What is Lo-fi Hip Hop?

Lo-fi hip hop is a downtempo, sample-based instrumental style that pairs jazz, soul, and bossa-nova chops with deliberately imperfect production: vinyl crackle, tape hiss, off-grid drums. Detroit producer J Dilla (Donuts, 2006) and Japanese producer Nujabes (Samurai Champloo soundtrack, 2004) are its acknowledged forefathers. The YouTube livestream era, led by ChilledCow's "lofi hip hop radio" stream from 2017 and later rebranded Lofi Girl, turned it into background music for a generation.