"Quiet storm" was a late-night radio format from the 80s onward — slow, romantic R&B for after-dark listening. Sade, Anita Baker, Smokey Robinson, Luther Vandross. The drumming style that goes with it is the quietest, cleanest end of the R&B spectrum: tempos around ♩=64–72, rim-click instead of snare for almost the entire song, brushes or hot-rods instead of sticks, and a kick that's felt rather than heard.
The technical difficulty is low. The musical difficulty is high. Slow tempos punish small timing inconsistencies; quiet dynamics punish small volume inconsistencies; and at this style's tempo, every event is exposed. There's nowhere to hide.
Brushes or Rods?
Either works. Brushes are softer and more traditional for this style; hot-rods (bundles of thin dowels) are slightly louder and have more attack, well-suited to a live setting where brushes might disappear. The exercises below describe brush playing because brushes give you the maximum control over dynamics — but if you only have rods, the patterns are the same; you just hit the drums normally.
The Singer is the Star
Quiet storm drumming exists to be invisible. The singer's phrasing is the entire show; your job is to hold the form so steadily that the singer can take any liberty with the time and trust that the bar will still be there when they get back. If a casual listener could describe what you played after the song, you played too much.