Unquantized drums are programmed or played without snapping every hit to a rhythmic grid. Kicks may land a fraction early, snares a little late and hi-hats with uneven swing, so the pattern sways instead of ticking like a metronome. The approach is most closely associated with J Dilla, who played many of his beats into the MPC by hand, left quantize switched off and nudged individual sounds around the beat.
The nickname is linked to Questlove of The Roots, who compared Dilla’s kick patterns to the playing of a drunk child. Producers such as Flying Lotus carried the feel forward, and in jazz lo-fi it gives programmed drums some of the relaxed, behind-the-beat quality of a live jazz drummer. Producers working in a DAW can imitate it with tuplet grids or by shifting hits manually.