Dembow beat

The dembow beat or dembow riddim is a musical rhythm best known for its use as the core percussion element in reggaeton music, having taken its name from the 1990 dancehall song "Dem Bow" by Shabba Ranks.

The rhythm, first developed by Jamaican and Afro-Panamanian producers in the early 1990s[1] as reggaeton was beginning to form, employs the tresillo pattern that is common in Latin American music.

The dembow rhythm is usually employed as a loop, in line with reggaeton's mainly electronic production.

[1][4] The song's popularity resulted in the adoption of the "dem bow" name to describe the entire nascent genre that would eventually come to be known as reggaeton.

[5][1] The term "dembow" today commonly refers simply to the drum beat of reggaeton, which, while retaining its core "boom-ch-boom-chick" sound, has stylistic variations.