Inside REIMAGINED SEXY DRILL
Since its inception from trap music, drill music has long been a force of raw energy, a sonic blueprint of street narratives and hard-hitting beats. But like all great musical movements, it continues to evolve. Enter Sexy Drill—a smoother, moodier, and more sensual take on the genre that retains its grit while embracing melodic textures and hypnotic grooves.
Making its debut into this budding subgenre is Jazzfeezy — a sample label run by producer Jaswinder Singh (Drake, Young Thug) — known for curating innovative sound palettes across relevant trends in music production. Following the success of its REIMAGINED 90s RNB sample pack, Jazz and fellow-sample creator, James Penley have teamed up again for the latest sample pack in this series, REIMAGINED SEXY DRILL — which offers a fresh take on drill’s signature sound, blending soul elements with intricate drum patterns and seductive r&b chord progressions. In this interview, Penley explores his creative vision, the evolution of drill, and how he crafted this collection of samples for this latest release.
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The Rise of Sexy Drill
While drill’s origins trace back to Chicago before finding a powerful resurgence in the UK and later New York, the genre’s DNA has always been adaptable. Artists like Pop Smoke, Central Cee, and Ice Spice have played key roles in broadening its sonic landscape. Sexy Drill builds on this by introducing lush pads, ethereal vocals, and vibey, R&B-infused melodies that contrast with the genre’s traditionally aggressive percussive foundation.
Penley’s
Interview with James Penley
Q: What inspired the creation of REIMAGINED SEXY DRILL?
JP: Well, honestly, it's been a genre that's been coming up a lot more recently and I've been having a lot of fun listening to it. And sexy drill is just a different name for more of an R&B drill vibe. I specialize mainly in making R&B and soul samples. I thought I would just try it out like once or twice just to see if I could make it. And I ended up having a lot of fun. So I honestly just made the pack because it was fun to make, not because I was trying to target something very specific.
Q: Sexy Drill introduces a more melodic and seductive sound to drill. How did you approach that aspect in this pack?
JP: So I wanted to leave a lot of the core elements of the melodies to just R&B contemporary style vibes. But what helps a lot is keeping in mind what the swing is going to be, what the drum patterns are going to be. It kind of helps shape what the overall sound will be. But a lot of the chords are the same. A lot of the sound effects are the same. It's just kind of spinning it in a different direction. There's a lot of chorus on the bass, a lot of chorus on the guitars, a lot of reverb, a lot of synth pads and synth leads for top-line melodies, a lot of background harmony vocals, and lead vocal chops. There are just a lot of elements that come from R&B while you're twisting it into a drill-type scene. I don't know how else to describe it.
Q: What challenges did you face while curating this pack? What helped you overcome them?
JP: I would say one of the main things I struggled with was knowing when to stop adding melodies because once you get the foundation of something with this fun bounce and these really R&B chords, you can just freestyle melodies over top of it for a long time. Knowing when to stop was pretty hard. So I kind of had to make certain top-line melodies and then leave them for a day or a couple of days, then come back to them and see if it's something that is still inspiring or something that an artist or producer will hear and go, "Oh, I can build on top of this." Because when you're making sample packs, you don't want it to be too finished to where a producer can't spin it in their own direction. So that was mainly the hard thing for me—knowing when to stop adding melodies and knowing when I was doing too much or too little, trying to find that balance.
Q: Are there any particular artists or movements that influenced the sonic direction of this pack?
JP: There was no one artist in particular that helped inspire me to make this pack, but I would just go on Spotify, look up Sexy Drill, and listen to it while I was doing things like working out, playing video games, or driving. I tried to listen to a lot of it, and I had a lot of fun—I still listen to some of it to this day. I feel like Kehlani’s song was a lot of people's introduction to something like an R&B Sexy Drill, but what's funny is that it's not that far off from plug-and-B. Plug-and-B is a rap-style genre that's heavily influenced by R&B, and Sexy Drill is just drill music heavily inspired by R&B. So you can honestly find inspiration from it everywhere, but we all know that hi-hat pattern that you hear in drill music all the time—that’s a staple in these packs and in all the songs for sure.
Q: What's your hope for the producers who will use this pack and your hope for the genre as it continues to grow in popularity and appeal?
JP: My hope is that if any producers download it, they just get to have fun and create something they're proud of and add some stuff to their arsenal that they can pull out and use, whether it's for selling beats, working with artists, or just making songs themselves. I just hope producers have fun and are able to make something new. That’s why it starts as the reimagined series that I've done over a couple of different genres. I didn't want to make a Sexy Drill pack that is just purely Sexy Drill—I wanted to have my own spin on it with a lot of my own personal taste. So I hope producers like the taste that I added and that they get to use it.
Producer's Note:
Sexy Drill is more than just a trend—it’s a testament to how genres grow and adapt. With REIMAGINED SEXY DRILL, James Penley has crafted a toolkit for producers who want to explore the genre’s next chapter. Whether you’re looking to add cinematic depth to your beats or reimagine drill’s rhythmic foundations, this pack is a portal into the sound of tomorrow.
Click the button below to get start creating with REIMAGINED SEXY DRILL and be sure to follow James Penley (@jamespenley_) on Instagram and check out Jazzfeezy for more amazing sample packs.