Verysickbeats Goes Raw: Boombap Beatmaking on the MPC2000XL

Let’s kick it off with the basics—think three-ingredient street tacos, but for beats. JFilt, aka Verysickbeats, jumps right into the heart of boombap: drums, sample, and bass. No fancy mods, no pricey plugins, just raw cuts on the MPC2000XL. He doesn’t just grab an eight-bar loop and call it a day. Instead, he digs through the whole track, cherry-picking the filthiest bits—sometimes the best slice is right at the start, sometimes it’s buried at the outro. This is about trimming the fat, not stuffing your beat with filler.

Watching him bounce around, picking out only the chunks that slap, you realize the magic’s in the edit. JFilt calls his MPC “Mingus” (yeah, that’s love), and he keeps it gritty by sampling just what he needs, then slicing up the audio like a samurai. The lesson here? Don’t let your chops get lazy. If you want that authentic flavor, you gotta hunt for it. And if you want to hear how those slices hit, trust me—the video’s the only way to catch the full groove.

Once the samples are chopped, it’s game time. JFilt slides into finger drumming, throwing out patterns with a swing that hits like a late-night food truck after last call. He’s not just tapping pads—he’s building the groove from scratch, using kicks, snares, hi-hats, and some sneaky open hats and tambourine. All the drums are from his Very Sick Drums 2 kit, so you know they’re seasoned just right.

He shows off a clever technique: play around with finger drumming first, even if you’re not a pro, to map out possible sequences. It’s like beatboxing on a pad—raw, loose, and all about feel. Then, once the vibe’s right, he locks down the sequence on the MPC. Some of those samples even sneak in their own hi-hats, so you don’t have to overthink layering. If you want to cop the exact drum sounds, he’s got links for days—go dig.

Now for the part that gives your beat its backbone—the bassline. JFilt shows how he jumps to track three, finds his bass sounds, and keeps it in mono to avoid mud. There’s already some bass floating in the sample, but that just adds to the flavor, like extra cheese on a slice. He uses his ears to tune the bass, keeping it simple and soulful.

He’s not about to get lost in menus or fancy scales. Instead, it’s all about what feels right. Sometimes you gotta turn off quantize and just let the fingers go—groove first, math second. No need to overthink; the MPC’s got the sauce if you trust your gut. If you’re curious how he lays down those lines in real time, the video’s where you’ll see the hands in action.

Three parts: drums, sample, bassline—that’s the recipe. JFilt hammers home that you don’t need to drown in features or spend your rent on gear to get a beat that bumps. Sometimes all it takes is keeping things stripped down, not overthinking, and just having a good time. Add a dash of effects if you want, but the real flavor comes from the raw ingredients. That’s boombap, no garnish needed.