Hip Hop Japan: Vocabulary Quiz

• Masculinity:　男らしさ、男性権威主義
• Patriarchy:　父権主義
• Sexism:　セクシズム　性差別主義
• Object:　モノ、モノ扱い
• Misogyny:　女嫌い、女性蔑視
• Ho:　売女
• Bitch:　ビッチ
• Thug:　サグ、ワル
• Incarceration:　ムショ行き

list compiled by by 5th Element

This past Monday night, I attended a film screening and seminar run by 5th Element, an awesome Tokyo based organization and blog dedicated to Hip-hop music and culture. I first ran into these guys last summer at Ian Condry's Hip-Hop Japan seminar and after party.

Monday's event was a film screening of Beyond Beats and Rhymes, a film by Byron Hurt that takes a critical look at misogyny and sexism in American Hip-hop music. Keiko Tanaka, one of 5th Element's  main contributors, told me after the screening that the members of the group were fans of the film since it came out in 2006 and were patiently waiting for a release in Japan. When one never came, they took matters into their own hands, translating and subtitling the entire film themselves.

It must have been a monstrous task. The academic jargon of the documentary film must have been difficult enough. But the real challenge I imagine would be translating and conveying the meaning of the various rap songs played throughout the film. Can one think of a more complex usage of wordplay than American Hip-hop music?

It's something I think about often. The proliferation of American Hip-hop is global, as big in Japan as anywhere else. People the world over listen to great rap music, but how much of the poetry actually passes through cultural and linguistic barriers.

"Honeys play me close like butta played toast, from the Mississippi down to the East Coast..." I'm sure that plenty of the Shibuya thugs I see listen to Notorious B.I.G., but how many of them truly understand the levels of wordplay of the line above? Hip-hop vocabulary, wordplay, and cultural references are difficult even for native speakers.

But then again, this could just be my stereotype.  Some of the original Japanese rappers spoke fluent English and picked up the genre in the mid-80's during their travels in the USA. Furthermore, as strange as it may sound, Hip-hop catch phrases and slang have become part of the global lexicon. The aforementioned Shibuya thugs probably wouldn't get beyond the first paragraph of this blog, but ask them about slappin' ho's and bustin' gats and they will probably know exactly what you are talking about.

The above vocabulary list was passed around for the viewers of the film.

Hip Hop Japan: Part III

This time around, my own band has made it into tonight's series of events! I'm currently playing drums in a J-Reggae/J-Hip-hop group with Japanese musicians Keita and Kenji on guitars and vocals and Englishman Alex on bass.

Kenji is our frontman and MC. As a rapper and musician, his songwriting, lyricism, and rhyming is just unreal. One of these days I'm going to get some video and audio up in this joint.

We did a gig tonight at The Game in Shibuya. The event was a Hip-hop showcase featuring all kinds of DJ's, MC's, and live bands like ours. Special guest in the lineup was the famous Japanese rapper, Kohei Japan. As a matter of fact, Ian Condry, the author who has made it into so many of this past month's posts, mentions Kohei Japan quite a few times in his book, Hip-Hop Japan. When I first read the book 2 years ago, I don't think it crossed my mind that I would one day be hanging out in the venues and (at least in some sense) sharing the stage with some of the acts mentioned.

A few shots:

Here's Keita singing Japanese Surfer Reggae and strumming his guitar. He learned to speak fluent English by surfing throughout the world.

Here's Kenji bustin' some rhymes. His background is part Kenyan and part Japanese. As if Barack Obama was a Japanese rapper...
And of course Kohei Japan:
I can say with confidence that my group played well and got the crowd pumped. Thanks to everyone who came out to support!

Hip-Hop Japan: Part II

Last week, I wrote about meeting Ian Condry, the MIT profressor who authored an incredible book about the Japanese Hip-hop scene, Hip Hop Japan: Rap and The Paths to Cultural Globalization. Yesterday, Condry had organized a panel discussion at Waseda University to promote the recent Japanese translation of the book. Sitting on the panel were the three translators of the book, Condry himself, and K Dub Shine, a hit selling artist and one of the pioneers of Japanese rap music. When it was his turn to speak, by the way he grabbed the mic, it looked as if he was about to spit some rhymes.

The panel began with each speaker talking about their background and relation to the book. After about an hour, the moderator opened the floor for questions. The audience seemed extremely engaged by the topics at hand and from what I could gather, they were really grilling the panelists with intense and thought provoking questions. "How can one define Hip-hop culture?"... "How do the racial issues in Hip-hop relate to discrimination against Koreans?"... By that point, my Japanese comprehension was failing. I raised my hand and asked the translators about which parts of the book the Japanese readership would find enlightening and which parts would they disagree with. Unfortunately, I didn't understand a word of the response.

Later at night, an after-party was scheduled at a loft bar in ever trendy Shimo-kitazawa, a hip part of town that doesn't make it into this blog enough. Condry was scheduled to make his DJ debut...



Seriously, Mr. Condry is my new idol. I had to rub my eyes a few times because I didn't believe what I saw. A middle-aged white guy with a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Yale and tenure at MIT might be the last person you would expect to see behind two turntables at an underground Japanese Hip-hop party. But there he was, doing a geeky white-boy dance, wearing an LED t-shirt, and dropping the fly-est Japanese beats that you've ever heard. The crowd of 20-something Japanese young people, including a group of trendy Japanese girls in the front row, were simply getting down!

Next up on the DJ roster was Miss Monday, one of the top selling Japanese female rap artists. When Condry did his research, she was a young and upcoming talent, but since then, she has become a huge name.

Last night, she was spinning a set of minimal techno and a electro grooves. She seemed laid back and inconspicuous, with nothing about her aura giving away her true popularity in the music world. After her set, while she was smoking a cigarette and grooving to the music on the dance floor, I worked up the guts to talk to her for a bit and tell her about the Werewolf project. I gave her my business card and she slipped it into the strap of her tank-top. It may have been the single coolest thing that has ever happened to me.

Through the course of the night, I also had a chance to chat with many of the people involved in the Japanese edition of the book including the translators and editor. They were a mix of traditional academics and hip contemporary researchers. One of the guys actually specialized in Japanese snowboarding culture. I also got to talk with Ian about his experiences writing the book and what it was like being an academic invading the streets of Japan.

He told me about how when he was younger, he would often run into middle aged guys in suits at the clubs where he was doing his fieldwork. He said he knew he was destined to be the old guy at the bar (see prior images). I told him that when he turns 64, we'll all be back here to party with him some more.

I swear though, I can't keep up with Japanese people. The last DJ was spinning funky remixes of 1980's Japanese pop songs till 6:30AM when the morning sun was shinning brightly. Ian was there going strong, drinking, dancing, schmoozing, and signing copies of his book for all his new fans.

So this one is for you Mr. Condry. Standing atop Mnt. Fuji with a full moon in the background, the Werewolf howls at you in salute!

Hip-Hop Japan meets Giant Robots

Anyone interested in music and Japanese pop culture (i.e. ME) should take a look at Hip-Hop Japan written by anthropologist and MIT professor Ian Condry. The book was first recommended to me by a Yale professor when I was putting together my soon to be doomed Fulbright application back during senior year. (Fulrbight didn't work out, but a year later, the Werewolf was born...)

The book is an inspiring in-depth analysis of Japanese Hip-hop culture as observed directly from the streets. Condry spent years following and researching underground rap groups at the most legit Tokyo clubs and late-night spots. The perspective of the book is of an ethnographer who sees Hip-hop in Japan as the unique result of modern globalization.

I picked up the book last week and read it once again cover to cover. It resonated with me even more strongly this time around, considering that many of the places he writes about are hangouts in and around my scene. On a whim the other day, I decided to email Condry about the Werewolf project and see if he would be around Tokyo in the near future. He responded to my message promptly. As luck would have it, he is in town this very week with an MIT theater troupe. The group is performing a play that he wrote, "Live Action Anime: Madness at Mokuba." He invited me to the performance this past evening.

The show is a somewhat nonsensical modern piece woven together by Japanese pop cultural stereotypes and over-the-top costuming. The main character is a Japanese school girl and the villians are two salarywomen who attempt to brainwash children with the siezure-inducing flashing lights of a Pokemonesque video game. Various anime and Japanese character clichés are worked into the plot, with a finale battle royale between giant styrofoam robots of quite brilliant adhoc construction.

I'm not one to read into such things too much, but I think the point of the show was to create an amusing high tech satire that simultaneously celebrates and mocks stereotypes of this nation's popular culture. I was really into the performance, but I worry one would have to be privy to all the references to get it.

I stuck around for the cast and crew after-party for a few hours and met some very interesting people, many of whom knew of Condry through the academic world. I brought along my copy of Hip-Hop Japan and approached Condry later in the night for an autograph. He had had a few drinks and was noticeably buzzed with a little rose color in his cheeks. The conversation went as follows.

"Would I be a total loser if I asked you to sign my book." I said pulling out the volume and a black marker.

"I love that shit. It makes me feel important," he replied with a hint of slurred speech. He grabbed the book and marker, sat down, and opened to the first page to sign. "Jonathan, right?"

"No. Ethan," I corrected him.

He then wrote in my book "To Ethan- キープ・リアル！！P.E.A.C.E." The Japanese transliterates to keepu rearu, of course meaning keep it real.

I have to say it was very cool for me to meet someone who has made a career out of this kind of research. The Tokyo Werewolf takes a humble bow.