How to Make a Young Nudy Type Beat (+ Free Loops)

What BPM and key is a Young Nudy type beat?

Most loops run 133 to 141 BPM, with the bulk sitting around 140. That is the Atlanta plugg tempo, fast hats over a half-time feel.

The key is mostly minor, but kept bright and playful rather than dark. Take the key from your loop and put the 808 and the melody on the same root.

A trick a lot of Nudy producers use: the beats are almost all in a minor key, but they sound like they are in major. Build a plain minor triad, then add one note on top a seventh above the root. That single added note lifts the sad minor shape into something that bounces, which is exactly the Nudy flavour.

How to make a Young Nudy type beat in 6 steps

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

1. Pick a sample. Take a bright, playful loop built on electric piano, synth or strings in minor, 133 to 141 BPM. Grab one from the list below with a goofy, repetitive figure, that is the Pi'erre Bourne lane. A fast habit from the producers who cook for Nudy daily: keep a template with your go to synths and 808s already loaded so you start on the sound instead of hunting for it.

2. Lay the heavy 808. This is where the menace lives. Put it on the root of the loop key, kept plain but pushed hard with saturation and set to cut itself. A soft clipper gives it hidden distortion, and it is fine to let the 808 run a touch into the red so it clips, as long as the rest stays under. The 808 is the single most important element in the beat, so spend time finding the one sub that bounces right before you move on.

3. Hi-hats on top. Fast, busy rolls are the Pi'erre signature. A two-step base with rapid triplet rolls before the changes, bright and lively. Keep the pattern simple on the hook so the voice can cut through, then switch it up and add rolls on the verse. Panning and pitching individual hats left and right gives the whole top end that bouncing, sauced feel.

4. Clap and kick. A hard clap or snare on two and four, plus a quieter layer panned to one side. Layer two snares on top of each other so the hit lands harder and gets that crisp pop. The kick sits under the 808 and shares the low end with it.

5. Try the pitch. Only once the drums sit. Transpose the whole melody group a few semitones, three is a common jump, and keep the brightest, bounciest lane. Pull the 808 to the new root afterwards.

6. Arrange. Keep it simple, less is more. Let the loop repeat like a nursery figure, bring the hook early and leave the low end room to swing loose under it. Keep the whole thing short, two minutes is plenty, so a rapper who is barely started does not pad it with an unwanted extra verse. You can always loop it longer later if the artist asks.

Playful on top, menacing underneath

Pi'erre Bourne built the Nudy sound on repetitive, light, almost cartoonish synths. The melody is colourful and simple, sometimes downright goofy, and that is the point. Four notes with a clear bounce is often the whole figure, and once the melody bounces the drums can just follow it.

Underneath, the bass and kicks are heavy and effected. The clash between a bright, bouncy figure and a dark, drawling delivery is the whole Young Nudy identity. On the newer records Pi'erre loads extra bass straight into the melody itself, so the figure already carries weight before the 808 even lands.

So do not try to make the loop sound sinister. Keep it playful and let the heavy 808 and Nudy's drawl carry the menace. The contrast does the work.

Which sounds do you actually need?

For the melody, electric piano, synth and strings are enough. Keep the figure simple, bright and repetitive, and let it loop like a little earworm. A fast way in: sketch the figure on a plain FL Keys piano first, it is a pure tone and easy to hear, then swap the sound to a synth like Massive X with a light chorus on it once the notes are right.

Layering is most of the richness. Stack two sounds for the main figure, a lead over a pad, so it reads full even though the notes are simple. Then drop a little ear candy pluck in the back, the quiet, catchy accent Pi'erre and his circle sneak behind the main melody. A short stab that just hits the first note of the figure adds even more bounce.

Reversing is the Pi'erre fingerprint. Record or export the melody, reverse it, and build off that swelling, backwards shape. A flanger on the lead gives it the gritty, warped texture that runs through so many of his beats.

The 808 carries the low end on its own and this is where the weight sits. Set it to cut itself, push the saturation, and let it hit hard under the light melody.

Clap and hi-hats hold the grid. A hard clap on two and four, fast busy hats with rapid rolls in the Pi'erre style. For the hook an eerie accent like a tubular bell adds that creeping, uneasy top note without crowding the voice.

Pitch the sample up and down

The position of the loop is not fixed. One or two semitones change the whole mood.

Up the melody gets brighter and goofier, down it gets heavier and darker. The key moves with it, so pull the 808 to the new root afterwards.

A delay on the melody, set to feed back a little, makes the figure bounce back on itself and gives the loop extra movement without adding a single note. Pair it with the reverse and flanger tricks and one simple phrase does a lot of work.

Common mistakes

Making the melody dark. The Nudy sound works because the loop is bright and playful against a heavy low end, so a gloomy figure kills the contrast.

A thin, polite 808. The weight and the menace live in the bass, so push it hard with saturation instead of keeping it quiet.

Slow, lazy hats. The Pi'erre Bourne style runs on fast, busy rolls, so let the hats drive while the melody bounces.

A limiter on the master. Nudy producers run a soft clipper, not a fruity limiter, so the 808 clips and stays raw instead of getting squashed flat.

Letting it run too long. These beats stay short and repetitive on purpose, so trim the arrangement before it drags.

In FL Studio and in Logic

Nothing in the steps above depends on the DAW. You need a sampler for the 808, an EQ and a reverb, nothing else.

FL Studio: the 808 goes in a sampler channel with cut itself on and plenty of saturation in the channel effects, plus a soft clipper to hide a little distortion. Sketch the melody on FL Keys, then move it to a synth like Massive X. Draw the fast hats and rolls with the paintbrush, and reverse a clip from the piano roll menu to get the backwards Pi'erre texture. On the master run a soft clipper, not a limiter, and if you want the mix cleaner put one EQ before the clipper and a second one after it.

Logic: Quick Sampler for the 808, set to mono, hold pulled up in the amp envelope and a saturator after it. Step Sequencer for the busy hats, one bus for the melody tracks with a Channel EQ cutting the lows. Reverse a region from the audio editor for the backwards figure and add a Flanger for the gritty lead.

Using the loops from NDA Company

Every loop here is played by hand, no AI, and free as an mp3. Pick a bright, bouncy figure from the list, drop your heavy 808 under it, and you are already most of the way to a Young Nudy type beat.