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

Ian Condry

Duke University Press, Nov 1, 2006 - Music - 249 pages

DIVIn this lively ethnography Ian Condry interprets Japan’s vibrant hip-hop scene, explaining how a music and culture that originated halfway around the world is appropriated and remade in Tokyo clubs and recording studios. Illuminating different aspects of Japanese hip-hop, Condry chronicles how self-described “yellow B-Boys” express their devotion to “black culture,” how they combine the figure of the samurai with American rapping techniques and gangsta imagery, and how underground artists compete with pop icons to define “real” Japanese hip-hop. He discusses how rappers manipulate the Japanese language to achieve rhyme and rhythmic flow and how Japan’s female rappers struggle to find a place in a male-dominated genre. Condry pays particular attention to the messages of emcees, considering how their raps take on subjects including Japan’s education system, its sex industry, teenage bullying victims turned schoolyard murderers, and even America’s handling of the war on terror.

Condry attended more than 120 hip-hop performances in clubs in and around Tokyo, sat in on dozens of studio recording sessions, and interviewed rappers, music company executives, music store owners, and journalists. Situating the voices of Japanese artists in the specific nightclubs where hip-hop is performed—what musicians and fans call the genba (actual site) of the scene—he draws attention to the collaborative, improvisatory character of cultural globalization. He contends that it was the pull of grassroots connections and individual performers rather than the push of big media corporations that initially energized and popularized hip-hop in Japan. Zeebra, DJ Krush, Crazy-A, Rhymester, and a host of other artists created Japanese rap, one performance at a time./div

What people are saying

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

User Review  - Takumi - Goodreads

In this ethnography of Japanese hip hop, the author Condry focuses one of the four elements which constitute hip hop culture: rap. It is because rap has much more to do with language than deejaying ...

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

User Review  - Sheehan - Goodreads

Well written, academic investigation of the current (2006) state of hip hop in Japan. I really liked the book in part because it did dispel some misconceptions I think I harbored as a longtime fan of ...

Contents

• HIPHOP JAPAN AND CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION: 1
• YELLOW BBOYS BLACK CULTURE AND THE ELVIS EFFECT: 24
• BATTLING HIPHOP SAMURAI: 49
• GENBA GLOBALIZATION AND LOCATIONS OF POWER: 87
• RAP FANS AND CONSUMER CULTURE: 111
• RHYMING IN JAPANESE: 134
• WOMEN RAPPERS AND THE PRICE OF CUTISMO: 164
• MAKING MONEY JAPANSTYLE: 181
• LESSONS OF HIPHOP GLOBALIZATION: 205
• NOTES: 221
• REFERENCES: 235
• INDEX: 247

About the author

DIV

Ian Condry is Associate Professor of Japanese cultural studies in Foreign Languages and Literatures at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Visit Ian Condry’s website.

/div

Bibliographic information

• Title: Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization
• Author: Ian Condry
• Edition: illustrated, annotated
• Publisher: Duke University Press, 2006
• ISBN: 0822338920, 9780822338925
• Length: 249 pages
• Subjects: Music / Ethnic; Music / Genres & Styles / Rap & Hip Hop; Music / History & Criticism; Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural