For the fourth episode of H?SHTAG$ – the web series chronicling Internet-based music – Red Bull Music Academy takes a deep dive into the fertile beats scene. Flying Lotus, , The Gaslamp Killer, Shlohmo and XXYYXX are just a few of the artists that talk about how a small LA club night and circle of friends turned into a truly global phenomenon and transformed both electronic music and hip hop along the way.

From DJ Shadow and DJ Krush to Prefuse 73 and a young Four Tet to Dilla, Madlib and their countless adepts, there’s always been a healthy scene centered squarely around the creation of beats. But until recently it’s all felt a bit nebulous. Enter Los Angeles and the Low End Theory crew, whose pioneering night has given a voice (and some recognizable faces, Flying Lotus and The Gaslamp Killer among them) to a movement that has spread around the world. Beats may be the most nebulous term for a H?SHTAG$ episode thus far. Yet we’re still willing to bet you know exactly what we mean. FlyLo’s jazz and psych excursions. TNGHT’s hard-hitting proto-trap anthems. Shlohmo’s woozy R&B experiments. Benji B’s weekly show on BBC Radio 1 and London club night, Deviation. It’s all got a certain something that ties it together. But what is this certain something?

In this fourth episode of our H?SHTAG$ series, we aim to find out with some of the biggest names in beats at the moment. What’s the difference between a beat and a song? What connects artists working in such wildly different BPMs? Why did we care so much about our Top Friends’ List on MySpace once upon a time? Flying Lotus, Hudson Mohawke, Lunice, The Gaslamp Killer, Shlohmo, Dorian Concept and XXYYXX hold court, with additional thoughts from XLR8R editor Shawn Reynaldo and the aforementioned Benji B, amongst others.