Ras G, an experimental hip-hop producer whose kaleidoscopic, throttling beats channeled a wide spectrum of black musical history and established him as a guiding light on the Los Angeles music scene, died on Monday at his home in the city. He was 40.

Bryan Shorter, his youngest brother, confirmed the death but he did not give a cause. He said Ras G had been ill in recent months and had periods of hospitalization.

Splicing together spiritual jazz, classic soul, old-school hip-hop and film soundtracks, Ras G referred to the clamorous, sample-heavy beats he made as “ghetto sci-fi.” He proudly proclaimed his debt to Sun Ra, the jazz bandleader and Afrofuturist pioneer whose message of cultural revolution found new voice in Ras G’s music.

When he began releasing music in the late 2000s, Ras G drew the attention of fellow experimental musicians and listeners, particularly in Los Angeles’s thriving beat-music scene, now considered by many critics to be part of the 21st-century musical vanguard.