Los Angeles Beats: 20 of the Best

Los Angeles is the second album that Flying Lotus — founder of Brainfeeder — released, and with it he kickstarted his long-standing relationship with the mighty Warp Records. Heralded as an instant classic — receiving a rare 5/5 review from Resident Advisor and an 8.5 on Pitchfork — Los Angeles captured the maturing sound of America’s burgeoning west coast musical community, drawing on the past to define the present. 

Features included FlyLo’s fellow beatmakers Samiyam and Matthewdavid, and the result is 17 tracks of dusty atmospherics and IDM-infused glitches. Nobody does it quite like FlyLo, and Los Angeles shows why.

Willie Bensussen, a co-founder of Low End Theory, released his debut album on Brainfeeder in 2012. As The Gaslamp Killer, Bensussen purveys a breed of instrumental hip-hop like nobody else, melding the jarring and abrasive with psychedelic loops, trippy textures, and luscious melodies.

Across 17 dizzying tracks, Bensussen brought together many key figures of the Brainfeeder community, including Daedelus, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, and Samiyam. It was a breakthrough record for a revered musician within the Los Angeles beat scene. 

Any feature on the Los Angeles beats is incomplete without Thundercat, and all three of his albums are considered classics within the wider scene. The distinct flavours of his second, Apocalypse, are wonderfully imaginative, bringing pop, soul, electronica, and progressive rock into one impossibly funky whole.

While the record leans heavily on free jazz’ advanced instrumentalism, it’s rich in vocals and R&B harmonies. All 12 tracks are bathed in the melancholy brought on by the death of Austin Peralta, one of Thundercat’s musical partners and best friends, making it fun and fresh, but also heartbreaking. It was produced by Flying Lotus.

Raw Fruit is an ongoing beat-tape series by the late hip-hop and funk producer Ras G, a co- founder of the Poo-Bah label. The first part, released in December 2013, comprised 12 freestyle experimental electronica and hip-hop beats made to smoke weed to — and they’re as raw as possible.

Before his death in the summer of 2019, Ras G was a defining figure in Los Angeles beats, known for digging deeper into the worlds of free jazz, jazz fusion, and afro-futurism than any of his peers. His work was inspired by Sun Ra, the Afro-futurist jazz composer. 

Knxwledge (pronounced “knowledge”), a beat-maker raised in central New Jersey and Philadelphia, signed to Stones Throw with Hud Dreems. With 26 tracks of smooth instrumental hip-hop, the album was an early demonstration in Knxwledge’s skills in blending the genre with soul and jazz into his own individual style.

The rising talent, now based in Los Angeles, went on to work on Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, and he’s since released dozens of remix and beat tape collections through Bandcamp. Hud Dreems is where his journey began. 

When Kiefer, born Kiefer Shackelford, signed to Matthewdavid’s Leaving Records in 2017, few had heard much of the talented Californian keyboardist and beatmaker, other than through his work playing live with Mndsgn.

But after Kickinit Alone, everyone took note — earmarking him as the latest continuant of a rich vein of hip-hop inextricably tied to keys and jazz. It’s a cozy and nostalgic record, but also soulful and fun. Shackelford has released two albums since, both on Stones Throw Records.