LA Beat Scene
Instrumental hip-hop with the grid loosened — Los Angeles beats that wobble on purpose.
What you're really asking
You're asking about a Los Angeles community of producers who took instrumental hip-hop somewhere stranger: swung, off-grid drums, dense sampling and a love of the slightly broken. It is beat music as its own art form, meant to be heard loud in a room.
Where it sits
It grew in early-two-thousands Los Angeles around club nights, most famously Low End Theory and Kutmah's Sketchbook, plus the Alpha Pup and Brainfeeder labels. Flying Lotus became the figurehead, with Ras G, Teebs, Samiyam, Nosaj Thing, Daedelus and Knxwledge building a scene out of DIY distribution and a shared feel for drums that lean rather than lock.
The scene
Who: Flying Lotus, Ras G, Teebs, Samiyam, Nosaj Thing, Daedelus, Dibiase, Mono/Poly and Knxwledge. Rooms and labels: Low End Theory, Alpha Pup, Brainfeeder.
What: off-grid drums, deep sampling, low end as the point. How a record gets in: it comes from this LA community of producers and nights, not any instrumental hip-hop.
The leading records
Oddballs
Keep digging
- Start with the Low End Theory core
- Flying Lotus and his circle
- The deepest, dustiest beat tapes
- From the LA beat scene into Brainfeeder