"The way music from America and other Western countries got imported into Japan, the roots are different," says Ayatake Ezaki, keyboardist for Tokyo-based quartet Wonk. "In Japan, hip-hop is hip-hop, jazz is jazz, soul is soul — that's how they've been received," he continues. "But ...
There was a time when Japanese music labels were concerned that Ai Carina Uemura's music sounded too American due to her R&B style. "Like, from the beginning of my career. They told me all the time, 'People aren't going to understand that type of music,'" ...
On "Es.U.Es Corporation," DJ Krush's collaborators bring an undeniable energy to the proceedings, and the veteran turntablist responds with some of his grittiest productions since the 1990s.
Yurufuwa Gang are one of the latest Japanese hip-hop acts to be getting attention from both domestic media and overseas players. As the nation's rap scene experiences something of a modest boom, the pair of Ryugo Ishida and Sophiee seem poised to be part ...
It has been six years since Shizuoka-based DJ Okawari last released an album, but his timing in releasing new collection "Compass" couldn't be better. It's a set of warm, calming hip-hop beats anchored by acoustic guitar and orchestral string swells, a comforting bit of escapism ...
Midway through our conversation at a dimly lit Shibuya cafe, Meirin Yung offers to break down any song on her recently released album under the name Zombie-Chang. I choose the slacker-inspired "Semete Kanashii Tokiniwa" (loosely translated as "At Least in Sad Times") that served ...
One of the country's fastest rising hip-hop artists just might be on his way to becoming the first internationally recognized rap star Japan has produced. For the past several years, Tokyo's Kohh has been steadily building buzz in the capital's hip-hop scene thanks to mixtapes ...
The Hoodie Monks bring together two cultures that might at first seem like unlikely partners: Buddhism and hip-hop.
English words and phrases have been a part of the Japanese MC's arsenal since hip-hop culture began making inroads here in the early to mid-1980s. "Bilingual rap," however, became a more prominent style when seminal rap group Buddha Brand came out in the mid-'90s with ...
Rapper and producer Brandon Katou (aka OMSB) is an artist that, while humble, exhibits a sense of pride in his work atypical of Japanese artists. In recent interviews he's done for his new album, he's compared himself to big-name acts like Kendrick Lamar and ...
Back in 2008, a beat-making competition called Goldfinger's Kitchen was held in Tokyo's Shibuya district. In each round, contestants had 15 minutes to chop and flip a given sample on an MPC sampler as the crowd watched. When the 15 minutes were up, the ...
