Hip Hop Music of Japan

Hip-hop is a current form of music on the Japanese music scene; many felt it was a movement that would immediately pass. Though, the genre has lasted for several years and is still thriving. In fact, rappers in Japan did not achieve the success of the hip hop musicians in other countries until the late 1980s. It was primarily due to the music world’s belief that Japanese sentence to the music industry known as rhyming effect that was contained in American rappers’ songs. There is a certain, well-defined structure to the music industry known as The Pyramid Structure of a Music scene. As Lan Condry notes, viewing a music scene in terms of a pyramid offers a more nuanced understanding of how to interpret the important of the various levels and types of success. The levels are as follows (from the lowest to the highest); fans and important musicians, performing artists, recording artists (Indies), major label artists, and mega-hit stars. These different levels can be clearly seen at a genba, or nightclub. The different families of rappers perform on stage; a family is basically a collection of rap orchestras that are usually headed by one of the more popular Tokyo acts, which also include a series of wards. They are significant because they are the key to understand stylistic differences between the groups. Hip hop supporters in the audience are the ones in control of the night club. They are the judges who determine the winners in rap battles on stage. An instance of this can be seen with the battle between rap musicians Dabo (a major label artist) and Kan (an indie artist). Kan challenged dabo to a battle on stage while Dabo was mid-performaance.

source of picture: exministries.tv