A beat tape is a set of instrumentals, usually short and loosely sequenced, that a producer gathers into a single release. The format began as a practical tool: in the 1980s and 1990s producers passed cassettes of beats to rappers and labels as a calling card, and swapping them was part of building a reputation among peers.
In the early 2000s CDs of beats by Madlib and Jay Dee, later known as J Dilla, circulated widely, and listeners began to treat such collections as albums in their own right. J Dilla’s Donuts, released by Stones Throw in February 2006, grew from the idea of turning a strong demo beat tape into a full album. The format then moved to zipped files shared online and later to Bandcamp, where it remains one of the most common ways for lo-fi and jazzhop producers to publish their work, sometimes alongside a small cassette edition.