time snares — but drill is darker, sparser and more menacing, with cold minor and Phrygian melodies and, in UK and Brooklyn drill, sliding pitched 808s that carry the tune. Trap tends to be brighter, busier and more varied in mood, where drill deliberately strips things back to tension and space.
Where did drill music originate?
Drill originated on the South Side of Chicago in the early 2010s, popularised by Chief Keef and producer Young Chop around 2012. It later evolved into UK drill in South London in the mid-2010s, which added sliding 808s and skippy drums, and then into Brooklyn drill around 2018 to 2019, led by Pop Smoke rapping over UK-produced beats.
