How Hip Hop rule Japan

Buddha Brand - Ningen Hatsudensho

  　　　　　　　　(= Human Power Plant)

"Dis-ru" (ディスる) is a trending word in Japan today. It means "disrespect" and commonly use when you are criticizing someone. The name comes into use from a couple years ago from hipsters. However, Dis-ru is already common slang in the people who are interested in Hip Hop culture.

Japanese Hip Hop culture has started in the late 1980's as a subculture,but Japanese Hip Hop heads hardly used Hip Hop slang in English. In fact, the use of slangs in Japan has just begun in early 1990's.  It has different roots of Japanese Reggae culture. Then, who started use and expand this word? I will introduce two rap groups as that answer.

"Microphone Pager" is a one of the oldest group in hardcore Japanese Hip Hop. They were established in 1992 and they criticized Japanese mainstream like comical rap with English slang directly like "Dope" and "Sucker".

Microphone Pager - Kaisei Kaishi 08 

The other, "Buddha Brand" caused the big paradigm shift. Young four Japanese men were organized the crew late 1980's in the US and started their career in Japan in 1995.

Buddha brand - Funky Methodist

It was shocking that their groove almost same as the black musician for the Japanese heads. In addition, their lyric was absolutely "extraneous". They mixed Japanese and English strangely in their lyrics. Nothing was more bossy and offensive than their rap. However, they didn't rap about personal life and not have a clear intention. For example, Nipps, MC of the group somehow, rapped with some taboo words in Japanese sociality like Japan Airlines Flight 123 and Aum shinrikyo without clear ideology.

Japanese rappers write accurate lyrics. However, Buddha Brand write offensive but vague lyrics and it beat the previous tradition and released possibilities of Japanese language in Japanese Hip Hop. They were obviously the first group using the Japanese words which were translated the US Hip Hop slang as well as Hip Hop slang in English directly.

Unfortunately, Dev-Large, The frontman of Buddha Brand died in 2015. He was also a good trackmaker and vinyl digger. I remember him when I hear "Dis-ru" and how he changed both the Japanese Hip Hop and language.

Buddha Brand - ILLSON (Unreleased ver.)

Dev Large - Koutetsu no BLACK (Feat. Nipps)