The history of drumless: from Roc Marciano to Griselda

The rap was born supported by beats. In the blocks of the Bronx, in the late 70s, DJs like Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash extended the grooves of funk and soul to create the base for the MCs.

When Grandmaster Flash played two identical records and repeated moments of the songs during his mixing, thus creating a space for the MCs to rhyme, the DJ from the Bronx gave the world new possibilities, creating repetitions from a snippet of any song, thus creating what we would later call a sample.

This structure traversed the boom bap of the 90s with Marley Marl, DJ Premier, and Pete Rock, consolidating the drums as the central element of the genre. But the history of rap is also built on the margins, and it was from there that a movement arose that would break with this logic.

The first hints appeared in the 90s. RZA, with the Wu-Tang Clan, created tense atmospheres in which the space between the beats mattered as much as the beat itself. In tracks like C.R.E.A.M. (1993), the piano loop is the center of the music, more than the drums.

Madlib and J Dilla also explored structures where the rhythm seemed broken or absent. In Donuts (2006), by Dilla, it is a clear example of this approach, where the manipulation of samples produces segments without traditional markings. These experiments did not yet constitute a school, but showed that rap could exist outside the logic of the physical impact of percussion.

It was Roc Marciano who transformed this format into language. Born in Long Island, he started his career in Busta Rhymes' Flipmode Squad, but soon distanced himself to pursue his own path. In the 2000s, he formed the collective The UN, which released the album U N or U Out in 2004, already bringing tracks with dry production and shadows of what would become drumless. The breaking point came with Marcberg (2010).

The album gave up the heavy drums that dominated the scene and presented entire tracks built on minimalist loops of soul, jazz, and vinyl records forgotten on shelves. The MC became the only rhythmic element. Two years later, in Reloaded (2012), Marciano expanded the formula with more sophisticated productions, but maintaining the deliberate absence of drums.

While Marciano defined the foundations, Ka, a firefighter from Brooklyn and discreet MC, gave drumless an even more radical dimension. His albums Grief Pedigree (2012), The Night’s Gambit (2013), and Honor Killed the Samurai (2016) are murmured narratives over ethereal samples.

But it was with Griselda Records that drumless gained dimension beyond collective, but expanded to other types of audiences. Founded in Buffalo in 2012 by Westside Gunn and Conway the Machine, with Benny the Butcher joining shortly after, the label arose from a backdrop of social abandonment. Buffalo, once an industrial center, fell into decline from the 70s with the closing of factories and the escape of the local economy.

Griselda transformed this environment into identity. Daringer’s beats dispensed with percussion, based on dry loops of soul, creating gloomy atmospheres. Over this, the MCs narrated the reality of the street and drug trafficking with an almost documentary coldness.

Westside Gunn's covers dialogued with Renaissance art and religious imagery, bringing the label closer to the visual arts. His style of dressing mixed luxury fashion references with street codes, reinforcing the idea of a complete aesthetic project. In 2017, the signing with Eminem's Shady Records took the label to the national circuit without the group giving up its sound.

Albums like Supreme Blientele (2018), by Gunn, From King to a God (2020), by Conway, and Burden of Proof (2020), by Benny, consolidated Griselda's position as the main force of drumless.

Drumless found global circulation in independent labels and platforms like Bandcamp, which allowed the aesthetic to spread without the mediation of the industry. The style became a recognizable language in different parts of the world.

The history of drumless rap shows how hip hop continues to reinvent itself from choices that seem, at first glance, contradictory. Removing the drums, an element that has always supported the genre, meant breaking with its foundation. But by doing this, Roc Marciano, Ka, and Griselda opened up a new territory.

This movement, born in New York and strengthened in Buffalo, has already spread throughout the world and remains one of the most consistent and radical languages of contemporary rap.