Shing02 responded with poetic thoughts about how the world was changing in the shadow of the World Trade Center attacks. ![]() He said, ‘Let’s do another collaboration.’” The resulting “Luv(sic) Part Two” showed that Nujabes had improved rapidly as a producer, learning how to sustain longer chords and develop a sound signature unique from the melodic throwback loops that marked his initial work. I couldn’t go back to California,” he remembered. Like, always looking for something to do.”īy September 2001, Shing02 was living in Japan working on his album, 400. At the core, I think he was like any other person, really fun-loving. So he had access to massive amounts of records, and somehow he turned it into a viable business where he would set up his own label and sell his own records at his own store. He already had the environment of being a record store owner because of his family’s support. But he was very particular, I would say, and very meticulous with his process. (Yoshiharu Ota)Īsked to describe Nujabes personally, Shing02 responds, “He was very calm and introverted in a way. Nujabes gave him a tape of instrumentals, and one of the tracks reminded him of Common’s seminal 1994 lament about the death of positivity in hip-hop culture, “I Used to Love H.E.R.” That inspired their first collaboration, 2001’s “Luv(sic),” where Shing02 proclaimed he would “always love her” in spite of the genre’s convulsions. ![]() Shing02 was already making semi-regular trips to Japan to visit his family and do business, so the two planned to meet in Tokyo. “That was the only way you could gauge how popular your song was: how many represses you got and how thousands of vinyl you were able to press.” “If you remember, this is the golden age of independent 12-inches,” says Shing02 of that era. He was developing a reputation as a producer of jazzy, sampled beats by collaborating with American artists like Substantial, Pase Rock, and Apani B. The former owned a record store in Tokyo’s Shibuya district and a label, Hyde Out Productions. In 2000, Nujabes contacted Shing02 via email with a 12-inch proposal. “As far as Japanese, it’s more a syllable language, so I can chop it up a lot more and be experimental with it.” “As far as the English goes, I’m more of a writer than a crazy chopper,” he says. He’s proficient at English and Japanese rapping, but in different ways. Meanwhile, 246911 is festooned with traditional Japanese drums and melodies and breakbeats. On the former, he retells the story of The Little Prince with hauntingly meditative calm. Standout work like 1999’s bilingual Homo Caeruleus Cerinus and last year’s Japanese-only 246911 (with producer Spin Master A-1) reverberate in spite of potential linguistic differences. Shing02’s strongest quality is as a conceptualist who uses images, lyrics and production to craft memorably esoteric ideas. That activity blossomed into a career that spans two languages and continents. He recorded his first tape, Evolution of the MC/MC No Susume, with local B-boy and musician Bas-1 and Japanese turntablist DJ $hin. He drew album art for Living Legends and Kirby Dominant, submitted illustrations to local rap zines like Dave Paul’s Bomb and the Legends’ Unsigned and Hella Broke, and developed his own music. ![]() “They would teach you the actual hustle of how to get records pressed or where to get blank tapes,” he recalls. Shing02 recalls the presence of local heroes like Del the Funky Homosapien (who he gifted with an illustration in 1994, leading to a friendship), Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Saafir and Hobo Junction, Fanatik, Rasco and Planet Asia. Musicians circulated around record stores like Amoeba, Rasputin and the now-shuttered Leopold’s. In the early ’90s, Berkeley’s Telegraph Avenue thrived with independent hustle. He remembers discovering hip-hop as a self-described “art kid” when his family moved to Menlo Park in 1989, and then getting schooled by classmates when he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley as an engineering student in 1993. From our end, it was done by popular demand.”īefore Shing02 connected with Nujabes, he was a Japanese émigré involved in the Bay Area indie rap scene. “We happen to have the luxury and the privilege of being identified as one of the forefathers of this movement that started retroactively,” says Shing02. ![]() Together, Shing02 and Nujabes made fan favorites like the “Luv(sic)” 12-inch series, music for the Adult Swim anime hit Samurai Champloo (Shing02 raps on the hero’s theme “Battlecry”), and Nujabes’ classic 2005 album, Modal Soul. “They both have the same birthday, ,” says Shing02. Fans compare Nujabes’ to James “ J Dilla” Yancey, another lauded beatmaker whose greatest impact came after his untimely 2006 death, at the age of at 32. A recent video on Nujabes’ influence points out how modern-day rappers as disparate as SahBabii, Jaden Smith and Joey Bada$$ have shouted him out in rhymes.
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