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by 999900000999 495 days ago
>The Lofi style itself is nothing new, Lofi beats bear a striking resemblance to instrumental hip hop of the 90s and 2000s.

Lofi IS instrumental hip hop. Dilla was doing this in the 90s.

2 comments

It's probably better to say that lofi is a genre or type of instrumental hip hop. You wouldn't listen to e.g. Endtroducing... on the lofi girl stream.
You definitely would have played Endtroducing when it was relevant in places lofi hip hop is played today, used to be played in coffee shops, hairdressers and ad agency lobbies constantly
Sure, I agree. 40 years ago you would have been playing Feels So Good in those same places, and that's not lofi either.
The way this was phrased made me disregard the rest of the article.

It comes off as someone who's ignorant of the topic they're writing about.

Dilla is still the greatest to ever do it.
Lofi peaked long before the term lofi even came about
The people behind the california beat scene https://pitchfork.com/features/pitchfork-essentials/9716-the... made the blueprint then 'lofi' came after
Debatable - is Pete Rock not up on that same level? What about DJ Premier?
Dilla is one of the best, but I think apart of why he's so highly rated is his early departure.

We're left to wonder about his potential.

IMO it's more that his approach to rhythm truly was original and unique in contemporary music, and was so influential you hear it everywhere. In fact not only has it not faded, but it continues to grow in prominence year after year. Jazz drummers study dilla beats now. It's used in gospel music. It's very rare for a novel technique to so clearly originate from a single practitioner and then go on to be used as widely as that.
Some of the best hip hop producers were taken too early.

Jam Master Jay (of Run DMC fame), Dilla, Nujabes, all gone in their mid 30s.