Hip-Hop was introduced in Japan in the 1980’s when the U.S Hip-Hop artists came to tour and did their concerts. Also, it became popular through U.S media and movies like “Wild Style” taken place in the Bronx, which got the first generation Japanese hip hoppers into hip hop. The main elements in Hip-Hop was Djing, break dancing, and graffiti. Mostly likely Japanese hip hoppers are teenagers and in their 20’s. Discos was the spot for hip hoppers to come and chill, but since Djing came along it transition to clubs instead. These Japanese hip hoppers are attached to Hip-Hop because they wanted to look cool like those famous Hip-Hop artists in United States. Soon Japan created a club called Tokyo’s Harlem in the 1990’s and it became one of the
…show more content…
If U.S was to judge other country artists in the hip hop scene, there are going to be a limited view of the political potential of the music in terms of their contribution to African American Struggles overall. In Japan, fans like to listen to authentic rapping than real rapping. Most of these Japanese rappers try to imitate the styles of the rapping when watching MTV. Japanese rappers were really new into the hip hop culture and didn’t now the background of hip hop. They only thought it was cool so they just try it out. Language play a big role for hip hop rappers because it is difficult for them to speak English since they never learned it and speaking Japanese was also hard for them to write lyrics due to different hardships and struggles. In the 1990’s Japanese record companies drop some rapping albums, but it failed to make big hits. After, failing a couple of rapping albums Japanese record companies try to make the Japanese lyrics the same as American hip hop artists. Japanese hip hop artist find it hard to rhyme Japanese lyrics and talk about words like violence and drugs. Different culture has there own struggles and stories to …show more content…
This is why they called it the Elvis Effect. In August 2002, America have featured an article named, “Wanna- Bes: The Weird World of Japanese dancehall Fanatics” (Condry, 2007). Which it talk about how the Black people make music, but the Whites copies and take their ideas to make tons of money. Some Japanese hip hop artists have to pay homage to the originals artists, however most African Americans musicians doesn’t get paid for their own music. Many Black artists wanted to strike, but the fears were misplaced. Zeebra a Japanese rapper quoted, a fan letter expressing his anxiety about Japanese hip hop, “No matter how much one like Black music and culture, both were born from the situations Black faced” (Condry, 2007). For me this was powerful because it is true that no matter if we are a different race other than African Americans we still faced similar struggles. Which it was a brutal process, resistance against whites, the need to be proud of your own identity, and their unique labor in the midst of poverty. Nowadays, Japanese artist and fans are trying to learn the hip hop culture and the roots of the Black history. However, Japanese youth are often represented as being innocent about race and willing to express ideas of racial identity in lyrics for record companies to accept
If U.S was to judge other country artists in the hip hop scene, there are going to be a limited view of the political potential of the music in terms of their contribution to African American Struggles overall. In Japan, fans like to listen to authentic rapping than real rapping. Most of these Japanese rappers try to imitate the styles of the rapping when watching MTV. Japanese rappers were really new into the hip hop culture and didn’t now the background of hip hop. They only thought it was cool so they just try it out. Language play a big role for hip hop rappers because it is difficult for them to speak English since they never learned it and speaking Japanese was also hard for them to write lyrics due to different hardships and struggles. In the 1990’s Japanese record companies drop some rapping albums, but it failed to make big hits. After, failing a couple of rapping albums Japanese record companies try to make the Japanese lyrics the same as American hip hop artists. Japanese hip hop artist find it hard to rhyme Japanese lyrics and talk about words like violence and drugs. Different culture has there own struggles and stories to …show more content…
This is why they called it the Elvis Effect. In August 2002, America have featured an article named, “Wanna- Bes: The Weird World of Japanese dancehall Fanatics” (Condry, 2007). Which it talk about how the Black people make music, but the Whites copies and take their ideas to make tons of money. Some Japanese hip hop artists have to pay homage to the originals artists, however most African Americans musicians doesn’t get paid for their own music. Many Black artists wanted to strike, but the fears were misplaced. Zeebra a Japanese rapper quoted, a fan letter expressing his anxiety about Japanese hip hop, “No matter how much one like Black music and culture, both were born from the situations Black faced” (Condry, 2007). For me this was powerful because it is true that no matter if we are a different race other than African Americans we still faced similar struggles. Which it was a brutal process, resistance against whites, the need to be proud of your own identity, and their unique labor in the midst of poverty. Nowadays, Japanese artist and fans are trying to learn the hip hop culture and the roots of the Black history. However, Japanese youth are often represented as being innocent about race and willing to express ideas of racial identity in lyrics for record companies to accept