I was just listening to DJ Krush’s Candle Chant feat. Boss the MC. What an amazing song! If you know/like this song, I want your advice. Having lived in Japan for some time, but not speaking fluently by any strech of the imagination, I am still spellbound by this song. I love the way the Japanese language sounds in Rap/Hip-Hop.
Any recommendations for other Rap/Hip-Hop songs in Japanese? Any others by DJ Krush, perhaps? Group names are good, but specific songs are better.
Perhaps this is just too narrow a topic for the Doper population?
I don’t really listen to hip-hop anymore, but I did have a very brief fling with J-rap.
One of my favourite groups at the time was Soul Scream, especially the album The Positive Energy. There’s also a remix of that album by big-names like Coldcut and Ryu.
Ryu is a collaboration featuring DJ Krush. It’s slightly experimental stuff, but there’s a couple of good tracks on their album “Ga”.
I also have a decent CD by a unit called schadaraparr. That’s about the extent of my knowledge.
I find the Japanese hip-hop scene too amusing to take seriously, but I believe that Kick the Can Crew and Rip Slyme are two of the more popular groups as the moment.
Yeah, sure, if you look at the popular groups. But I have a hard time taking many popular American artists seriously too.
On the other hand, DJ Krush is hugely respected throughout the world, the Beastie Boys worked with Schadaraparr, and Coldcut had fun with a Soul Scream track. Japanese hip-hop can be pretty “serious”, and some people are definitely getting some things right.
I don’t think the songs that make the charts are in any way representative of the hip hop scene in Japan.
Japanese is a natural language for rap. It’s very rhythmical, there’s awesome potential for allitteration and such. The problem here is the same as elsewhere: too many “hey, yo, man, when you put the mic in my hand” shallow crap.
Yeah, judging Japanese Hip-Hop by Kick the Can Crew and RipSlyme is like judging America rap by Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer. There is good stuff out there.
My friend who is into underground Japanese Hip-Hop really likes a crew called NIPPS, also known as “hibahihi” (”ò—t”ò‰Î if your PC reads Japanese). They’re pretty cool. We also did a show with a crew called Origami (~_, “god descended,” not “paper-folding”). They were good too. Not all this poseur pop-rap crap that the young-uns are so into over here.
Folks back home don’t know how good they got it. I’d take Justin Timberlake over fucking Chemistry and Morning Musume any day of the week.
Yeah I hear that. Every culture has got its shyte music. But Chemistry is about the lowest of the low, IMHO. Can’t blame them for making money, though. When you live in Japan you realize that there really is a market for that kind of stuff.
If you can’t take J-rap seriously, I’d suggest that you listen to the aforementioned Candle Chant on DJ Krush’s Zen album. (Apparently) It’s a song about another rapper/friend of his who was in the hospital but wanted to record a track with Krush. They were going to actually record the track in his hospital room, but by the time they could make it all happen, he had already passed away. And here all the time I though it was about love! (at least from the 1 of every 50 words I can make out). Still very powerful stuff.
I’m definitely gonna try to track down some Schadaraparr, Soul Scream, NIPPS and others mentioned. Any specific tracks which catch your ear?