Song of the Day - SHINPEITA (晋平太) - I WILL #1 PV

The Ultimate MC Battle legend is  back! The two time UMB Grand Champsionship winner has had a career spanning nearly 4 years and is releasing his first BEST OF compilation. The first track is brand new and like a good label will, they released a video for the new song. The BEST OF will really show his evolution and growth as an artist and it features a DVD of all of his best MC battles!

Song of the Day - YSK - Jealousy (ジェラシー ) PV

Ultimate MC Battle mainstay YSK is finally releasing his first album this month and if this is any indication it will be great!

Song of the Day - BOMBRUSH! - "STAY STRONG"

What's up RSF fans! It's Alan with your daily dose of Japanese HYPE! Today's RSF recommendation- "Stay Strong" features my friend DAG FORCE on the track. This song is great, even if you don't understand Japanese. Push play, share and enjoy!

BOMBRUSH! - "STAY STRONG" feat. NORIKIYO, SHINGO★西成 & DAG FORCE

Song of the Day - KOWICHI (Enmaku) feat. AKASHINGO (EMERALD) - JUST WALK ON PV

KOWICHI (Enmaku) is back with a new single featuring EMERALD member; AKASHINGO. I love KOWICHI's flow and AKASHINGO makes good use of auto-tune, which isn't always easy to do.

REVIEW - PePe&Jony the sonata - paper.cheeze.plate.

Last month I bought rapper and Ultimate MC Battle champion 晋平太's (Shinpeita) latest release, a compilation of various artists who competed in UMB, all coming together to contribute their own original tracks as well as a cypher type track as the opening. Number three on the album's first disc is Peep Show by PePe&Jony the sonata and upon hearing them I had to find out more. Luckily I found their album on iTunes and that's about it. On to the review!

Song of the Day - LIL KOHH - Young Forever

This kid can rap for someone so young and looks to have a very promising future doing so. Let's hope to see him at UMB some time in the next 5 years or so. Another great video directed by EillyHustleHard (At least I think, I found it on his page and he only uploads videos he directed or produced, at least usually.) A very clever and refreshing video. I look for him to go from LIL KOHH to just KOHH on down the road, reminiscent of Lil Bow Wow for instance.

INTERVIEW - AXIS (LIBRA LTD)

I recently had the opportunity to interview Yokohama based rapper AXIS. AXIS is on the LIBRA LTD label which has acts such as MSC who are known as one of the founding groups of Japanese Hip Hop. As with all of my interviews it was via email.

Song of the Day - GAZZILA - WHAT'S MY NAME?

A brand new PV from R-Rated Records, starring label newcomer GAZZILA! Pretty cool video if you like R-Rated Records and skateboards/BMX! This came out of nowhere on YouTube yesterday and it's not being released as a single yet either. Hopefully it's a sign of his first album. The track is produced by NAOtheLAIZA & RAGSIX. The video is directed by JONAH SCHWARTZ.

REVIEW - AXIS - UNCIVILIZED

I pre-ordered AXIS's new album from JetSet Records and after it arrived I got sidetracked for a month and didn't get around to reviewing it. AXIS is a rapper on the LIBRA LTD label known for Japanese hip hop legends MSC aka Mic Space Crew and SHINGO NISHINARI as well as JUSWANNA and many great DJ. Anyway! Without further ado, on to the review!

1.Prologue - It's basically a good intro track that sounds like it could go in a action film, then AXIS just kills it with a freestyle session. It definitely sets up the rest of the album, especially the eerie demonic laughter. The beat is courtesy of DADDY VEDA a.k.a. REBEL BEATS (ILL EAST RECORDS).

ALBUM REVIEW - SHINGO☆西成 - ブレない (Burenai)

Where to begin...SHINGO☆西成 is a rapper from Nishinari, Osaka Japan and is signed to LIBRA RECORDS and SHOWA RECORDS, one for management, the other for distribution purposes. SHINGO☆西成 has made a name for himself as one of the top emcees in the game and the face of Hip Hop in Osaka. Anyway, on to the album!

Song of the Day - Triga Finga - Level 7 (Subbed) PV

Very good song with a great message behind it.

SONGS of the WEEK MONDAY-WEDNESDAY SPECIAL!

ALBUM REVIEW - V.A. BLACK SWAN 3 -In the Case of BES from SWANKY SWIPE-

You've probably never heard of BES, unless you've heard him featured on a track or happen to know who SWANKY SWIPE is OR have the 2008 Ultimate MC Battle DVD, otherwise you could have very well missed out on one of the best young MC's in the game today. Now that you have an idea (albeit small) of who BES is, I'd like to introduce you to the label that has made this album come to be. BLACK SWAN INC is an independent record label based out of Tokyo, which was created for the sole purpose of exposing those who people tend to ignore, the "BLACK SWAN's" of the music basically. Since May BLACK SWAN INC have been releasing monthly albums in the form of BLACK SWAN 1/2/3, which typically deal with multipe artists, which makes sense, seeing as their slogan is Music for Multiple Fanatics. BLACK SWAN 3 features just one artist though, with multiple track makers with all lyrics by BES from SWANKY SWIPE.

Song of the Day - CRAZY-T X SPENCE - チンコ ft. 鎮座DOPENESS PV

East meets West to make for a great song/pv.

ALBUM REVIEW - KOWICHI (enmaku) - The Chips

A few days ago I bought KOWICHI (enmaku)'s latest album The Chips off of iTunes. With a glance you can find a lot of Hip Hop from Japan on there. KOWICHI is a member of the group enmaku with fellow rapper d.u.g. from Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan and The Chips is his first solo release. I decided to get this after watching some trailers of the music videos that are to come from the album, which feature some of the best producers around. The trailers can be viewed via Street Official's YouTube channel. Okay, without further ado, lets dig into The Chips!

Song of the Day - KULO - MAGMA PV

Props to EillyHustleHard for ANOTHER great video!

ALBUM REVIEW - 迷子 & TOMOZ - Yellowish Green Radio EP

After religiously following 2Dcolvics music blog I discovered this album and the artwork caught my eye, very urban in feel. Now on to the artists. 迷子 (Maigo) & TOMOZ. 迷子 is an emcee from Saitama, Japan who started rapping around 2001 and was part of an group called KUROCODAiLL and is currently signed to G.M.P. (Get More Props) Records. TOMOZ is a Hip Hop/R&B producer, DJ and CEO of bull star Records, also a part of G.M.P. 

Song of the Day - Golden Age - Def Tech

And today's song is... Golden Age by Def Tech. I've got a special love for Def Tech - somehow, their music just fills me up with a happy floaty feeling. Which, by the way, is a feeling you don't often encounter if your hobby is writing depressing lyrics about death, destruction and annihilation... oh, right, getting way off topic here. In any case, this is a great song, and somewhat recent at that.

Song of the Day - A-THUG & DJ SPACE KID - Block Hustlers feat. HEAVY SMOKER, BLACK & TOP

I've never seen a PV for a song off a mixtape so this was really unique and EillyHustleHard can make some amazing videos. The video features fellow rappers HEAVY SMOKER, BLACK and TOP, I believe all are from the same hood. The video also features two beautiful young ladies named Yoshiko and Nozomi Ills. Not to leave him out this was produced by JoE IRoN

A-THUG has a new mixtape mixed by DJ SPACE KID that comes out tomorrow called HEAT CITY.

You can pick it up at HMV and Jetset Records (Have to wait until it's available they don't do overseas preorders) if you live overseas.

A-THUG - Twitter

DJ SPACE KID - Twitter

HEAVY SMOKER - Twitter

Dancer Yoshiko - Twitter

EillyHustleHard - Twitter

JoE IRoN - Twitter

Steady & Co.

In 2001, members from the bands Skebo King, Rip Slyme, and Dragon Ash, combined forces to make one of Japan's most epic Hip Hop groups of all time, Steady & Co.

Steady & Co. consists of 4 members:

Kenji Furuya (Dragon Ash)

Bots (Dragon Ash)

Ilmari (Rip Slyme)

Shigeo (Skebo King)

The band's only major release was in 2001, an album titled "Chambers." The Chambers album is packed from front to back with awesome songs, as to be expected from Japan's 2001 Hip Hop dream team.