Re: Tokyo 1995 Hip Hop Report

Ben List (zero_mag@cyborg.or.jp)
Fri, 29 Mar 1996 01:09:33 +1000


Yuuta Sasaki wrote:
> At 12:53 PM 3/17/96 +1000, you wrote:
> Maybe I'm the only one hearing it but the rhymes of Buddha Brand,
> Shakkazombie and Twigy remind me a lot of mdi-80s Dej Jam outfits (LL Cool
> J, Beasties) and their 'da-da-da-DA' style of emphasing the foruth syllable.
This is true... although I think this is less an act of intentional
"emulation" than a lack of exploration of other forms. Twigy in particular
plays with rythms extremely well, jumping in and out of the beats, etc.
Ironic, but this sort of rapping is relatively recent to the scene, with
representative older artists such as ECD, You the Rock, SDP, etc. being
a little "loose" with rhythms in general. Buddha Brand is often referred
to by Egaitsu as "new old school," though, so you're not far off...
Although I tend to think that Twigy is beyond this and Shakka is perhaps
aiming for a Shakkazombie vibe...

> Also, Twigy's technique of rappingasfastaspossible seemed kinda old; I
> honestly couldn't see the point when it was big with American rappers
I have to say this is definitely a matter of taste... I've always felt that
a rapper best proves his skill with "deftness of tongue." Lyrical skills
aren't just about lyrics.
> either. Finally, my critique pertains to a few of these rappers, the DJs
> throughout the vid seemed quite deft with their turntables and at producing
> wicked beats. Of course, both elements peaked (for me anyhow) with that
> Soul Scream performance (BTW any rumours of an album anytime soon?). Once
> again, Wow.
Soul Scream is rumoured to have already recorded a couple tracks for
an album sometime this year. I'm looking forward to it, but it was
interesting to hear one of the guys from King Giddra talk to me the
other day about what's wrong with Soul Scream's rhymes...

> NT - Also relating to the vid, I noticed that for most of the performances,
> there seemed to be an exclusively male crowd (of course, I could see the
> crowd only a couple rows deep). I was wondering if this is the case with
> most outfits and artists. Not relating to the music directly, apologies and
> cheers.
Not really... although generally its probably about a 65% male to 35% female
crowd normally.

___________________________________________________________________ ben LIST*
*Ludens CG & Systems Creation <ben@ludens.co.jp> W/PH: 03-5999-7047
*tYPOtHERAPY!dESIGN <tYPOtHERAPY@mASSIVE.cOM> H/PH: 03-5999-0818
*ZERO magazine <zero_mag@cyborg.or.jp> W/FX: 03-5999-7048
*ele-bugi (URL) http://www.eccosys.com/ELEBUGI/index.html