The first step in making a rap beat is to choose your tempo. Tempo dictates how fast or slow your beat will be and is measured in beats per minute, or bpm. Most beat creators choose a tempo around 140 to 170 bpm, or mid-tempo. A dance beat generally has a tempo in the range of 150 to 200 bpm. Keep in mind that most rap beat creators use a count measure of 4/4 when making their beats.
The foundation of a rap beat is its drum pattern. Most drum patterns consist of a kick drum, a snare drum and a hi-hat cymbal. You can, however, use claps in place of snare and shakers in place of hi-hat cymbals. When adding these elements to your beats you can choose between two sounds for these instruments, live and electronic. Live instruments will give you more of a live band feel whereas electronic instruments are more precise because there is no human error.
The melody of your beat will be the part that most people remember, so to many beat makers it is the most important part. Most melodies are made up of piano or electronic synthesizer, and bass guitar. To make the melody of your beat more memorable, you want to include more instruments in the chorus of the song.
Rap beats often incorporate samples taken from songs from a wide variety of genres. It is because of this that it would be beneficial for any aspiring rap beat creator to spend time listening to a wide variety of music from several different time periods. A good rap beat creator will find inspiration from songs ranging from classical to rock.