BushBeats
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Japan Hip Hop Scene

Fri Jul 26, 2019 9:49 pm

Not sure if this is the right section for this post...

I'm going to japan in a few weeks (tokyo, kyoto, maybe sapporo, not sure where else). curious to explore the hip hop scene there a bit. anyone from there (or whos been there) know of good spots for shows, or bars/clubs that are hip hop oriented?

Searching around i saw Nujabes' brother has a ramen place in tokyo that plays a bunch of his unreleased music, which sounds cool. anything else like that too...
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waxramble
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Re: Japan Hip Hop Scene

Fri Jul 26, 2019 10:22 pm

I've never been to Japan, but def plan on making a trip there one day for a music shopping spree (Want to buy tons of jazz CDs, they get all the good repress exclusives blahh). Hopefully we will get some good responses here, I'm interested to learn more too. That Ramen spot sounds sweet, do you know the name of it?

Discogs has a website called VinylHub which may be helpful (I actually wrote the announcement for this site way back in the day lol) - Here's the Japan page https://www.vinylhub.com/browse/shop?country=Japan
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BushBeats
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Re: Japan Hip Hop Scene

Sat Jul 27, 2019 3:02 pm

waxramble wrote:
Fri Jul 26, 2019 10:22 pm
I've never been to Japan, but def plan on making a trip there one day for a music shopping spree (Want to buy tons of jazz CDs, they get all the good repress exclusives blahh). Hopefully we will get some good responses here, I'm interested to learn more too. That Ramen spot sounds sweet, do you know the name of it?

Discogs has a website called VinylHub which may be helpful (I actually wrote the announcement for this site way back in the day lol) - Here's the Japan page https://www.vinylhub.com/browse/shop?country=Japan
Damn that's awesome! Thank you! I saw there's a TON of places for vinyl. Only question is how much want to carry home haha

The ramen place is called Usagi Ramen. Apparently it was actually started by his brother AND nujabes. Makes a visit even more worthwhile.
https://shahiscribbles.wordpress.com/20 ... g-nujabes/
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FatVonFree
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Re: Japan Hip Hop Scene

Sun Jul 28, 2019 4:39 pm

I live in zama city japan. which is southwest of Tokyo. takes me about 45 minutes to drive there. I play shows usually in Nakano called Heavy Sick Zero or at a spot called Solfa. Let me know the dates and I can point you in the direction of some hip hop shows. I will make an assumption you are into more of the boom/bap, 90s styled hip hop shows?? if so there are usually about 3-5 shows per week. The shows have DJs, beatmakers and of course beatmakers and rappers or rappers and their DJs. In the city I live there is a bar we go to and the owner only spins vinyl. He has the craziest collection I have ever seen. there is also a spot in Tokyo that has a similar vibe called JBS its in shibuya. dude knows his shit when it comes to records. I take my mother and step father there every time they come visit. also check out Little Soul Café. its in Shimokitazawa. They take requests and shit too. Don't waste your time at B.Y.G. now the holy grail of my fav spots to drink and really chill is called Garageville. They have vinyl and they have lots of craft beer. also my homegirl works there so its dope. anyhoo. I think I apologized 10 times for such a long post. but I am in a few discord servers and a dude came out here and said he couldn't find anything. lol don't know how but yeah. read below if you looking for vinyl. if you not looking for vinyl...............run...


skip all of this if you don't plan on buying gear or vinyl cuzzo. lol. I was about to hit submit and realized you tryna eat and drank on something lol

There are lots of vinyl spots for sure. also there is a cassette store that specializes in hiphop. its called Waltz Tokyo. its in nakameguro. Flash Disk Ranch is another fav spot. my go to spot for reggae 45s. but they got a whole selection. I go to Hi-Fi record store in Shibuya for all my les baxter, Arthur lyman type fixes. but they have some craaaaaazy random stuff that is Japanese in the similar vane. anyhoo. been living here for 5 years this stretch. there are many more I can name but these are a few. I tell folks if you are coming for records and are short on time. Get on your computer, look at the addresses and get a taxi to drop you off in a spot where they are all accessible. You will find in parts of shibuya there are 6-12 record stores within walking distance. This time of year I hate going to Tokyo during the day lol cause its hot as shit and the humidity is trapped between all the buildings. anyhoo. if you are looking for gear. The places to go are called Hard-Off &Watt-Mann. The prices in Tokyo aren't as cheap as it is where I live. for example when I first got here in I was buying sp404sx for about $150 American dollars and flipping them on ebay. that lasted for about 3 years. but yeah you can still find some great gear in Tokyo for great prices. to keep or to flip. cheers. apologies for the long blog lol. lots of the stores have Instagram pages. Don't even get me started about taking hops to Korea every couple of months lol to buy records. that's the place man.


My buddy and his wife came out here (her two brothers tagged along too) this past winter - - best time to walk around Tokyo in my opinion. We drove to discland jaro and parked. then walked to disk union and then technique. Dropped stuff off at the car, then walked to BEAM, followed by another disk union spot. Went to HMV then walked back to the car to move it to next records. It is right by Face records. We then drove to tower records. All of these shops are within a few blocks from each other.

you can do all this by train but I like to drive only because if I see a guitar store I gotta stop there and the trains move fast so by the time I can drop a pin on the spot to remember it we are in a tunnel and have no signal lol. I understand you will be visiting and may not have a car so this is the best bet. hit spots that are close. make a dash to the hotel to drop the stuff off and keep it moving.

also check out big love records. its in harajuku. - - I drop a shit load of money in here usually on new records and local acts.
this is a dope spot. they carried my cassettes for a little while also. https://waltz-store.co.jp/


HOPE THIS HELPS!!!!!!
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BushBeats
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Re: Japan Hip Hop Scene

Mon Jul 29, 2019 6:04 pm

holy shit - what an awesome reply. i forgot that you said somewhere before that youre in japna. gonna need to read this over like 10 times. please dont apologize for the long post, i want all the info i can get.

i'm gonna be in tokyo aug 9-13 (or 14) i think, and then back for one night on aug 23. I'm thinking i try to grab vinyl on aug 23, right before i fly home so i dont need to carry anything around with me for 2 weeks.

as far as shows - yeah 90s / boom bap is more of what i'm into, but pretty down for whatever. english, japanese, some weird electronic shit... all sounds great. let me know if you have any shows then, if timing/logistics make sense, would love to check it out. regardless, definitely gonna try to hit up a few of those recommendations.

(also yeah... the heat/humidity sounds insane. august wouldn't have been the first choice, but worked out that way so its all good. im sure will be amazing regardless of how drenched in sweat i am).

Thank you thank you thank you again!
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