How to Make Morap Beats: A Producer’s Guide to the New Moroccan Sound
Morap is rap with a sound rooted in the Morocco’s own rhythms, instruments, and melodies. In the first Morap Type Beat Challenge, over sixty producers, from OGs like Rimo and Cee-G to rising names like Tinni7us, Levi, and Papu Moor, shared tracks that map out where this sound is headed. This guide distills their approaches into practical techniques you can use right now.
Whether you’re sampling legends, tracking live bendir, or programming drill drums in 6/8, you’ll find patterns, workflows, and detailed tips below.
What Makes a Morap Beat? Moroccan Rhythms and Percussion
Morap’s heartbeat comes from Moroccan traditional percussion, often combined with trap, drill, or boom-bap frameworks.
- Common instruments include bendir (frame drum), taarija (small hand drum), krakeb (metal castanets), tbel (large drum), guellal (North/East Morocco), handclaps (including wedding claps), sintir/gimbri (three-stringed bass), rebab (bowed lute) and daf/tar (single-headed frame drum).
- Time signatures and feels include 6/8 and 12/8: gnawa and ahidous (rolling triplet feel); and 4/4 and 2/4: chaabi, rai, trap/drill hybrids.
- Practical patterns include 6/8 gnawa base: accent 1 and 4 on bendir/tbel; interlock krakeb on off-beats for swing; add derbouka fills to bridge phrases. Chaabi swing in 4/4: layer tight handclaps with taarija on the “and” of 2 and 4; sprinkle krakeb to cut through modern hats.
- Producer examples: Rimo used kamanja jablia feel with taarija, bendir, and claps. Papu Moor used high-resonance bendir on the upbeats as a snare, subtle derbouka and taarija, layered ahidous claps, and wedding handclaps. Zuher used trap kick/snare in 6/8 with taarija, bendir, and toms. And Dopaz used guellal, taarija, bendir, live chaabi hats, plus gimbri later.
Pro tip: tune your bendir and taarija to the song’s key (or fifth). A quick pitch-shifter or elastic audio can lock the low resonances to your 808/gimbri.
Melodic DNA of Morap Beats: Traditional Instruments in a Modern Mix
Morap melodies are rooted in Moroccan timbres, often voiced through modal riffs and short phrases you can loop, vary, and recontextualize with modern drums.
Go-to instruments include Oud, gimbri, rebab, kamanja, ghaita, gasba, Amazigh flutes, loutar, and regional strings. Modal flavors to explore pentatonic/Amazigh motifs; Andalusian/chaabi phrasing, tamawayt and tzaghrit/ululation.
Producer examples:
- Prodby Idrissi: Hadda Ouaki’s kamanja + tzaghrit for energy.
- Atlantis: gnawa melodies with krakeb over gritty UK drill drums.
- Levi: Amazigh themes inspired by Lhaj Belaid with darbuka and 808s.
- Tinni7us: Moroccan oud with traditional vocals over bendir.
Sampling Moroccan Icons (Respectfully and Creatively)
Sampling is a pillar of Morap. The artistry lies in preserving cultural identity while chopping, pitching, and re-contextualizing classics. Approaches that work include time-stretch and pitch to match modern BPMs; isolate phrases with clean transients; build call-and-response with scratches or vocal stabs. Layer percs (like krakeb or taarija) to re-center the Moroccan groove if the sample is sparse.
Producer examples:
- Nomankind: Haja El Hamdaouia’s “Mnin Ana O’Mnin Nta” + cinematic drums, sprinkled guitar and strings.
- Cee-G: Abdelhadi Belkhayat sample over R&B-era drums.
- 3Mad: Houcine Slaoui’s “حضي راسك”.
- Ouassim: Izenzaren’s “Dounit Tazri” with boom-bap drums.
- GBahida: “Mehmouma” by Nass El Ghiwane.
- Scorpion: Fatima Tihihit & Demsiri flip.
- Raffy: “Tawarguit” from a Said Naciri film clip.
- Rudy: “Lhoub igua lkhatar”by Tarragt.
Note on ethics: if you plan commercial release, research rights and clear the sample. For field recordings and public archives (e.g., Paul Bowles’ Sounds of Morocco), check usage terms.
One of the participating beats in the Morap Type Beat Challenge on YouTube, (sampling Izenzaren’s “MAYITAANIT”).
Morap Beats: Blending Global Styles with Moroccan DNA
Morap is fusion done thoughtfully, global drums with Moroccan rhythm language and instruments. Popular blends inlcude drill + 6/8 gnawa swing; Boom-bap + chaabi claps; Afrobeat drums + Oujdi melodies; Jersey/jerk + krakeb chops; and R&B chords + Amazigh flutes.
Producer examples:
- Pinkshell: gimbri riff across hyperpop, jersey, jazz-rap textures.
- Dallas: Afrobeat drums withOujdi nay and Maghrebian vocals.
- Napoleon: drill with Moroccan oud.
- Steff3: Jersey-groove drums + krakeb+ gimbri.
The Making of Morap Beats: Texture, Mixing, and Atmosphere
Producers often recreate the spatial feel of riads, weddings, and street performances.
Spatial tricks include pan claps and percs to mirror an ahidous circle; use short, warm reverbs (0.6–1.2s) with early reflections to mimic tile/courtyard walls. Keep low percussion centered; spread krakeb, shakers, and handclaps. Tone shaping, for example add gentle tape or tube saturation to oud/kamanja for glue. Carve 2–5 kHz harshness on derbouka; boost 8–10 kHz airy clicks on krakeb.
Producer examples include Papu Moor panned drums to emulate an ahidous group; glued 808, kick, and sub-tbel with sidechain and subtle SSL comp; faint room reverb to mimic a riad. Masta DN used atmospheric chords + guembri + 808s.
Emerging Patterns from the Morap Type Beat Challenge
- The most used percussion during the Morap Type Beat Challenge were bendir, taarija, and krakeb
- Frequent melodic choices: gimbri, oud, kamanja, and Amazigh flutes.
- Time feel: a clear love for 6/8 and 12/8 grooves, even when layered with trap/drill hats.
- Sampling is central: from icons like Houcine Slaoui, Nass El Ghiwane, Haja El Hamdaouia, Abdelhadi Belkhayat, Izenzarento film clips and regional folk.
- Fusion wins: drill, trap, boom-bap, afrobeat, jersey, and R&B, all grounded in Moroccan percussion and modes.
This breadth, OGs and new names pushing in parallel, quietly signals a milestone: producers are defining a shared vocabulary for the Morap sound.
Quick Start Morap Beat Recipes:
- Gnawa Drill in 6/8
- BPM: 88–104 (6/8 grid). Drums: drill-style kicks and snares; add krakeb on off-beats; bendir accents on 1 and 4. Melody: guembri riff in A or D; layer a call and response with nay. Mix: keep kick tight around 55–65 Hz; carve 80–120 Hz for gimbri; sidechain subtly.
2. Chaabi Boom-Bap
- BPM: 86–96 (4/4). Drums: dusty kick/snare with swung hats; stack wedding claps; sprinkle taarija fills. Melody: kamanja or oud phrase; optional tzaghrit stab for drops. Mix: spring/plate reverb 0.8–1.2s; tape saturation on bus for glue.
3. Amazigh R&B
- BPM: 80–92. Drums: soft R&B kit, shakers for movement, low bendir layer. Melody: rebab motif; airy pads; Amazigh flute countermelody. Harmony: try tamawayt for lift.
Why Morap Matters: Making Globalization Good
In an era where globalization often pushes smaller cultures toward uniformity, Moroccan producers are resisting the trend and flipping the script. They are taking the same forces that threaten to erase local traditions and using them instead to amplify those traditions to the world. By weaving bendir rhythms, Gnawa chants, Amazigh strings, and chaabi grooves into modern hip hop frameworks, they’re making music as well as preserving history, reinterpreting it, and keeping it alive for the next generation.
It’s a form of artistic pride and identity-building through entertainment: a refusal to trade originality for imitation. In Morap, Moroccan culture isn’t something nostalgic or locked in the past, it’s vibrant, evolving, and ready to stand alongside global sounds on equal footing. Every producer in this challenge, and in the future, is helping redefine what “global” can mean. The result is a sound that’s global in reach, but unmistakably Moroccan at its core.
Morap Type Beat Challenge - Producer Techniques at a Glance
Big shoutout to all the producers who believe in the Morap movement, you’re shaping the sound of the future.
- Wiki Town: Ahwash Agdz pattern in a trap-style beat.
- Papu Moor: High-res bendir, subtle taarija, wedding claps, ahidous layers; Soussi vocal samples from Paul Bowles archive; strings + subtle piano; spatial panning; glued low end with light SSL and room verb.
- Prodby Idrissi: “Imttawen” by Hadda Ouaki kamanja + zgharit, derbouka, bendir, krakeb.
- Rimo: kamanja jablia, ta3rija, bendir, claps.
- Aya: derbouka, riq; chaabi kamanja; tzaghrit.
- Pinkshell: gimbri riff threading hyperpop/jerk/jersey/jazz-rap; avant-garde fusion.
- Smx: kamanja melody with hip-hop twist, bouncy drums.
- Nokker: derbouka, qraqeb, organic claps; multiple synths.
- Atlantis: gnawa melodies + krakeb; gritty UK drill drums.
- Zuher: trap kick/snare in 6/8; toms, taarija, bendir; loutar.
- Yoneh9: taarija, bendir, derbouka; Repro synth; tzaghrit.
- Realboss: tbel, groovy percs, t9ate9/krakeb, taarija; kamanja, piano, oud.
- GBahida: sample from Nass El Ghiwane’s “Mehmouma” + modern drums.
- Assim: violin over rai-style drums.
- Tinni7us: bendir + Moroccan oud + traditional vocals.
- Steff3: kick with groovy jersey, krakeb percs, gimbri.
- Enzo: ambient pads, Persian sitar, oriental synths; krakeb + Arabic percs.
- Cee-G: 2000s R&B drums + Abdelhadi Belkhayat sample.
- Scorpion: Fatima Tihihit & Demsiri flip to Morap.
- Cat: taarija, bendir, krakeb, derbouka; kamanja lead.
- Nomankind: Haja El Hamdaouia vocal; cinematic drums; guitar, strings, plucks.
- Phoe916: trap kicks, snares, 808s, hats; Izenzaren “Mayitaanit” sample.
- East Mafia: modern drums with traditional Moroccan rhythm and synths.
- Art-Smoke: rebab sample to dark, punchy boom-bap.
- Masta DN: Amazigh female tamawayt, atmospheric chords; gimbri + 808 + Moroccan percs.
- 1NAS: heavy snares; loop from “Wje3 Trab” TV series’ soundtrack for drums and melody; EQ sculpting.
- Sniver: bendir, derbouka, taarija; trap-leaning melody.
- Yessir: taarija, tambourine; trap hats, kick, snare, 808.
- Bidaaam: taarija + krakeb.
- Levi: darbouka + 808s; Amazigh instrumentals inspired by Lhaj Belaid.
- Lweirdo: producer Ramoon’s pack (krakeb and more), piano melody.
- Napoleon: drill x Moroccan oud.
- Satow: bongo, krakeb, percs; gnawa vocals.
- Rudy: Moroccan drums; Tarragt’s “Lhoub Igua Lkhatar” sample.
- Mada: bendir, krakeb, percs, taarija; Saymee sample.
- Betho: derbouka, taarija, krakeb l’gwal; nay.
- Royance: 808s + darboukas + rai percs; oud with lead synth.
- 3Mad: kick, snare, hats; Houcine Slaoui’s “حضي راسك” sample.
- Ouassim: Izenzaren “Dounit Tazri” + boom-bap drums.
- Anwar: bendir, taarija; trap melody.
- Riad: gnawa samples + hip-hop drums; Don Bigg vocal for Casablanca grit.
- Ismail Igh: bendir, shaker, afro percs; Amazigh flute from the TV series “Tidert n lhnna”; strings, piano, violin.
- Hicham Hajani: soft-trap rhythm, taarida fassiya, Arabic oud.
- DJ Sim-H: sample “Adelina -Skënderbe”; trap kit + bendir; Moroccan vocal scratches.
- Youba: @prodbyalamin drums; Amazigh traditional music samples.
- Dallas: Afrobeat drums; Oujdi nay; Maghrebian vocal samples.
- Dopaz: guellal, taarija, bendir, live chaabi hats; gimbri.
- MTC: traditional beat with gasba sample.
- AIBeatss: derbouka, taarija, krakeb; piano/leads/pads.
- Sayko: traditional Moroccan drums mixed with modern trap.
- Teaslax: bendir, taarija, shaker, afro percs; local flute melodies.
- Raffy: “Tawarguit” film song sample; piano, guitar, pads; drill drums.
- Dongoal: derbouka + taarija.
- Steven: derbouka, shakers, percs with unique melodic textures.
- Shxtgun: bendir, tar, daf, tambour; melodic layers.
- T9il: mizmar pads; daf/kicks for drums; tzaghrit percs.
- 88Young: ta3rija and bendir + trap 808s.
- Jonah: derbouka and bendir + trap clap and 808s.
If you build something with these ideas, share it. #MorapTypeBeat, tag us @dimatopmagazine
You’re welcome to link up with other producers and vocalists. Keep shaping the sound, one bendir hit, one oud phrase, and one wild sample flip at a time.
