Reddit mentions of Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization

I've seen this video shared at least once every year for the last 3-4 years on various sites and boards, and it bothers me each time because it's a short video that doesn't even begin to touch on something cultural anthropologists have been discussing for decades - Japan's interaction with Western Culture.

In the case of Hip-Hop culture in Japan, I'd suggest reading the work of Ian Condry (amazon link) if you ever get the chance, as he's actually interviewed Japanese rappers, dancers, and so forth and has taken years to study how the Japanese have adopted Hip-Hop. Now what I've personally learned while being there and doing undergrad study is that it really is two fold and the concept of "appropriation" really depends on the person. I mean, I've met Japanese people who I'd consider more "hip-hop" than say, Cheef Keef or even Drake, because of their knowledge and respect of both the history and the culture. On the other hand, I've of course ran into a few people who are only interested in it for the money and money alone. So based on my knowledge and experience, it's unfair for me to generalize all Japanese people into "Black culture" as culturally appropriating when I know far more people that had genuine respect for both the artistry and the people behind the art. That is more than what I can say for the Justin Timberlake's of the world, but I've got a bit of an ax to grind with that dude that I won't delve into here (lol).

So in the end it all depends because you're talking about a culture that has been adopting aspects of Western culture since the end of WW2. In the case of Hip-Hop, it was actually brought to Japan in the early/mid 80s by Hip-Hop's pioneers themselves. So it can be a pretty complicated discussion without the context of history and even local customs.

I'm big fan of Shing02, but I've had a Japanese guy talk to me about how wack J-Rap lyrics are. I see his point, but I have to say tracks like the ones you linked as well as these songs from Shing02 and THA BLUE HERB have a respectable kind of beats and flow.

Shing02 - 誉 (Homare)

Shing02 - Pearl Harbor

THA BLUE HERB - NUCLEAR, DAMN

And of course some old school Kohei Japan - Hungry Strut

A good read on Japanese Hip-Hop is a book called Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization by Ian Condry. Condry basically chronicles the importing and customization of Hip-Hop in Japan, and does everything from lyrical analysis to explaining how it's not just a black and white appropriation. He gives an amazing look at that Kohei Japan track I linked as well as a number of other artists/tracks that range from obscure to pop culture. I'll give you a couple of my favorite excerpts from the beginning of the book (It gets pretty deep and nuanced. Definitely a fantastic read if you can get yourself a copy).

>"...Japanese rappers, by allying themselves with African American rap, engage in what might be called a new cultural politics of affiliation...gestures toward alliances across racial boundaries demand analysis in terms of their multiple frames of reference. I would argue that many uses of hip-hop in Japan attempt to produce a kind of political affiliation, but that the politics must be situated in the spaces and contexts in which they are performed. This reorients our attention away from questions of whether the Japanese 'get it' or 'don't get it' when it comes to race and hip-hop..." (pg. 29)



>"Greg Tate (2003) asks rhetorically, What do white people take from black people? His answer: Everything but the burden...the work of scholars and critics who describe hip-hop in terms of the deep and enduring connections between African American struggles and aesthetics is political in the sense that it disrupts the too-easy assumption of many privileged white fans that by listening to hip-hop they are getting close to black people." (pg. 32)



>"...the 'Elvis effect'...black folk make music, and whites remake it and make big bucks....Where is the line between cross-cultural influence and cross-cultural theft? (Dreisinger 2002, 134)."(pg. 33)

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>"...Japanese emcees often clothe themselves in images of samurai toughness. The idea that hip-hop artists must prove themselves in public battle encourages artists to pose for photos with katana [samurai swords] to assert that "the mic is my sword" and to describe a ponytail hairstyle as a chonmage (topknot)." (pg.49)


I'd say a disclaimer for these excerpts is that they're taken out of context, so they may seem a bit slanted in opinion. Condry does a good job of methodically going through his points and explaining them well for the most part, these are just particular parts of his writing that resonated with me enough to highlight them/make notes in the margins.

EDITED FOR SPELLING ERROR

Hip Hop is a culture, not a music.
Besides all that, like I said I'm not wasting my time explaining this to you but please feel free to read some of the books below that are very interesting (particularly the second link) and they will give you a better of idea of where you're completely wrong. Better than I could I'm sure. I've never been there see.

https://books.google.ie/books/about/Introductory_Readings_In_Anthropology.html?id=WXFFAAAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y

https://www.amazon.com/Hip-Hop-Japan-Paths-Cultural-Globalization/dp/0822338920