Thievery Corporation is a Washington, D.C.-based electronic duo that's spent nearly three decades crafting some of the most distinctive lounge and downtempo music in the scene. Built on Rob Garza and Eric Hilton's production, their sound started as abstract, instrumental trip-hop and acid jazz before expanding into something far more ambitious—adding vocals, live instrumentation, bossa nova, soul, reggae, dub, and everything in between. What sets them apart is how seriously they take their craft; their albums don't just sound good, they mean something, reflecting a commitment to political messaging, global consciousness, and genuine artistic exploration.
The duo launched their Eighteenth Street Lounge label in 1996 with their debut LP, *Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi*, and gained wider recognition after being featured on Kruder & Dorfmeister's DJ-Kicks compilation. Their breakthrough came with 2000's *The Mirror Conspiracy*, featuring vocalists like Bebel Gilberto and introducing live instrumentation to their palette. From there, they've consistently evolved: *The Richest Man in Babylon* (2002) marked their turn toward protest music, *Radio Retaliation* (2008) channeled Afrobeat and go-go into a political statement, and *The Temple of I & I* (2017) found them recording in Jamaica to fully embrace dub and reggae. Recent projects include a 2020 collaboration with Prague's FILMharmonic Orchestra called *Symphonik*, cementing their status as artists unafraid to reinvent themselves.
