An Introduction to Reclamation: Dissecting & Dismantling Lofi Hip-Hop
The first loop-- opening the door into the mind behind the beats.
Radicule in action at Roots Cafe in Brooklyn. (Credit: Omar E. Saad)
A Radicule newsletter?
As a producer, I’m typically used to conveying a message through beats and beats alone: An occasional guest verse, twitter threads, & instagram story rants were usually the extent that you’d hear my voice.
In a sense, my actions may have been feeding into a common routine / structure that is deeply ingrained into the music industry; a producer should stick to keeping their head behind the boards, or seated in their respective DAWs, with little to no opinion outside of the music.
Point blank, nobody wants to hear what a producer has to say.
That’s at least the sentiment that has been portrayed by music executives, label heads, A&Rs, and even certain fanbases for quite some time. Of course there are exceptions, but the consensus for a majority has been producers and sound engineers should quietly do the heavy lifting behind the scenes, accepting payment and offering little to no conversation beyond our regularly scheduled program.
As we live through a revolution unfolding before our very eyes in response to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, & Ahmaud Arbery, racism and the silencing of black voices has been ignored for far too long and needs to be destroyed, even at microscopic levels.
On a smaller scale, many of you reading might be aware of the controversy that has happened with a label I, alongside of many other Black & POC producers, had ties with. Without going down the rabbit hole of preceding events, a false donation slip was forged by one of the founders of said label, which then led to them ultimately donating the originally promised funds, but the damage had already been done (hats off to GRAGG. of raw[life] for exposing the truth of it all). In the wake of all of this, I came to a conclusion through multiple conversations with friends and fellow producers.
I’ve had to reconcile with the fact that the erasure of blackness seems to reinvent itself in a multitude of realms: The most apparent to me as of late being the rise of ‘Lofi Hip-Hop’. Some may think my claim would be an exaggeration, but with the rapid influx of 24/7 lofi streams on Youtube, editorial playlists via Spotify, and ground-level white-owned labels, there’s a blatant, yet quiet freezing out of black producers in the very house that we’ve built. The appeal of playlist placement revenue and the illusion of worldwide reach has given some black producers false hope at times (including myself), and drawn in others that only see our innovation as a means for a quick buck, but this isn’t something we haven’t seen before. The appropriation and subsequent gentrification of our safe spaces continues to be poignant issue across various societal platforms.
Enough is enough.
It’s become more apparent to me that we have to take back the reins as gatekeepers. Entrusting our stories in the hands of others to accurately interpret and uphold our truest values has become far more of a risky gamble, at least from my perspective.
I refuse to let someone taint my narrative & music ever again, hence these newfound recurring words.
Amazing article, keep it up man! Can't wait for the next one.