m-flo

With their mix of hip-hop and club music and an assured pop sensibility, m-flo have clocked up considerable sales in Japan since debuting in 1999. If there is a formula with their music, it’s one which will go beyond the small R&B/hip-hop template of the compatriots, consuming a number of influences offering jazz, spirit, 2-stage, and drum’n’bass. In addition, it helps which the catchy, singalong rhymes and style feeling of m-flo rapper Verbal tag him out among the even more reliable abilities in Japanese hip-hop. M-flo had been originally a trio, comprised of Verbal, turntablist/manufacturer Taku, and vocalist Lisa. Lately, m-flo possess broadened their reach by collaborating with lots of the biggest brands in Japan pop and R&B, such as for example Maki Nomiya from Pizzicato Five, Ryuichi Sakamoto, BoA, and Crystal Kay. Verbal — a second-generation Korean whose true name is normally Ryu Yong Gi — initial fulfilled Taku (name Taku Takahashi) at a global college in Tokyo. It had been during his high-school years that Verbal experienced his 1st encounter with hip-hop, hearing Run-D.M.C.’s “Walk IN THIS MANNER,” but Verbal and Taku briefly went their independent ways, Verbal towards the U.S. East Coastline, where he researched theology at Boston College or university, and Taku to California where he honed his DJ abilities. Upon time for Japan, the duo became seriously interested in their music and in 1998 go about trying to produce a dent on japan graphs as m-flo (based on Verbal, the “m” means “media-rite,” an amalgamation of “press” and “meteorite”). Among the group’s first tracks was “JUST HOW We Had been,” based across the Barbra Streisand music of the same name, and which surfaced on the subsidiary of Avex Trax, Japan’s biggest self-employed label. M-flo stepped up to some other subsidiary on a single label for his or her debut album, World Glowing, which reached quantity six within the Oricon graphs upon its launch in 2000. This recording and its own follow-up, Expo Expo from the next yr, positioned the vocals and pop hooks of Lisa (name: Elizabeth Sakura Narita) and Taku’s slick creation center stage instead of Verbal’s rapping, but musically both albums were even more adventurous than regular Japanese “hip-pop,” and presented the bottom-heavy noises of drum’n’bass and 2-stage rhythms. In 2002, Lisa remaining the group to pursue a single career. Right now a duo, m-flo easily rode the musical change that noticed the recognition of drum’n’bass and 2-stage dwindle on the convert of the millennium. The duo included electro, jazz, and home on their initial album in 3 years, 2004’s Astromantic, which reached number 2 in Japan. The business lead one from Astromantic, entitled “Reeewind!,” highlighted the vocals of R&B superstar Crystal Kay and began the highly effective “m-flo loves…” series, which includes so far caused collaborations with everybody from previous Shibuya-kei symbols like Kahimi Karie to veteran vocalist and TV character Akiko Wada. M-flo’s 4th album, Defeat Space Nine, continuing the collaborative series and proceeded to go one much better than its forerunner on discharge in 2005, offering m-flo their initial number one record. Within the same calendar year, Verbal also lent his rhymes to japan hip-hop supergroup Teriyaki Boyz, whose well-received record Beef or Poultry (released over the Def Jam label) proceeded to go Best Five, aided by its all-star ensemble of international companies (Ruler Ad-Rock from the Beastie Children, DJ Darkness, Cut Chemist, and Daft Punk, amongst others). The group could not have failed, because it also brought jointly the most reliable — and charismatic — Japanese MCs in Verbal, Ilmari and Ryo-Z from Rip Slyme, and Smart from Kaze No Hito. Behind the decks was Nigo, creator of the clothes label Bathing Ape and the main one guy in Japan linked more than enough to convince everyone to arrive for the trip.