Japanese Hip Hop/Rap

Is anyone else into Japanese Hip Hop/Rap? I actually got introduced to it back in 2008 when I accidentally sumbled upon a channel on television that was playing Battle Royale, which has a Dragon Ash song playing in its end credits. Since then I've been pretty much listening to their music. I mostly listened to that one song though for a few years. I was just happy to add another variation to the languages I already listened to like German, French, Dutch, and ofcourse Swedish (where I'm from). And obviously American rap, where it all started (2pac etc).

I'm just a bit bummed out that the Hip Hop scene isn't very big over there. It has so much potential. And I think Japanese sounds awesome in rap.

Anyway, here are a few of my favourites



(the girl parts are kinda bad, because her english accent is so insanely bad. but hey, she's Japanese. Can't blame her. The rest of the song is awesome though, especially the second verse by Zeebra)



Here's a more recent with Kenji from Dragon Ash



That's all I can think of right now.

I so hope I'm not the only one into it around here Feel free to post any songs, I want to find more, if there are any!

Originally posted by ZikhaN

I'm just a bit bummed out that the Hip Hop scene isn't very big over there. It has so much potential. And I think Japanese sounds awesome in rap.

?? The Japanese hip hop scene is very big over there. Here are couple of my favorite artists, many of which I listen to every day:

Ketsumeishi



Shing02



mfl0 (mainly Verbal)
Michita
Yakenohara



TamakiROY (stylized 環ROY, you'll find his songs easier that way)



Dorian
Dabo
Norikiyo
KREVA
Rip Slyme is also very big over there (almost forgot lol)

much much more. You'll find more just by looking these guys ^^ I recommend learning kana (the alphabet) if you want to look up more, but for now, here's a good Youtube channel with alot of J-rap videos and artists

www.youtube.com...

reply to post by mr10k


Hip Hop is definitely not big in Japan dude. It's the same with Korea. I've been listening to Korean rap for equally long. And while some bands like Big Bang have some rap in them, it's still not full blown hip hop. There's no way a rapper will make it as big as a pop artist in Japan or Korea. It's just such a shame.

Dragon Ash and Zeebra basically brought hip hop to Japan, and made it kinda popular. But that was many many years ago unforunately. And Kenji dropped a lot of his rapping for singing, which is a huge bummer. Because he's such a #ing amazing rapper. Zeebra is still rapping, but he's nowhere near making it big over there.

Thanks for showing your music though. Isn't the second song just an american born japanese though? Since he's not rapping in japanese at all. Didn't like them too much, except for the last one which was decent though. I don't mean to be a douchy existentialist, i'm just being honest =p But thanks for sharing. If you have any more to share please do.

Here's another good japanese rap remix I like



...aaand this one



Are you into Korean rap too? Here's some of my favourites:



(mix of english and korean, put on 720p btw cuz it sounds horrible at normal quality)







(1tym are like the korean dragon ash. they're pioneers of korean hip hop/rap)









There's a lot more variety of rappers in Korea. But they can't even make it big over there. They're forced to become singing pop stars :/

Originally posted by ZikhaN
reply to post by mr10k

 

Hip Hop is definitely not big in Japan dude. It's the same with Korea. I've been listening to Korean rap for equally long. And while some bands like Big Bang have some rap in them, it's still not full blown hip hop. There's no way a rapper will make it as big as a pop artist in Japan or Korea. It's just such a shame.

Dragon Ash and Zeebra basically brought hip hop to Japan, and made it kinda popular. But that was many many years ago unforunately. And Kenji dropped a lot of his rapping for singing, which is a huge bummer. Because he's such a #ing amazing rapper. Zeebra is still rapping, but he's nowhere near making it big over there.

Thanks for showing your music though. Isn't the second song just an american born japanese though? Since he's not rapping in japanese at all. Didn't like them too much, except for the last one which was decent though. I don't mean to be a douchy existentialist, i'm just being honest =p But thanks for sharing. If you have any more to share please do.

Living in Japan for 10+ years, I can affirmatively say that hip hop is big in Japan. Like I said, learn the language and it would be easy to find songs, and there are many many rap artists in Japan. It does not dominate the culture as much as pop does, but it is the 2nd most popular genre over there behind pop. The second artist, Shing02 is not American-born. He can speak English, French, and Japanese and was born in Japan.

I don't listen to much Korean songs, since I can't speak Korean nor have I been there often, but I know a few of the artists from watching alot of Korean drama