Updated 30 Oct 2026
Pop Smoke was the voice of Brooklyn drill, Bashar Jackson out of Canarsie, and his sound came from rapping over UK drill instrumentals that were mostly built by the producer 808Melo. The production is dark and almost orchestral. Big strings, a choir, a dark piano, then hard drill drums and a sliding, menacing 808 underneath. The thing most producers miss is that the top end is cinematic and moody while the drums stay simple and spacious on purpose, because that deep, raspy drill vocal needs room to sit. Get the strings dark, the 808 sliding and the drums bouncing with proper drill count snares, and your loop stops sounding like a trap beat with strings on top and starts sounding like something Pop Smoke or Fivio Foreign could ride. Here is how the sound is built, step by step.
You do not need a finished beat to start. The Pop Smoke loops sit in step 1 and again at the bottom, ready to play.
Tempo sits around the mid one forties. Tutorials that recreate Pop Smoke keep landing between 140 and 145 BPM, with one producer setting it at 143 and another at 144. Brooklyn drill is usually written in a half time feel, so even at that tempo the beat rocks slow and heavy rather than fast. Pick something in that window, switch your drums to a half time groove, and let the strings and the 808 carry the weight instead of the hats.
The key is minor, and the harmonic minor scale shows up again and again because it is packed with semitones that make the strings sound dark and tense. Producers reach for D minor, D sharp harmonic minor, E minor and C minor in these tutorials. Turn on scale highlighting in your piano roll so every note stays in key, then keep an ear on where the 808 will land, since a lot of these beats sit nicely with the low note around D sharp or B.
Start with the strings, because they are the backbone of the Pop Smoke sound. Lay down a short, dark chord progression, often just a couple of chords moving by a semitone, and keep it slow and cinematic. A common move is to build a minor chord, slide the next chord up or down by one semitone for tension, then add bass notes underneath. You do not need many chords, two or three looped over four bars is plenty, because the mood comes from the dark voicing and not from busy movement.
Then layer a choir and a dark piano on top of the same chords to thicken it. Producers double the strings with a choir patch, add a piano on the bass notes with a dark preset to make it heavier, and often pitch the whole thing down an octave in the intro before bringing it back up for the hook to lift the energy. A simple counter melody on piano or violin, left a little loose instead of perfectly quantized, gives it that human, orchestral feel.
You do not need expensive libraries to get this sound. Several of these tutorials are built entirely on free plugins, with Spitfire LABS and the BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover for strings and horns, and Keyzone Classic for piano. Paid tools like Kontakt libraries, Nexus, Omnisphere and Arturia Analog Lab show up too, but the real trick is layering a realistic string library with a synth pad so they fill each other out into one rich sound.
The character comes from effects and space. Drench the strings and choir in reverb to make them ambient, add a touch of delay, and use a band pass filter on the choir to cut the lows and highs so it sits behind the drums. Vinyl crackle, like the free iZotope Vinyl, instantly makes the intro feel cinematic. Add small details at the edges, a bell, a high string swell, a reversed riser, and cut the lows off the melody so there is room for the 808.
Drill drums are all about the count snares and the bounce. Instead of a normal hi hat, drill uses a snare or a rim playing a count pattern, often described as skip two, skip two, skip one, repeated across the bar. Program that, then add rolls, quiet ghost notes and slight timing shifts to give it bounce. Move your main snares onto the off beats, since a classic drill move is snapping the second and fourth snare over by a beat, and layer two snares for weight.
Keep the rest simple so the beat breathes. Add a kick that mostly follows the 808, a triangle or a perk panned to one side, a reversed crash to lift into sections, and signature one shots like a gunshot that fit the Brooklyn drill world. Leave gaps on purpose, because each perk should fill its own pocket and the whole point is to keep space for the vocal to sit on top.
The sliding 808 is the signature of this sound. Pick a punchy 808, pull the envelope down except for the hold so it stays tight, then spend real time on the slides, because the glides from one note into the next are what make it read as drill rather than trap. Follow the root notes of your progression and slide them up and down, but do not overdo it, since too busy an 808 leaves the rapper nowhere to go.
Lock the low end to the kick. In the classic 808Melo style the 808 is sidechained to the kick so it ducks out of the way every time the kick hits, which keeps the low end clean and punchy instead of muddy. A soft clipper on the kick makes it slap harder by letting it clip, and keeping the kick and the 808 out of each other's way is what gives Brooklyn drill its heavy but controlled bottom.
The mix is dark, loud and punchy, and it leans on clipping to get there. Producers put a soft clipper or a classic clipper on the kick and on the master to add weight and let the transients slam without the whole thing falling apart. One tutorial sets a clipper threshold around sixteen and a half to tame the peaks, the idea being to push level and grit while keeping control.
Carve space with EQ so every layer is heard. Cut the lows out of the strings, the choir and the perks so the 808 owns the bottom, roll harsh highs off the busy elements, and keep the choir filtered back behind the drums. The goal is a wide, cinematic top end sitting over a tight, heavy low end, with enough space in the middle for that deep, raspy drill vocal.
Once the dark strings, the sliding 808 and the bouncing drill drums sit together, the hardest part of the sound is done. The part that eats the most time is that dark, in key string and choir progression, so instead of fighting the piano roll for an hour you can grab a free hand-played loop in exactly this Brooklyn drill lane, drop it straight into your session, and build the drums, the slides and the 808 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 Pop Smoke 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 Pop Smoke beat is running.
All Pop Smoke loopsTempo, key and mood of the Pop Smoke loops, straight from our catalog.
| Loop | BPM | Key | Vibe |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glockstation | 140 | Gmin | Dark |
| 2Glocks | 140 | Emin | Dark |
| Raus aus dem Block | 140 | Amin | Dark |
| Whipdrift | 143 | Dmin | Dark |
| Never | 145 | Dark, Hard | |
| New Money | 145 | Bmin | Dark, Hard |
| Idle | 140 | G#min | Dark |
| Strike | 140 | Dark |
Tutorials recreating Pop Smoke keep landing between 140 and 145 BPM, with producers setting 143 and 144. Brooklyn drill is usually written in a half time feel, so the beat rocks slow and heavy even at that tempo while the strings and the 808 carry the weight.
Minor, and the harmonic minor scale shows up a lot because its semitones make the strings sound dark. Tutorials reach for D minor, D sharp harmonic minor, E minor and C minor. Use scale highlighting, keep the loop short and watch where the 808 lands.
Most of his signature drill sound came from the UK producer 808Melo, who built UK drill style instrumentals for a Brooklyn artist. That blend of UK drill production under a deep Brooklyn vocal is the core of the Pop Smoke sound.
Pick a punchy 808, pull the envelope down except for the hold, then follow the root notes of your chords and slide them up and down. Sidechain the 808 to the kick so the low end stays clean, add a soft clipper on the kick, and keep the pattern simple.
Drill count snares instead of hats, playing a skip two, skip two, skip one pattern, layered snares moved onto the off beats, a kick following the 808, plus perks, a reversed crash and signature one shots like a gunshot. Leave gaps so the vocal has room.
You can download free hand-played loops in this Brooklyn drill 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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