User:Arodcinco55/sandbox/Hip Hop In Japan

Hip Hop In Japan Traditional hip hop in Japan mimics the ideas of early hip hop originated by African Americans. Japanese hip hop has always seemed to take advantage of the racial aspect that draws upon hip hop.Places of Racial Identity alongside music is where one might begin to start their journey into hip hop in Japan. Japanese artist who calls himself banana ice released a song called “Mane + Mane = Mane” This track ridicules the imitation of Japanese youngsters and their impression to imitate the black culture. pg 1 The imitation, using dreadlocks and skin darkening is a very strong expression of hip hop devotion. Hip hop in its original message was to express originality through words, and show an individual message from a particular perspective. With hip hop in Japan mimicking the exact culture from its originator makes one ask, “Is it still considered hip hop if it is not original?” The new relation on Which Japanese hip hop takes a stand on is given from the socio economic background from which hip hop derived and not so much on the color aspect. The study of black culture is what pushes this idea. Japanese hip hop pulls the problemattic aspects from black culture and expresses it within the Japanese context.pg 29

Hip hop in Japan is meant to be a form of cultural globalization. While Japanese hip hop was frowned upon the in the mass media of Japan, it was one way the showed that the people of the hip hop culture in Japan wanted to learn, participate and have some interaction with this new thing called hip hop. Hip hop made its way to Japan through UK and some New York rap made it there through the UK underground scene. These interesting new entertainment clubs that sprang up in UK that played some of the Japanese hip hop and it caught people's ears. But before there were rappers in Japan the outlet to individuality was breakdancing. Anyone who knows about american hip hop in its early days, know that it all started with dance groups called breakdancers. And from breakdancing groups came rap and singing groups which ultimately lead to hip hop overall. These newly introduced themes in Japan are seen as weird to the Japanese people. This is only because some Japanese people feel they have no business doing hip hop.