Wonderful Hip-Hop Trios ② RHYMESTER [Part 1] | Solo Advent Calendar #10

There is something inherently attractive about a trio. Yesterday, I wrote about a Japanese rap trio I deeply admire, Chinza DOPENESS x Tamaki ROY x U-zhaan.

This time, I'm writing about RHYMESTER, an undisputed legend in the history of Japanese rap who is still an active player today. They are also the hip-hop group I listen to the most.

How did I come to listen to RHYMESTER?

RHYMESTER
formed in 1989. A hip-hop group consisting of Utamaru (rapper), Mummy-D (rapper/producer/also in charge of the group's total direction *credited as Mr. Drunk for composition and arrangement), and DJ JIN (DJ/producer). They are the self-proclaimed and widely recognized "Kings of Stage." They have a reputation for live performances that appeal to the physical and emotional senses, as well as for their quick-witted talk.
Since the late 1980s, long before hip-hop was widely recognized by the general public, they explored the possibilities and methodologies of "rapping in Japanese." In parallel, they pioneered and led the Japanese hip-hop scene by developing energetic live activities.
In recent years, in addition to their activities as a group, each member has expanded their field of activity as a radio personality or actor (described later, details in each member's section). In 2019, marking their 30th anniversary, they carried out a nationwide tour covering 48 performances in 47 prefectures, the largest in the group's history, and led it to success.
── From RHYMESTER Official Site

The group's profile is as quoted above. In short, they are from the dawn of Japanese rap to the present day, (although the group had a one-year hiatus), a 30-year veteran who has continued to be active without letting their momentum fade in the slightest.

On the other hand, I started listening to Japanese rap on a daily basis in 2017. Compared to the length of RHYMESTER's career, I am a genuine newcomer listener.

And 2017 was also the year I started my poetry reading/spoken word activities. The circumstances around that are as follows.

A friend I met through the university tanka club performed at a reading live show I went to see, and I was shocked
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I started writing and reading poetry myself on a small scale
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A senior from my high school literature club who found out about this recommended the music of Daigo Kobayashi (poet/poetry reading/graphic designer)
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I got hooked on Daigo Kobayashi and was hugely influenced by him
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I became interested in Ko Furukawa (broadcast writer/hip-hop writer) who hooked up Daigo Kobayashi
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I started listening to the radio program "Rhymester Utamaru's Weekend Shuffle" (commonly known as Tamaful), where Ko Furukawa is a composition writer
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I became interested in the hip-hop group Utamaru belongs to, RHYMESTER
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I started listening to RHYMESTER and got hooked

Daigo Kobayashi, who is too important as a transit point

It's a bit of a detour, but first of all, if I hadn't listened to the first transit point to RHYMESTER, Daigo Kobayashi, my current poetry reading style would not have been established. I will never forget the shock and the incomparable pounding of my heart when I first listened to "Diamond Mine / hot water pressure washer." There was someone in this world who could make something this wonderful! It was an eye-opening experience.

……If I don't stop here, it will become an article about Daigo Kobayashi. So, I think I'll leave the explanation of Daigo Kobayashi, a person who is complicated in many ways but incomparably attractive, to Ikura no Yoshi-san's note, which explains everything.

Ko Furukawa as a node, and Tamaful

Furthermore, if it weren't for the existence of Ko Furukawa, who hooked up Daigo Kobayashi, there is a possibility that I would never have listened to hip-hop or Japanese rap at all.

Even though the interaction between the poetry reading and hip-hop scenes is active now, the fact that I can wander back and forth between both is thanks to the node that is Ko Furukawa. The destination connected from that node was the TBS radio program "

Rhymester Utamaru's Weekend Shuffle" (2007-2018), where Mr. Furukawa served as a composition writer.

It was a program that reigned in the "Saturday night" slot of TBS Radio for a whopping 11 years. The guest lineup familiar from the successor program "After 6 Junction" (Maho Shimao, Taiichi Kasuga, Tomohiro Machiyama, Ryuta Miyake, Motoyuki Shibata, Yukiko Tomiyama, Shishin Fujimura, Natsumi Takenaka, Gota Nishidera, etc...) had already been coming to the studio as regulars since the days of this program, and unfolded various special features with sometimes sharp and sometimes incredibly silly angles. Just looking at the "special feature list" by year is enough to make you groan at the breadth and craziness of their perspectives.

…I wrote that with a knowing look, but as for me, I am just another newcomer who only started listening to Tamaful in the autumn of 2017, despite its 11-year history. When the new year arrived in 2018, Utamaru-san,

“Tamaful is! Ending? Ending? Ending?………………………………………is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

declared, and to my surprise, the Tamaful I had just started listening to ended on March 31, 2018. As a newcomer, I could only be stunned.

RHYMESTER “Ningen Kousaten”

I was sad that Tamaful ended, but I got used to the successor program, “After 6 Junction,” right away. Besides, the RHYMESTER tracks that Utamaru-san would occasionally play on Tamaful were cool, and the chats with RHYMESTER members Mummy-D and DJ JIN, who would sometimes appear as guests on the show, were fun, so I had been completely nurtured into a RHYMESTER listener as well.

The first RHYMESTER song I listened to properly was “Ningen Kousaten”.

My first impression upon hearing it was “Wait, this is cool… (confused).” I am very embarrassed to admit that I, too, once held the image that Japanese rap was “somehow flashy and shallow.” So, encountering this stylish track and rap that was cool right to the core, I was shocked.

From there, I started listening to their past releases one after another, learned about the history of Japanese rap, and became even more deeply immersed in RHYMESTER, but since this has become longer than I expected, I will end this here as [Part 1]. The rest will be in tomorrow’s [Part 2]!