808 Slides – Drill – Pop Smoke

Luke Potts

9/30/21

Within the blog post below I will be talking about and explaining the use of the 808 slide in hip-hop music, along with the common uses it appears in, more specifically artists and songs, and how specific genres under hip-hop use the 808 slide to be able to produce sound.

First we have to understand what an 808 is to be able to further understand what an 808 slide is. An 808 is a musical production instrument that came out during the 1980s and it was popularized by hip-hop artists then and still used today. An 808 is a, TR-808 Rhythm Composer, more simplified, it is an electronic drum machine. Recent producer that had popularized the 808 is artist/producer Kanye West with his album titled ‘808’s and Heartbreaks‘ debuting in 2008 and selling 450k in the first week. This album influencing a whole generation of new artists to come, such as Juice Wrld, Travis Scott and Drake.

An 808 slide is something that was popularized by UK drill music. Drill music is a sub-genre of hip-hop that gets its name by dark and nihilistic lyrics and beat that it contains. Most commonly known in the UK, drill music is celebrated as one of the most popular genres since the start of the 2010s.

When creating an 808 slide, you have to convert your baseline of the song to an 808. Preferably, you want to have a 808 that is long because it will be easier to slide, because you will be able to stretch it and be able to create cool things. While creating a slide, using octaves is very important. Using the ‘perfect fifth’, (which is seven semi-tones up) will make the process a lot easier and be able to create a better flowing slide. Also, a half step will make a slide sound very smooth and well with bass. An 808 slide can go up or down. An example below is very short sound bite of an example of an UK drill 808 slide.

UK Drill 808 Slide

 

The UK drill 808 slide was popularized in United States by New York born artist, Bashar Jackson, commonly known by his stage name, ‘Pop Smoke‘. In Jackson’s hit song ‘Dior‘, released in mid 2019, the 808 slide can be heard. Below is the Dior instrumental containing instead of one slide, as I showed above, multiple slides in a row, to create a flowing rhythm.

The song was produced by British producer, 808 Melo. Melo is known in England for his successful use of the 808 slide, hence his stage name. Melo can be heard saying in a video with Genius, “This (808 slides) is what makes a UK drill beat, when you hear that slide you know this is going to be a hit. No one really hears an 808 slide in a normal tune.”