RockBlocks

Drag rhythmic values into up to 4 beat blocks per line to build a drum groove, or click a tile then click a block to place it — handy on a trackpad.

🎵 Afrobeat & Afrobeats — Nigeria and Ghana — mess around all you want, nothing here saves
110 BPM
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Bass
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4/4

Afrobeat & Afrobeats drum beats — Nigeria and Ghana

Afrobeat was created in Lagos, Nigeria, in the late 1960s and '70s by Fela Kuti and drummer Tony Allen: long, hypnotic grooves where the kick, snare and hi-hat each play their own interlocking part over a steady pulse.

Afrobeats (with an s) is the newer pop sound of Nigeria and Ghana that went global in the 2010s, mid-tempo with a skipping 3-3-2 feel. Highlife is the older guitar dance music of Ghana, built over a 12/8 bell pattern, and amapiano is a 2010s South African house style with a log-drum bass and a swung shaker.

The beats

  1. Slot A — Afrobeat · 4/4 · around 110 BPM
  2. Slot B — Afrobeats · 4/4 · around 104 BPM
  3. Slot C — Highlife (12/8 bell) · 4/4 · around 120 BPM
  4. Slot D — Amapiano · 4/4 · around 112 BPM

Want to play along, or build a song from these? Open them in Drum Loops → Each beat becomes a loop you can edit, with fills, a count-in and a song.