Glitch hop is a form of Electronic music characterized by its incorporation of originally IDM-derived production into a Hip Hop setting. Having its early roots in the late 1990s with IDM artists such as Autechre and Funkstörung, glitch hop began to take shape in the early 2000s as electronic producers like Kid606, Push Button Objects, Prefuse 73 and Dabrye began fusing Instrumental Hip Hop with production traits associated with IDM, particularly its mechanic and metallic percussion sounds and relative inaccessibility. Furthermore, they began to implement "glitchy" effects and techniques into their beat-making, including the cutting, skipping, repeating, chopping, and bit-crush reduction of samples, earning the genre its "glitch hop" name. Despite that, the genre name has been somewhat of a misnomer throughout its history, as it hardly ever bears any connection with Glitch, and has deviated away from "glitchy" production as it continued to evolve.
In 2006, the Low End Theory night club was established in Los Angeles by producer and Alpha Pup Records label head Daddy Kev, quickly becoming the epicenter of the burgeoning Los Angeles' instrumental hip hop scene. The collective of producers that would frequent the venue (including Flying Lotus and his associated Brainfeeder label, Nosaj Thing, The Gaslamp Killer and Shlohmo) became associated with the colloquially titled L.A. beat scene. These artists employed J Dilla's unquantized and off-kilter approach to beatmaking with the work of LA-based glitch hop producers like edIT and Daedelus, leading to further experimentation with other different styles and techniques, such as the more experimental sides of mid-2000s Dubstep and Jazz music among other genres. Many of these artists would go on to define the Wonky sound.
Towards the late 2000s glitch hop became increasingly prominent in the context of Electronic Dance Music, and the sound was picked by DJs that drew influence from the maximalist, drop-focused sounds of Brostep and Electro House. This derivative of glitch hop would grow to become Glitch Hop EDM, a wholly separate, midtempo-focused genre, which continued to share its name with the earlier wave despite their differences. Meanwhile, producers in different scenes would continue to experiment with the genre, such as by blurring the lines between glitch hop and leftfield genres like Sound Collage, as exemplified by the work of certain producers in labels like Leaving Records, featuring fractured, lo-fi sample constructions.
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