The average RMS level for mastered commercial Hip Hop/Rap songs varies around the range of -7 dB and -9 dB RMS. However, it may be much better to reference loudness using LUFS instead of RMS.

Either way, it's not uncommon for some tracks to have an average RMS reading of -6 dB RMS or sometimes -9 dB RMS. The whole idea is to artistically punish a brickwall limiter until it sounds terrible then backing off -1 dB or perhaps -0.5 dB depending on the song.


The trade-off between loud masters and dynamics​

The more you push a song up to contemporary and commercial RMS levels, the less dynamic range you will end up with. Meaning your music will sound squashed and squared off.

Nonetheless, if you want your songs to stand out then you might have to master your music to those average RMS levels since listeners are already accustomed to loudness wars.

N.B. RMS stands for root mean square and is a statistical measurement of the overall volume in music. This should obviously never be confused with output peak levels nor with true-peak level readings.

The bass (or the low-end)​

It would help if you are always cautious about how the low end (or the bass frequency spectrum) contributes to an average RMS level for your music.

If you listen to most mainstream Hip Hop songs you will notice that they are bass-heavy which easily drives up the RMS level compared to the LUFS level. Just keep in mind loudness lives in the midrange, not the bass notes.

TIP: If you want to match your music to commercial RMS levels, carefully attenuating the unwanted rumbling bass notes during mixing is somewhat beneficial. It will be happy days later when slapping a brickwall limiter down the line.
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