The summer is in its full glory in the Japanese rap scene. We’ve gathered songs of hip-hop and rap songs summer 2017 that we think are worth checking out. Music producer Chaki Zulu is a name that keeps popping up because of his great beats which many of the Japanese rappers use. See his soundcloud here. YDIZZY‘s latest album DIZZiNESS featuring many great tracks where Chaki as producer. We also have the highly anticipated new album from Awich where many various rappers like YOUNG JUJU is featured. We also got some other artists that aren’t expected that we hope you can have the pleasure of discovering for the first time.
AKKO GORILLA (あっこゴリラ) and the hip-hop beatmaker & MPC player has collaborated and the results is amazing.
Last month we didn’t report about this because the reality was that we didn’t find it until recently. The song in our opinion deserves much more listening. The song we are talking about is her most recent single “YELLOW FEVER” (黄熱病 in Japanese). You can see that the music video has only about 13.000 views, released in February 28 2017 on YouTube. For that reason we wanted to give the song more attention and perhaps introduce the artist herself AKKO GORILLA to you.
She has first released the album ‘Tokyo Banana’ January 2016, then later she released Back to the Jungle’ EP last November. They all were well received and she seems to grow more and more.
New music video from CHANMINA has just been released on YouTube from her just-released new album “未成年”. You can listen on it below. Image from chanmina.com.
DISCUSSION ABOUT HER CHANGED STYLE
There have been a lot of discussion in the comments about her changed style. She has definitely moved from hip-hop to j-pop music. She also commentated about this and said that’s more of what she wants to do, rather than just hip-hop. We’ve covered this in our last article. It is also said that she has lost 10 kg according to YouTube user HONOKA, and therefore become much skinnier than before.
“Everyone, thanks for watching as always. From your happy words and even your sad words I can learn a lot and they give me a strong power.
The album has been released. So tonight from 10 a.m./p.m., I will present an Instagram live for all of you! Please watch it, I’m a little bit afraid of not being a good speaker but I’d be glad to tell you a lot of things, including about the new album. Don’t miss it! See you there!“
The time has come for the artist the blew up after having great viewcounts for her PRINCESS and FXXKER tracks on YouTube. In just two days, the 8th March her new album releases. This album is called 未成年, which means “minor”. Chanmina was also featured in our 10 Great female Japanese rappers.
Prev of the album
As you can hear from the preview and the most recent released LADY you can tell she is moving away from the rapping scene in regards to music genre. More of the songs are more j-pop rather than hip-hop and rap. According to YouTube comments she has commentated on this and said that she want to do music, rather than just hip-hop. Below are some comments from the LADY track. Below is some discussion about this (all comments from one same thread).
ちゃんみな本人が “私がやりたいのは ラップっていうか 音楽なんだよね。HIPHOPっていうより音楽なんだよね”って言ってました‼ 既にご存知だったら すいません? She herself said, “What I want to do rather than rap is just music. More music than hip-hop. If you knew this already I am sorry.
TRACK LIST
01. 未成年 Feat. めっし (NEW MIX)
02. FXXKER
03. BEST BOY FRIEND
04. She’s Gone
05. LADY
06. ナニモコワクナイ
07. Princess (NEW MIX)
08. Wonderland
09. OVER
10. UR like ME
11. ダイキライFeat. ちゃんみな / TeddyLoid (BONUS TRACK)
Possible collaboration with Reichi
Perhaps we might see Chanmina do a collaboration with Reichi in the future of some tracks. Reason why this could be a possibility is because they seem to be good friends according to this video. Reichi is another really hot Japanese female rapper right now who blew up after dropping the track Betty Girl. Hopefully we can see a collaboration in the future between the two Japanese rappers.
The most recent song from SHO is all about shaved head and beard. Yes that’s right, he is literally saying “shaved head” and “beard” repeatedly through the song.
Bouzu means shaved head
Hige means beard
The lyrics kind of goes like this so you can sing along..
1982 bouzu ni hige bouzu ni hige, bouzu ni hige! bbobobobo bouzu, hige! HIGE! bouzuni hige! hige! bobobo-bouzu bouz bouzu hige hihihihihi ge (and so forth).
BOUZU!
BOBOBOBOUZU!
HI GE GE GE GE GE BOUZU!
I think you get the jest of it. Now does this mean anything? We don’t know and people are speculating and giving their opinion in the YouTube comment field. We’ve decided to translate some YouTube comments for you. From the top comments.
Last month, February, there was a few good Japanese rap and hip-hop music videos that were released. Quite a month for Japanese rap and hip-hop music! They are all down below that you can check out and listen to.
From the newly released (2017-02-24) REP IN MY CITY PT. 2 album there is this song that just got released called 1人でしない, meaning, “not alone”. More than Kowichi himself DJ TY-KOH and Young Hastle featured in the song.
Maybe one of the YouTube comments describes this song the best, “新曲なのに懐かしく感じる……” by Fashion kiLLar, saying “Even if it’s a new song it feels nostalgic”.
Just like Kowichi, Y’S have just released a new album, the SMALL ASIAN THE MIXTAPE 2 featuring as many as 21 different tracks.
MARIA from SIMI LAB – SPASA
Quite surprisingly graphic music video released from Japanese rapper MARIA. She sings about drinking an (non caffeine) energy alcohol drink called “SPASA“. Their slogan, “Awaken the Samurai within”.
SHIKI RECORDS might be a record label you want to check out. They might not be the biggest in the Japanese hip-hop scene but they have great hip-hop rappers who released new music as of recently and are growing in popularity. They have some artists that definitely are worth checking out. We’ve found these groups through the official SHIKI RECORDS website. Some of the rappers you’ll see are YOUNGI who released his single ILLMENTION featuring YAS and MAR (the C.E.O of the label). Other rappers included in this record label are SNIPE, SIN, GAK and DORA along with DJ TAKANORI. We’ve made a Spotify list of some music from the label record.
Mr. Musician
The record also have a music hip-hop unit called Mr. Musician were these said rappers are featured. Just a week ago they released a mini album “Bring back the Bacon”. It is them who are on the picture above.
Spotify Playlist
Here we’ve gathered the whole Bring back the Bacon mini album together with some of the rappers.
The famous Japanese singer Utada Hikaru releases new music video featuring rapper KOHH in her song 忘却, pronounced: Bōkyaku. Released on her birthday 19th January. She is what the fans say “the queen of jpop” and with her featuring rapper KOHH makes it a powerful combination.
The song title Bouyaku means forgotten. The English lyrics has already made available and they are very emotional to say the least. You can read then below the video.
English Translated Lyrics
The one I love isn’t here anymore
In Heaven or Hell
They’re in places no one can see
Memories of when I was three
Good memories of 23 years ago
I can’t remember them, but
I can’t forget
Even the dirty things appear beautiful
A nostalgic voice, leaving me to go to someone else
I’ll toss the memories into the rubbish bin
Pour gasoline on them and burn them
then change into my mourning dress until someone comes to greet me
I’m alive just to die
That’s why we’re born, that alone
If I could go to the grave, I’d be happy
Sleeping in the coffin, covered in tattoos, with these cold hands
Everyone’s crying, and that’s the worst
That’s the worst
That’s the worst
We should just forget it all
Clinging to the past is so uncool
I don’t need it anymore
Hot lips, cold hands
Let me forget the words
Hard liquor and scary dreams
Let me dance with my eyes shut
The path leading to a bright place
may not necessarily be bright
Where’s the exit? It’s nothing but entrances
I ran through a deep forest
Even if feet are torn off
Even with an artificial leg
for all time run, Melos!
I’m closing my mouth, but
I open my eyes
and see hard liquor and vomit
I’ll never go back
If I could, once more
I’d like to spit out the saliva I drank
Men too can double-deal
I love you, that’s why I hate you
If I could see you, I’d like to
Happy but in pain
We’re so greedy
Asking for too much again
Empty requests
Hot lips, cold hands
Let me forget the words
Tight jeans, gentle eyes
Call me by that nostalgic name
In this vast world there’s an unknown stage
I hate my bag, it just gets in the way
Hard liquor and scary dreams
When I someday die, empty-handed would be best
When you have South Korean and Japanese collaborated hip-hop tracks you know it is going to be good. That’s is at least what most of us felt after Okasian and KOHH were together in the same famous track “It G Ma“. If you’ve missed it, we want to present you another awesome track that was released August 2016 called “Save Time” by these two, who are maybe the hottest Asian rappers out there. Okasian is one of the biggest Korean rappers that blew up more internationally after his hit “It G Ma” featuring the Japanese rapper KOHH alongside with other South Koreans. What is different apart from the song being completely different, is that this time it is only Okasian and KOHH rapping.
Directed and Produced by 88 Rising . They describe the song and music video as following:
Okasian and KOHH come together for a powerful collaboration painting the picture of life.
Seoul City to Shibuya.
Let’s connect the world.
Save time.
It G ma
The song that blew up in popularity and made a big impact on the hip-hop scene “It G ma” by Okasian featuring KOHH among others.
Creepy Nuts is an unit of 1 MC, R-指定, and 1 track maker, DJ 松永. They announced that a new mini album is on the way called “助演男優賞”. In English: Award for Best Supporting Actor. You can get a sense of how the album is from their new recent trailer below. Release date is set to February 1st 2017.
Track list:
助演男優賞
どっち
教祖誕生
朝焼け
未来予想図
助演男優賞
First song of the album, 助演男優賞 with same name as the album, is already released with a music video on YouTube.
English 
日本語
“Everyone, thanks for watching as always. From your happy words and even your sad words I can learn a lot and they give me a strong power.
The album has been released. So tonight from 10 a.m./p.m., I will present an Instagram live for all of you! Please watch it, I’m a little bit afraid of not being a good speaker but I’d be glad to tell you a lot of things, including about the new album. Don’t miss it! See you there!“