In 1980, a drum machine arrived that the world wasn’t quite ready for. Fast forward to 2026, and the TR-808 hasn’t just survived—it’s redefined what drums sound like. For 808 Day 2026, NTS drops a three-part radio series tracing the TR-808 across continents and cultures, hosted by DJ, producer, and NTS resident curator Shy One and produced by award-winning documentarian Nick Dwyer.
Over three episodes, follow the 808 from its origins in Japan to the dance floors, studios, and bedrooms where it shaped the birth of house music in Chicago, the rise of techno in Detroit, and scenes across Asia, Europe, South America, and beyond. And the ripples continue to spread—learn how these timeless sounds continue to resurface with new generations, carrying the 808 from its analog origins into the future. Explore the next phase of the 808 sound with these groundbreaking tracks.
➡️ Listen to The Future is Still 808 here.
Selected Playlist
Boom! I Got Your Boyfriend by MC Luscious (1990)
Once producers realized the 808 kick wasn’t just a kick drum, there was no going back. In our first episode, we saw how the 808 had begun to transcend its role as a simple building block of electronic music. Nowhere was that more apparent than in Miami, where, by the late ’80s, the bass was more than just part of the music. “Boom! I Got Your Boyfriend,” a classic by MC Luscious, proves that point.
Buck Jump Time by Gregory D & Mannie Fresh (1989)
Released in 1989, Buck Jump Time by Gregory D and a young producer named Mannie Fresh became one of the defining records of the emerging New Orleans bounce sound.
Few could have known it at the time, but Mannie Fresh would become one of the key architects of Southern hip-hop, and the Roland TR-808 wasn’t just another drum machine to him. It would become the sound of his career.
Back That Thang Up (ft. Mannie Fresh & Lil Wayne) by Juvenile (1999)
In 1993, Mannie Fresh became the in-house producer at Cash Money Records. Over the next five years, he helped forge one of the most recognizable production styles in modern hip-hop. One of its defining moments came in 1998 with Juvenile’s “Back That Thang Up.” Listen closely, and you’ll hear almost the entire rhythm track built from the sounds of a Roland TR-808. Somewhere along the way, the rhythm section had become the main character.
Get Low by Lil Jon & The Eastside Boyz (2002)
Lil Jon was one of the defining producers of early-2000s Atlanta. And on Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz’s “Get Low,” he wasn’t just programming basslines. He was weaponizing the low end. Taken from 2002’s Kings of Krunk, the track made it close to the top of the Billboard charts.
I’m God by Clams Casino and Imogen Heap (2020)
Other producers began exploring entirely different emotional possibilities hidden inside that same sound. On tracks like “I’m God,” New Jersey producer Clams Casino placed deep, resonant 808 bass beneath shimmering vocal samples and clouds of reverb. It wasn’t trying to shake the club anymore. It was creating an atmosphere.
Pheel Tha Phonk by SpaceGhostPurrp (2011)
A dark, cowbell-heavy sound emerged from Memphis during the 1990s. More than a decade later, a young producer from Miami named SpaceGhostPurrp began looking back to those Memphis tapes, reviving their ominous cowbells, lo-fi textures, and horror-inspired aesthetic for a new generation discovering music online.
He called the sound phonk. Soon, producers around the world were creating their own versions. The cowbells became louder, the bass more distorted, and the tempos faster. In Russia, phonk became the soundtrack to drifting, a motorsport in which drivers deliberately slide cars through corners, giving rise to the viral phenomenon known as Russian Drift Phonk. Soon, those distorted 808 basslines and relentless cowbell melodies were all over the internet.
We Love 808 by Pikotaro (2026)
Very recently, one of Japan’s biggest internet personalities, Pikotaro, released his own eccentric tribute to the Roland TR-808. The Roland TR-808 is no longer just a drum machine, nor is the sound of any one city, or even any one musical genre. It has become a shared, global musical language.
Feelin’ by DJ Rashad (2012), Not Everything To by DJ Fulltono (2015)
Another great example of this came from Chicago’s footwork scene. Built around frantic 160 bpm rhythms, footwork producers transformed the Roland TR-808 once again. The kick no longer simply anchored the groove. It danced around it, creating intricate syncopated patterns that mirrored the lightning-fast movements of the dancers themselves.
Those rhythms weren’t confined to Chicago for long. Through YouTube, SoundCloud, and social media, they found listeners thousands of miles away.
Welcome to the Party and Dior by Pop Smoke (2019)
By the end of the 2010s, drill music had traveled from Chicago to London, where producers like 808 Melo helped popularize one of the 808’s defining characteristics. Rather than programming static bass notes, he made the bass slide seamlessly between pitches, creating the serpentine “808 slide” that became the signature sound of UK drill.
When Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke began recording over 808 Melo’s productions, the sound completed an extraordinary journey. A genre born in Chicago had traveled to London, evolved, and returned to New York sounding completely different from where it began.
Is Ya Ready by Kay Flock (2021)
Even now, drill continues to evolve. The slides have become longer, faster, and more exaggerated. But beneath all that experimentation, the same Roland TR-808 kick remains. Stretched, bent, and reshaped almost beyond recognition, “Is Ya Ready” by UK-based Kay Flock is a perfect example of the reimagined 808 sound.
Faceshopping by SOPHIE (2018) and La Chíqui by Arca ft. SOPHIE (2020)
If drill producers had stretched the 808 melodically, artists like SOPHIE and the Venezuelan producer Arca were stretching it sonically. Taking the familiar sounds of the Roland TR-808, they twisted, warped, and transformed them beyond recognition, fashioning them into synthetic textures that sounded more like plastic, chrome, and liquid metal than percussion.
Whether through their own records or productions for some of the biggest names in contemporary pop and hip-hop, SOPHIE and Arca quietly reshaped the sound of mainstream music. Suddenly, pop music sounded sharper, more tactile, metallic, and visceral.
