C.K. Ladzekpo has a wonderful web site about West African drumming. He has a very interesting way of explaining many aspects of African rhythmic ideas and time lines. I've been working on his Rhythmic Frameworks Exercise and it's openned up a lot of possibilities. I started applying these concepts to the drum set and this is some of what I got. I highly recommend that you go and look at his site. There's a lot to learn there.
Let's start with the basics of the 6/8 timeline. This is the basis for everything else in the lesson, so make sure that this is solid before you try the variations.
Then we'll add a basic backbeat pattern. This is a very common African or Afro-Cuban 6/8 funk feel.
So now we've established a solid two feel with the backbeat. This is where we can use the ideas from the Rhythmic Frameworks Exercise to spice things up. First let's try playing a three ove four pattern with the snare drum while keeping the bell and hihat.
Now play the same phrase on the bass drum.
Now we can keep the bass figure, but put the backbeat back in.
Or we can alternate the bass and snare to get a backbeat in a new tempo. Make sure that you're keeping the hihat on the dotted quarters. That's your anchor in the original feel. Try to hear this in both meters, 6/8 and the inplied 3/4.
This is just the beginning. Go back to the Rhythmic Frameworks Exercise and find your own variations. I'll add more later.
Happy practicing.