Tokyo 1995 Hip Hop Report

Yuuta Sasaki (utah@interlog.com)
Sat, 16 Mar 1996 16:06:53 -0500


What a wicked vid. The three brilliant Krush promo videos alone would be
well worth getting this tape, especially that film noir-ish one for 'Only
The Strong Survive'. But combined with all them live performances. Wow.

Admittedly, and with all due respect, I did find the first half of live
stuff somewhat weak. The various rappers' seemed to try to hard to emulate
some of their more well-known American counterparts, plus their rhymes made
me cringe at times going on about how 'hard' they are and with references to
sleeping-in and Chinese noodles. But boy, with that 20 minute set by Kemuri
Prod., my attitude sure changed. The groups in the remainder of the tape
seemed tighter and more 'unique-unto-themselves' as well. Kaminari, King
Giddra (now I really have to get their album) and in particular Soul Scream
were beyond words.

At $3(US), you got to get this tape if you have even the slightest interest
in hip hop and/or the Tokyo music scene. Hell, it even comes in a handy
bootleg-type vid case and includes a handy leaflet with blurbs on the
artists/performances/promo videos. Cheers to Ben List, Dan Bidwa and
whoever else contributed to putting this thing together and getting it out
there.

Slightly NT - Kaminari, do they have any singles or albums out, or were they
just a one-off project?

@@:-Q yuuta sasaki
utah@interlog.com