The History of Lofi Hip-Hop
Song of the week: Killer Mike - Two Days
Aye man. Killa Kill from the Ville won 3x Grammy’s at 48. Atlanta it’s a sweep. If you haven’t heard Killer Mike’s album “Michael” I think it’s the only thing you should listen to this weekend.
“It is evident I do better when I feel like the world against me and think I should never win.”
Let’s get into it…
If you’ve ever needed something mellow to listen to while studying you’ve no doubt stumbled onto one of the 24/7 Lofi radio channels on YouTube.
As soon as you tune in the sounds of jazzy subdued loops fill your ears, and just like that, you’ve gotten your work done.
Lofi is an interesting genre in that way.
It was pioneered by Gen Z and…
And with this being Black History Month it’s a great time to talk about the origins of Lofi as a subgenre.
What is Lofi?
The term itself is short for Low-Fidelity.
Audio wasn’t always on an MP3 format, and those older formats like tape cassettes don’t have the same quality as today. Before we got to this pristine sound we have today.
That 64-bit, 44.1k sound we’ve all become used too, everything used to sound less detailed. It’s like comparing a big box TV to a 4k OLED one — it’s just different.
In Hip-hop terms, it was grimy, and had a little bit of dirt/punch. Think about the sound of the 90s — the drums were gritty, and compared to today, there’s a texture that’s hard to capture with digital gear.
In essence, Lofi is Boom Bap.
Yep, that’s right. Gen Z rediscovered Boom Bap and gave it a new name with infinite sub-genres under it. That means that you aren’t just listening to Lofi — it has subgenres under it, like “Chill.”
The Forefathers of Lofi
As a genre, Lofi is considered to have two forefathers. Both have striking similarities from the sound of music they make, to the dates they were born (and when they transcended).
The two producers are:
J. Dilla
Nujabes
J Dilla
Dilla was an acclaimed music producer from the 90’s and early 2000s who’s widely respected as a legend by both mainstream and underground producers alike.
His career began as 1/3 of Detroit Hip-hop group Slum Village, and his production work on their early albums helped establish his reputation as a producer.
Dilla collaborated with everyone from A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Erykah Badu, to Common. Above all, he’s known for his unique style of production, his drums, and his contributions to helping birth the genre we now call neo-soul.
Unfortunately, Dilla passed away in ‘06 from a rare blood disease, but his legacy lives on, and he continues to inspire musicians both underground and mainstream to this very day.
Many Lofi producers hope to emulate his sound, and it’s evident in everything they do, even down to the equipment they use.
If you ask any lofi fan who is on their Mount Rushmore, Dilla is there, guaranteed.
Nujabes
Around the same time that Dilla was making his ascent in culture, there was a growing Anime movement happening in the U.S.
We talked about it in another piece, but Adult Swim had a block of programming called “Toonami,” which served as the gateway for anime for group of Millennials and Gen Z’ers everywhere.
Two popular Anime’s “Cowboy Bebop” & “Samurai Champloo” became standouts on Toonami not just because their storylines, but also because of the soundtracks.
Specifically, Samurai Champloo was a unique blend of Asian culture and Hip-hop much like what had been seen in the 70s and soundtrack became heralded by many underground fans.
A few producers worked on the soundtrack, and the one name that began to float around for his work was Nujabes.
Like Dilla, Nujabes was prodigy and widely considered the de facto forefather of the genre.
He passed in 2010, but the impact he and Dilla left set the groundwork for what would become Lofi.
THEN, THE NOSTALGIA KICKED IN…
A generation of Millenials who were anime fans grew up to become music producers.
Their greatest influence happened to be Toonami and the shows that they grew up watching in the early 2000s.
The music featured on adult swim was often lef of center as well. That meant tha these producers had a sound that wasn’t overtly mainstream. After all, they were listening to MF DOOM, and Madlib. Dilla and Nujabes.
They used drum machines from the 90s, and their sound was paying homage to the dusty, gritty, sound they come to love on Toonami.
They didn’t wanna call it Boom Bap — it was something new. It was modern, but the fidelity was old.
It was Lofi.
YouTube Provided a Hub
A huge reason that Lofi caught on was because of YouTube.
Several Lofi imprints launched 24/7 radio streams and once those streams proved to be successful they transformed into record labels that put out independent producers hoping to put out Lofi beat tapes.
But the originator of this trend was a YouTube Channel called:
I. ChilledCow
In 2017, a mysterious French music producer by the name of Dimitri created this YouTube channel and 24/7 station and it’s one of the longest running Lofi streams out there.
If you look into the early streams you’ll notice a looped animation of a young girl accompanying the music. That girl would go on to become a symbol of the lofi movement & today she’s simply known..
Lofi Girl.
The character herself is inspired by the Studio Ghibli film Whisper of the Heart and its character Shizuku Tsukishima.
Various ChilledCow streams featured her, however after the channel achieved a level of notoriety they were eventually given a copyright strike, and their stream was taken down.
After the takedown, ChilledCow rebranded, and they came back with a tweaked image, and new name: Lofi Girl (if you look closely you’ll se “ChilledCow on her headphones).
Lofi Girl has even been featured in marketing campaigns with brands like LEGO, and celebs like Will Smith have even parodied the image of the Lofi girl.
Upon dropping his “Chill beats to Quarantine To” during the Pandemic he uploaded an anime style photo of himself in studying while wearing a Bel-Air hoodie.
II. Chillhop radio
Chillhop is another one of the larger and more prominent YouTube Radio stations to hit the scene as Lofi emerged as a new genre.
The aesthetic of their channel, and corresponding compilations relies heavily on the anime themes prevalent in Studio Ghibli films as well. However, their influences feature more animals like the ones seen below.
It’s founders set out to create a hub where producers could share their work and get onto playlists without having to deal with the politics of trying to get noticed by the mainstream.
Since being formed they’ve released seasonal compilations and have helped dozens of artists (both visual & musical) reach new audiences.
EPILOGUE
Lofi’s impact has been monumental in helping a lot of independent artists make money from streaming, sync licensing and brand deals.
Although in a lot of ways it’s essentially Boom Bap, let’s allow Gen Z to do their thing and have some fun with it.
As long as you’re paying homage to the OGs and doing right by Hip-hop culture, then it’s all good.
If you need something to study to, check out a 24/7 stream this weekend. You won’t regret it.
One.
Wow. Thank you for this. I LOVE lofi and all its many subgenres. It was cool to learn about its creation and more of the theory behind it.
Other groundbreakers but aren’t as known…for people interested would be Ryan Celsius, SteezyAF, The Bootleg Boy and possibly even Knxwledge with his VG weekly series on Bandcamp.