How to Make a Hard Moneybagg Yo Type Beat (+ Free Loops)

What BPM and key is a Moneybagg Yo type beat?

Most loops run 140 to 160 BPM, with the bulk around 147 BPM, the beat sitting half-time so the melody feels slow and the hats stay busy. His records show the range, Said Sum reads 127 BPM in G sharp minor, other cuts land in C minor and D sharp minor.

The key is almost always minor, the darker the better. Take it from your loop and put the 808 and melody on the same root. If you are not sure what root your loop is in, drop it into a sampler, run detect pitch on it and tune your 808 to that note so nothing clashes.

How to make a Moneybagg Yo type beat in 6 steps

The loops in step 1 stream right here and the mp3 is free. Then work through the six steps.

1. 1Pick a sample▾

   Take a dark piano or orchestral loop in minor, 140 to 160 BPM, with a spooky, tense edge. Grab one from the list below that already carries menace before any drums.

   • ▶
     Selfish
     140 BPM · Cmin
     DarkEthnicVintage
     @ndacompany
     ↓
   • ▶
     Buzz
     140 BPM · Cmin
     BrassDarkOrchestral
     @ndacompany
     ↓
   • ▶
     Wobble
     140 BPM · A#min
     BrassDarkOrchestral
     @ndacompany
     ↓
   • ▶
     Reconcile
     138 BPM · Cmin
     DarkOrchestralPiano
     @ndacompany
     ↓
   • ▶
     News
     150 BPM · Fmin
     BrassDarkDistorted
     @ndacompany
     ↓
2. 2Lay the 808▾

   Low and aggressive, on the root of the loop key, eight bars kept plain. Set it to cut itself, drive it hard with saturation and distortion so it groans the way Memphis beats do, then shorten the note length and pull the release so each hit stays tight.
3. 3Hi-hats on top▾

   Fast two-step with hard triplet rolls, single hats pulled out for the open hat. Randomize the pan and velocity on the hats so they move, and let the rolls build tension into the bar before the change.
4. 4Snare and kick▾

   A sharp, snappy snare on two and four, a tight kick under the 808. Layer two claps and bus them into a touch of distortion so they hit fat and present. Keep the snare crisp and dry so it cuts through the dark loop.
5. 5Add orchestral tension▾

   A brass or string stab on the turnaround lifts the menace into something cinematic. Short, loud, then gone, never a long pad.
6. 6Arrange▾

   16 bars as the hook, a verse with the loop stripped to just the piano, a bridge with the strings taking over. Pitch the melody up for the hook and drop it an octave for the verse so there is room for the vocal. The hook comes early so it stays catchy.

The Memphis dark-keys sound

The core is a dark, simple piano or key figure, the spooky, insidious vibe reviewers tie to Memphis production. It does not need many notes, two or three repeated notes sitting close together in the scale carry more weight than a busy run, because those tight intervals are what create the tension.

Write it in Phrygian rather than natural minor. The second note sits one semitone above the root, and that half step is what makes the keys sound sinister with almost no effort.

Tay Keith style beats stay stripped: consistent hats, snappy snares, groaning bass. Resist the urge to fill. The menace comes from space and a hard low end, not from layers.

To make a loop your own, flip it. Add an EQ, a reverb and a pitched-up delay on the melody, render it out, then speed it up, reverse it and pitch it back down. The reversed tail reads as a new, haunted version of the same idea and nobody can tell where it came from.

The 808 is the weapon

A Moneybagg 808 is loud, low and a little dirty. Drive it with saturation and a touch of distortion so it reads as aggression, not just bass, and make sure it is boosted and sitting on key before you do anything else.

Keep the pattern simple and let it ring, then trim the note length and the decay so it does not smear. Set it to cut itself so the notes never clash with each other, and sidechain the kick so the two do not cancel out at the bottom.

Orchestral stabs for the drama

Brass and strings are the drama. A short orchestral stab or a staccato string line on the turnaround or into the hook turns a plain dark beat into a street anthem. Follow the root notes of your loop so it locks in instead of fighting the keys.

Keep stabs short and loud, high-passed so they sit above the piano. One well-placed stab per phrase beats a constant string pad that steals space from the vocal.

A single violin accent panned off to one side adds tension without filling the center, and a choir or bell patch from a plugin like Omnisphere, layered on the same chord progression as the piano and kept quiet and low, gives the keys an eerie, almost alien character under them.

Common mistakes

A weak 808. On a Moneybagg beat the 808 is the whole threat. If it is quiet or clean, the beat sounds soft. Drive it, boost it and keep it low.

Too many notes in the piano. Dark Memphis keys are simple and repetitive. A busy melody kills the tension and leaves no room to rap.

Leaving the lows in every track. High-pass the piano, the bells and the stabs on a melody bus so the 808 owns the bottom alone, or the low end turns to mud.

In FL Studio and in Logic

Nothing above depends on the DAW. A sampler for the 808, an EQ, a saturator and a reverb is the whole chain, plus one melody bus to strip the lows off every melodic track.

FL Studio: 808 in a sampler channel with cut itself on, a distortion or Fruity Soft Clipper after it. Draw the hats and rolls with the paintbrush, then alt-click to randomize pan and velocity.

Logic: Quick Sampler for the 808 set to mono, a Clip Distortion or Overdrive after it. Step Sequencer for the hats, a bus high-passing the piano and stabs.

Using the loops from NDA Company

Every loop here is played by hand, no AI, and free as an mp3. Pick a dark minor piano loop, flip it if you want it unique, drive a low 808 under it, and you have the Memphis menace in minutes.