The Blacker The Berry · Kendrick Lamar

93 bars of 4/4 at a walking 88 BPM, 4:14 of playing, on hi-hat, snare and kick.

Hip Hop / ReggaeUnder 90 BPMFour drums or fewer
TEMPO
88 BPM
TIME
4/4
BARS
93
LENGTH
4:14
DIFFICULTY
53/100
THE BEAT

One bar, and 81% of the song

The beat the song is built on is a 2-bar phrase, played through bars 6-10, 12-18 and 20-26, and 10 more places -- 80.7% of every bar the kit plays. Learn that one and the song is very nearly finished.

LOOP · 88 BPM
THE BLACKER THE BERRY · BARS 8-9
THE BEAT, WRITTEN OUT →
THE SHAPE

How the song is built

93 bars across 6 sections: 79 keep time and 10 are silent. The longest unbroken stretch of time is bars 5-36.

CHORUS
CHORUS 2
OUTRO 2
4 groovesCS1S3S5Fill into the next barFill that ends a sectionInto the next partStop / hitRest

Questions

What BPM is The Blacker The Berry?

88 BPM, in 4/4, with the time kept in sixteenth notes. The room plays it at any tempo from a quarter of that up to the written one, against the record where the record can follow.

Is The Blacker The Berry hard to play on drums?

53 out of 100, a step up from a first song, and the work is in the independence between the hands and the feet. The beat itself is 40 out of 100; the rest of the number is everything around it.

How long is the drum part?

93 bars, about 4:14 at the written tempo. The course breaks it into 6 exercises over 2 sittings, about 28 minutes each.

What do I need on the kit?

hi-hat, snare and kick. Three pieces and no more -- this one is playable on almost anything with a kick, a snare and something to keep time on.

READ OFF THE SCORE ITSELF · 93 BARS ANALYSED
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