The pattern
80 BPM · 4/4 · 16 step · swing 40%
| Instrument | Beat 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 | Step 4 | Beat 2 | Step 6 | Step 7 | Step 8 | Beat 3 | Step 10 | Step 11 | Step 12 | Beat 4 | Step 14 | Step 15 | Step 16 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kick | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit |
| Snare | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest |
| Closed hi-hat | hit | rest | hit | hit | hit | rest | hit | hit | hit | rest | hit | hit | hit | rest | hit | rest |
| Shaker | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest | hit | rest |
How to play it and where it comes from
"Crooked," soft drums between 70 and 90 BPM: kick on 1, on the "and" of 3 and on the last sixteenth that anticipates the turnaround; snare (or rim) on 2 and 4, played late. The heavy swing (40, about 60–62%) on the sixteenths gives the "drunk" feel in the style of Dilla/Nujabes; in practice the snare is also moved by hand 10–30 ms late. Hi-hat with "x.xx" figures at varying velocity and shaker in eighths. The character comes from tape saturation, vinyl, a low-pass filter on the cymbals. Variants: rim instead of snare in the verses, kick that skips the 1 every 4 bars.