Updated 30 Oct 2026
Ice Spice sits at the exact crossover where Bronx drill meets Jersey club, and the production is bouncier and more melodic than hard NY drill while still keeping that gritty New York backbone. Her biggest crossover, Boy's a Liar with PinkPantheress, is pure Jersey club, while her street records lean on dark half time piano and spaced out drill 808s. The whole sound is a balancing act. The drums bounce, the melody is uplifting or eerie depending on the record, and everything leaves huge pockets of space because the point is to carry a vocal. The trick most producers miss is that you are really building two things at once, a Jersey kick pattern that skips and switches up, and a drill 808 and perc layer that stays spacious and in key. Get the bounce, the minor piano and the switch up kick sitting together and your loop stops sounding like a generic drill beat and starts sounding like something Ice Spice could actually ride. Here is how the sound is built, step by step.
You do not need a finished beat to start. The Ice Spice loops sit in step 1 and again at the bottom, ready to play.
Tempo runs fast and bouncy. Ice Spice records live at the crossover of NY and Bronx drill and Jersey club, and tutorials in this lane sit roughly between 140 and 158 BPM. The tutorial recreating her Central Cee collab landed right at 154 BPM, and straight Bronx drill beats for rappers like Sha Gz swing anywhere from 140 up to 158 while carrying the same energy. Pick a tempo in that window and let the Jersey kick do the work, because the bounce comes from the drum pattern rather than from busy hats.
The key is minor, usually with a dark half time piano. NY and Bronx drill tutorials build loops in minor keys, with F minor and D sharp minor showing up as concrete examples, while the Jersey leaning Ice Spice side reaches for brighter, melodic R&B chords instead. Whichever way you go, turn on a scale highlight or scale lock in your piano roll so every 808 note and vocal chop stays in key, and keep the loop short and repetitive so there is room for the drums to bounce and for a vocal to sit on top.
There are two flavors, so decide which record you are chasing. For the Jersey, PinkPantheress leaning sound, build bright electric piano chords in something like a DX7, and lean on R&B voicings with sevenths and ninths rather than plain triads. A useful trick from the tutorials is to not lock a scale at all and instead trust your ear, play around until a note sounds right, then build a chord on it, because that is how you land the slightly off, catchy voicings this sound is known for. Then strum the notes out and randomize the velocity so it feels played rather than typed in.
For the darker street records, start from a dark half time piano loop in a minor key and keep it simple and repetitive. Layer it the way the tutorials do, copy the melody up an octave for high end, reverse a copy for an intro or bridge, and wash parts out with flanger, phaser and reverb so a two chord idea gains movement. Vocal chops are a signature topping on both sides, so chop a vocal, pitch it up, and let it ride the hook. Keep the arrangement spacious, because the whole sound is about leaving pockets for the rapper.
The bounce lives in the kick pattern. A Jersey kick starts almost four on the floor but switches up at the end, so you might play one, two, three and then flip the last count into the signature Jersey triplet feel. A detail straight from the tutorials is to drop a kick at the end of every second bar so the pattern breathes instead of thudding all the way through. Then make the last bar of your eight unique and resolve it back to four on the floor so it transitions cleanly into the next section.
The move that glues a Jersey beat together is sidechaining the kick to your melodies. Put Kickstart 2 on the melody bus, enable the sidechain and pull the mix down to around thirty five percent so the chords duck every time the kick hits, which is what creates that pumping bounce. Lay a finger snap or clap and an 808 that follow the kick pattern, and leave the clap or rim shot out until the very last hit of the bar so the groove has tension. Keep the hats as a simple two step rather than rapid fire, because at this tempo the kick is already driving the energy.
Keep the 808 spacious and mostly on the downbeat, because these beats are built to leave room for a vocal. Drill 808 slides should be minimal and usually land at the end of the eight bars rather than running all over the pattern. To make a slide actually sound good, take the slide note that sits above your main note and shorten it to about a quarter of a bar, so it is roughly half the length of the bottom note, since a slide that drags on sounds weird and muddy. Keep every slide note strictly in key, because an out of key slide is the fastest way to ruin the loop.
Then make the body hit. Pitch the bottom notes of the slide down two octaves, crank the velocity on both the slide note and the bottom note, and you get a clean, deep glide instead of a thin squeal. On the Jersey side you can sidechain the kick to the 808 with track spacer so they do not fight for the low end, and push the 808 velocity to the max for a hard spin. For a darker record, layer the 808 with a kick that is pitched down a semitone or two, because the kick simply hits harder at some notes than others and pitching it is what makes the low end slam.
Start with a standard New York drill hat pattern and add stutters and a few extra notes for movement. The detail that makes your kicks hit harder is to make sure a hi hat plays every single time the kick hits, so copy your kick pattern into the hat roll, line them up, and add a hat wherever a kick is missing one. That keeps the low and high frequencies landing together and the drums reading crispy. Add an open hat every couple of bars for extra high end, and keep the kicks spacious with the velocity maxed and the sound pitched down about a semitone.
Perks are where the New York flavor comes through. Reach for a bongo or rim perk and a triangle, which are standard in this lane, and place each one in its own gap so nothing stacks up on the same beat. A clean trick instead of a delay plugin is an echo effect, where you repeat a perk and lower the velocity each time so it fades out on its own. Finish the eight bars with snare rolls and small drum fills right before the turnaround, because that fill is what makes the drop hit harder when the loop repeats.
The melodic core is either a dark piano loop or layered electric piano and plucks, and a lot of these beats are sample based. A tool the tutorials lean on is a stem separator like lalal.ai, which lets you pull a clean vocal or an isolated piano out of an old track so you can flip it, pitch it and chop it into a new loop. Clean the sample first, roll off the harsh highs and lows and notch out any buzzing frequencies, then reverse or half time it to get a fresh idea out of a familiar record.
The ear candy is what stamps it as Ice Spice. The squeaky Jersey bed squeak vocal is almost mandatory, so drop one in, and sprinkle a gunshot, a camera flash, a whip and a short vox around the switch ups. Use risers and impact sounds to transition between sections, and keep the FX panned and spaced so they bounce around the stereo field. None of these need to be loud, they just need to sit at the edges and make the groove feel busy without crowding the pocket where the vocal goes.
The mix is simple on purpose. On the master, a lot of these producers reach for a default soft clipper and almost nothing else, and on the Jersey side you often see two soft clippers stacked in place of the stock limiter to add loudness and grit. Do not over complicate it, because the energy is already in the pattern. Turn the piano up a touch and cut some of its lows so it does not clash with the 808, and make sure the kick and 808 own the low end between them.
Space and movement finish the job. Put the 808 in a slightly wider stereo image and give it a little separation, while keeping the kick in mono so the low end stays centered and punchy. On the hats, use a stereo widener and a pan or pancake plugin so they move across the field and feel immersive in headphones. If a dark Jersey record needs an extra drum fill, drop a GrossBeat preset on the tail of the 808 to stutter it into the drop. Mix to taste, since the goal is bouncy and gritty, not clean and polished.
Once the Jersey kick, the minor piano and the spaced out 808 sit together, the hard part of the sound is done. The part that eats the most time is that dark, in key piano or chord idea, so instead of fighting the piano roll or cleaning up a risky sample for an hour you can grab a free hand-played loop in exactly this drill and Jersey lane, drop it straight into your session, and build the bounce, the 808 and the perc layer around a progression that was actually performed.
Every loop on ndacompany.de is hand-played by real producers, free to download and never AI generated, so you can audition ideas fast and keep the ones that spark something. There is no login wall to hear them, and a free account simply lets you save your favorite loops and come back whenever inspiration hits, so your next Ice Spice type beat starts with a real idea instead of a blank arrangement.
Pick a loop and drag it into your DAW. 808 under it, clap on top, your first Ice Spice beat is running.
All Ice Spice loopsTempo, key and mood of the Ice Spice loops, straight from our catalog.
| Loop | BPM | Key | Vibe |
|---|---|---|---|
| SuperAlienWalk | 135 | F#min | Dark, Virtual |
| Impulses | 140 | Amin | Dark, Hard |
| Loaded | 155 | Amin | Dark, Hard |
| On Cam | 140 | Cmin | Dark, Goofy, Virtual, Hard |
| Spin it | 160 | Bmin | Dark, Hard, Virtual |
Ice Spice beats fuse NY and Bronx drill with Jersey club and usually sit between 140 and 158 BPM. The tutorial recreating her Central Cee collab landed at 154 BPM, and Bronx drill beats for rappers like Sha Gz swing from 140 to 158 with the same energy. The bounce comes from the Jersey kick, so the hats can stay simple.
Minor, usually with a dark half time piano. NY and Bronx drill tutorials build loops in minor keys, with F minor and D sharp minor as concrete examples, while the Jersey leaning side uses brighter R&B chords with sevenths and ninths. Use a scale lock so the 808 and chops stay in key and keep the loop short.
It lives in the kick. A Jersey kick runs almost four on the floor then switches up at the end, with a kick dropped at the end of every second bar to let it breathe. Then sidechain the kick to your melodies with Kickstart 2 at around thirty five percent so the chords pump every time the kick hits.
Keep slides minimal and mostly at the end of the eight bars. Shorten the upper slide note to about a quarter of a bar, keep it strictly in key, then pitch the bottom notes down two octaves and crank the velocity on both so the glide is deep and clean instead of a thin squeal.
A bouncy Jersey kick with a switch up, a finger snap or clap, and a drill 808, plus NY drill hats with stutters and an open hat every couple of bars. Add perks like a bongo rim and a triangle, each in its own gap, and finish the eight bars with snare rolls and a small drum fill.
You can download free hand-played loops in this drill and Jersey lane on ndacompany.de and build your beat around them. The loops are never AI generated, there is no login to listen, and a free account just lets you save your favorites and return anytime.
They are not royalty-free. Free in your own beats; a 50/50 publishing split with NDA Company applies to every commercial release. License Terms
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