To ace your exams to get into grad school/the major you want/impress your hometown friends, you need to study. To study, you need unfettered focus and the will to concentrate. After a quick view of the YouTube homepage, we at The Ubyssey discovered that lo-fi hip hop is what people listen to in order to channel their inner calm and get their study on.
Ubyssey staff and editors, who have pretty good taste in music, have suggested their favourite study songs that get them in the mood — to study ;). Also, if we’ve missed the mark for what lo-fi, please don’t tell us — we like to live in blissful ignorance.
Here are some of the songs we picked and why we picked them:
“Stay With Me” - jrd, “Infinity” - Nokiaa, ”nagashi” - Idealism and “お互い” - Yuki Hayashi
All of these pieces sample melodies from some of my favourite soundtracks and hearing them always helps me focus for some odd reason. - Mike Liu
“controlla” - Idealism, “sekao” - Delayde, “Night” - wüsh and “Summer Time” - justnormal
These are ones that I liked from other peoples lo-fi study playlists. If I hear them, it’s kind of like a reminder to get in a studying headspace. - Kaila Johnson
“Habit” - Still Woozy
Honestly, this guy’s whole discography could make this list. Producing beats from his garage in Oakland, California, Still Woozy doesn’t have a label, but he attracts three million listeners a month on Spotify. His songs — and there are only 10 of them — mix colourful electronic textures to make for a feel-good, funky and thoroughly ~ c h i l l ~ experience. - Henry Anderson
“Places” - Shlohmo
I like this one for its soothing sounds and interesting percussive textures. - Zhi Wen Teh
“Born to Be Blue” - Sampa the Great
She’s an Australia-based Zambian rapper whose music is an endearing mix of hip-hop, experimental and jazz influences. This is a song about shooting the shit with your friends and I love the laughs, stutters and sighs that permeate the track. - Marissa Birnie
“Happy End” - Ryuichi Sakamoto
Sakamoto Ryuichi is an excellent Japanese musician and an award-winning cinematic music composer. He has composed music for The Last Emperor which won nine academy awards including best cinematic music. His music has the magic to calm people down and immerse into the world of the narration. - Elizabeth Wang
You can listen to our playlist here and hey, while you’re there, why not follow our Spotify account?