What is Drill?

Menacing and sparse. Sliding 808s that glide between notes, skittering hi-hats, ominous minor melodies and a distinctive stuttering, off-kilter drum pattern.

Hip-Hop / Rap138–150 BPM typical

Not sure this is your track?

Drop the file in and it will tell you which category and genre it actually is, what the secondary and tertiary picks were, and what it heard that put them in that order. Free, no account, and the file stays on your device.

Identify my track

Listen for

gliding portamento 808s
dark sparse piano or bell melody
syncopated stuttering hats
cold aggressive tone

Reference artists

Pop SmokeCentral CeeChief Keef

Anchors rather than an exhaustive canon — if your track sits near these, this is probably the right label.

Usual tempo 138–150 BPM. Sitting outside that range does not disqualify a track; it just makes the tells matter more.

Easy to confuse with

The nearest neighbours in Hip-Hop / Rap, by tempo. If Drill does not quite fit, one of these usually does.

Trap130–160 BPM
The dominant modern rap sound. Booming sliding 808 bass, rattling triplet hi-hat rolls, dark minor-key melodies and a half-time feel.
R&B / Melodic Rap120–150 BPM
The blurred line between singing and rapping. Sung, Auto-Tuned melodic hooks over trap-derived drums, with an emotional rather than combative tone.
Cloud Rap120–145 BPM
Hazy, reverb-soaked and dreamlike. Washed-out ambient beats, heavily processed or mumbled vocals and an unhurried, floating quality.
Boom Bap85–100 BPM
Classic 1990s East Coast rap. A hard kick ("boom") and cracking snare ("bap") on a swung sampled loop, usually chopped from jazz or soul records.