The Japanese Artist Who Changed Hip-Hop Forever

we see musicians as legendary figures people that are larger than life because of their ability to touch our hearts across thousands of miles or even hundreds of years and new jabes is one of the most legendary musicians that's ever lived because he dedicated his life to just one thing creating beautiful music he was a man who lived and breathed art his body of work and Legacy is a true gift to anyone who comes across it it touches our hearts no matter who we are or where we come from his Beats were dense and layered and throughout his career he sampled countless genres to create soundscapes that were Melancholy yet hopeful at the same time new ja's mixed jazz in hip-hop in a fresh Innovative way despite only releasing two Studio albums during his lifetime he became the Godfather of lowii hip-hop a Pioneer for a genre that would only gain popularity years after his tragic death and at the same time we don't know much about nujabes himself he was a quiet person he kept to himself and shied away from the public eye partly due to his career taking place before the age of massively interconnected online Internet music communities but his mystery is made even deeper from him being Japanese he lived on the other side of the planet for most of his modern-day fans he barely spoke English and he possibly only ever gave one interview during his entire career so who is new jaab why is his music so powerful and impactful and how did he create such universally beloved music while barely showing himself to the world like I said not much is known about new ja's personal life he barely gave any interviews during his career so most of the information and stories we do have about nujabes come from the different artists he work with in the Japanese underground scene June Saba his real name that would later be reversed into the word new jabes was born on February 7th 1974 in inner city Tokyo famously on the same day that Jay Dilla another legendary producer was also born it's said that he went to University for design he learned photography as a hobby and at one point he wanted to become a writer but around the time that he graduated from University in the late '90s he opened up a record shop called Guinness Records in shabuya a section of Tokyo known for culture and nightlife at the time shabuya had the highest concentration of record shops in the world thanks to Japan's thriving music scene in the 9s but like new jabes himself very little footage of Guinness Records is available on the internet with only one 3-minute clip of the shop uploaded to YouTube a friend and longtime collaborator of new jabes named Pace Rock would later tell this story about the atmosphere of new ja's record store back in the 990s he said jun's shop was the underground hip-hop spot and his store leaned more towards stuff you'd sample Soul Jazz lots of stuff like that 60% underground hip-hop 40% other njab kept the record store running for the rest of his life and before long it became the exact place where he began his journey towards being one of the most legendary hip-hop artists ever technically nj's first song was a remix of a song from elmatic One Love by Nas The Story Goes that after he made it he put it on vinyl and he sold it as a single in his own store without telling anyone that it was his music music so here's a quote about that story from an article I found online new jaes did a Naas bootleg of one love he would then take that press it on div vinyl and throw it in with a Nas bin so when people were looking for music by Nas who's one of the top artists at the time they would stumble upon this strange little record and they would think who is new jabz not knowing it was actually the owner of the store up kid I is B when the cops came you should have slid to my crib [ __ ] it no time for looking back it's done after this first single njab is really Dove deeper into music he was dividing his time between DJing clubs in shabuya Nightlife District he was releasing a few other singles here and there and he even produced a Japanese exclusive collaborative English language album with an American rapper called substantial at a time when hardly anyone knew new jaab at all and genuinely this is one of the more underrated albums I've ever heard in my life the production is Lush it's gentle it's relaxing substantials flows are perfect but somehow most of these songs have less than 500 views on YouTube unless Le than 50,000 streams on Spotify some of my favorite moments on this album include the sunny warmth of the bass on if I was your mic time you know what I'm saying a little something for my man cash deliver Renaissance you know what I'm saying [Music] original the Airy mixing of the piano on the love [Music] songo dry but the page remain blank after my first try I won't Li car saying something you never heard feels like I'm limited my ining with words you deserve a lifetime of Praise real The Vibes of this project are incredible and it's really a shame that it doesn't have more attention online to this day but more than anything nujabes wanted to make an album for himself so he began working on a project called metaphorical music that would go on to be one of the main reasons he's still a legend to this day 20 years later when metaphorical music dropped in 2003 it was an immediate hit and it's not hard to see why the way that new jaab was able to blend the natural feel of his music music with all the different artists that he worked with on this album it's one of my favorite jazz rap albums it's definitely one of my favorite instrumental albums it's probably one of my favorite albums of all time because new jaab found the perfect formula for blending the energy and the rhythm of hip-hop with the beautiful Melodies and the textures of jazz sounds and despite its individual Parts being relatively simple the finished product of metaphorical music is an album that feels like a trip to a beautiful world nothing like our own it's clear relaxing it's warm and thoughtful to the point of surreal dreamlike Beauty the more energetic tracks on metaphorical music feature various different artists rapping over Jazz samples and boom bat beats paired with a variety of samples from various genres the record starts off with blessing it a remix of an earlier song with substantial and Pace Rock and it's just a beautiful way to start an album you're immediately hit the Tranquil saxophone Melody jazzy piano chords and a bouncy drum be and substantial and Pace Rock ride the beautiful instrumental with unmatched energy and writing one teach one we reach on Cincinnati to the E and we just beun to spread to go subop lyrics like deep rooted underground but on the surface a tree branching out all I ever really wanted to be it sets a unique tone for njab peaceful musical atmospheres and the energy continues into the next song horn in the middle which starts off with a fast bass Groove and trumpet Melody all sampled from Joshua a jazz standard written by Miles Davis it's a song with no vocals but it's busy enough to keep your attention the whole way through [Music] and Lady Brown is a jazzy Love Song it samples a classical guitar riff written by the legendary guitarist Lise bonfa over subtle drums and textured violins and light flutes lower in the mix creating a peaceful atmosphere while SC star writes loving verses describing his angel of woman crush a cold to a Eyes Forever shining your beauty your lone as fire a [ __ ] to rhing thinking of the better things in life throughout metaphorical music a wide spectrum of emotion can be found in the beats the tracks effortlessly switched between mellow energetic happy sad Melancholy nujabes was speaking straight from his heart through these instrumentals kumomi is a song with minimal production just a clean piano Melody a fuzzy drum track quiet violins deep in the mix and new jaab signature beautiful warm double base the final view samples the iconic jazz song Love Theme from Spartacus by yussef Latif in between a soul singer and free jazz [Music] noodling [Music] next view starts off with a minute long breakbeat drum track over the sound of Rushing Water before a flute symbols piano cords and another saxophone jump in to create a dense layered track that feels like you're walking through a forest so thick you can barely see [Music] Sun the dark sound contrasts the relatively bright tracks that surround it a day by atmosphere Supreme is another perfectly tranquil jazz song made from just a few different parts peaceand the closing track is full of swirling brass samples that are chopped into tiny pieces swimming through the mix it's an absolute Masterpiece that goes and goes for over 8 minutes and of course the influence of house music persists through the album with songs like summer Gypsy and next view feeling like a new jaas take on '90s [Music] house overall metaphorical music is a Masterwork of atmosphere and texture it combines cool Jazz and Hip-Hop to create a rich emotional soundscape that despite its relative Simplicity feels truly colorful and expressive even though there isn't actually that much going on in terms of moving Parts on metaphorical music because most of these songs have just a few different tracks chopped and combined together every single sound is deeply intentional even down to the various rap verses nujabes would actually sit down with the rappers he was working with and tell them how he wanted the verse to flow which Rhymes he liked or didn't like because he didn't compromise he knew how he wanted it done the end result of metaphorical music is almost impossible to put a label on with different songs ranging from boombap to Jungle to house to Jazz the album sold so fast that the distributor couldn't keep up and new jaab went from someone known around clubs and record stores to a huge figure in the Japanese underground and soon after that he teamed up with a group of Japanese hip-hop producers to compose the soundtrack for the anime Samurai champo some songs of which would go on to be the most iconic of his entire career now listen for me personally I am not an anime fan I've never seen this show but to be honest the impact of this soundtrack is undeniably huge and some of new ja's best work of his career is on this project including aarian dance which would go on to become one of new ja's most recognizable if not the most iconic composition of his entire career on paper nothing about aarian dance is all that different from any other instrumental njab track but the njab touch the beautiful light tranquil atmosphere that he developed throughout his career was so strong on this song that it ended up becoming basically the most famous song he ever made with tens of millions of views across different remixes edits and covers on the Internet it's truly one of new ja's masterpieces and it's an amazing example of the beauty he was capable of with just a few simple [Music] techniques the story behind AR Arian dance is just as fascinating as the song itself with the melody and the composition stretching back over a hundred years The Story Goes Like This in 1899 a French composer named Maurice rll wrote a piece titled Pavan for a dead princess and if you skip to 40 seconds into the piece you can essentially hear the ghost of what would later become aarian [Music] dance but we're not there yet because 40 years later his Melody Pavan for a dead princess would be reinterpreted as part of a piece called the lamp is low in this song the clarinet solo directly quotes the main Melody of Pavan for a dead princess and then 30 years after that in 1969 the legendary Brazilian guitarist Loreno almea who's often considered the creator of bosan NOA as a whole did a cover of the lamp is [Music] low with new jabas would later go on to sample 35 years after that for the samurai champ BL soundtrack by doing so he created a song that isn't just Timeless in its sound but it's literally Timeless with its core components being taken directly from three centuries of Music the late 1800s the mid 1900s and finally the early 2000s and of course four countries from separate parts of the world France America Brazil and Japan all of that time and space came together to create a track with a feeling like nothing else in the world literally Timeless without relying on Nostalgia completely at ease without being too simple The Vibes are simply perfect and that that's why aarian dance might be the song of new ja's career Mist line is another song nj's produced for the Samurai Champloo album that I personally love almost as much as aarian Dance The Quiet Ambient sound with no drums the melancholic mellow piano Melody it feels like a moonlit night with the wind blowing through trees in a far away [Music] place so even though new ja's work on the Samurai Champloo soundtrack might just be anime music it's also some of his most beautiful iconic work that has come to truly represent the absolute best of his Artistry while also introducing countless people to the beauty of Hip Hop through an art form anime that couldn't be more disconnected from it new jaab immediately began work on his second album modal Soul which dropped in 2005 and while metaphorical music is beautiful modal Soul expands on those themes in every way just the first four tracks alone could make a perfect EP but there are still 10 more songs Each of which is full of life the whole way through everything metaphorical music did well mortal Soul perfected just building and improving on the sounds that were introduced 2 years earlier new jabas himself took it more seriously than anything he'd done before one of new jaab music managers later explained the mission of moral Soul by saying this at the time njab was very conscious of wanting to turn hip-hop into real music he was looking to create a kind of musical complexity he used to say that he wanted to bring hip-hop to the same level of respect and acclaim as Jazz Soul Rock and pop earlier in the video I mentioned that new jaab is often considered one of the fathers of Loi hip-hop but almost none of the LOI hip hop you find online nowadays actually sounds like new jaab despite sharing so many of the same ingredients nujabes is in a world of his own yes it's true that nujabes was inspired by the sound of '90s boombap and Loi also shares a lot of boombap sounds but for me personally I feel like a lot of Loi hip-hop uses similar sounds but isn't really driven by melody in the the same way that nj's work was it leaves most of the genre pretty boring and unrecognizable nj's beats are songs with structure his music takes you on a journey it's not just static effects and super loud kick drums and Jazz Loops but he truly reinterpreted everything he sampled in a beautiful way so new jaes might be one of the fathers of lowii hip-hop he's still the best to ever do it but I don't think his music actually classifies as being part of that genre so don't come at me if you love Loi hip hop I can respect that if that's your thing and you really like it but for me it feels wrong to call him a Loi producer when he did a lot to create more meaningfully structured songs with intention and feel in the music than most modern Loi producers do today but back to modal Soul a lot of the jump in quality between metaphorical music and modal Soul was due to the way that new jaab used samples in this project metaphorical music was full of jazz and hip-hop samples but nujabes knew that he couldn't rely on someone else's music for very long especially if he wanted to increase his level of recognition he could get for his work and at the time he was also working closely with another Japanese producer named uyama Hodo who was already a very talented live musician and he helped new jaab transition from sampling to live instrumentation so he started learning the piano and the flute and he even began recruiting musicians like uyama to play certain parts that he couldn't he told them I'm going to make my own Orchestra and this approach worked massively in his favor njab gained a huge amount of creative freedom by playing the instruments live instead of relying on finding recordings to sample and because of that modal Soul was a much more complex and Lively album than anything he had ever made made before the intro track feather is one of new ja's most iconic songs it's an upbeat track built around the sample of a 6sec piano riff from another Yu Latif song Love Theme From The Robe but the writing is the center of this songde or the planet and uproar never good the rules in Paradise are never nice the best lay plans are mice and men are never right I'm just a SC star and Aken yai wrapping on how to continue in a dark world surrounded by people who have lost their Humanity like the instrumental the lyrics have an uplifting feel with scy star rapping in the chorus drifting away like a feather in the air letting my words take me away from the hurt and despair so I'm keeping it vertical forever elevator riding the escalator to the something that is greater it's not hard to see why this is one of nj's most popular songs it has a beautiful instrumental with a twinkling piano soft percussion and steady bass that doesn't distract from excellent writing the message of the lyrics is symbiotic with the beat it's a story about staying calm through life's challenges on top of an instrumental that inspires peace in the heart of the listener ordinary Joe is a gorgeous soul track with fairly simple production jazzy piano soul singer Terry CER sings beautifully written uplifting lyrics over a sampled kiss drum track it even features a flute solo played by new jaab himself it's one of my favorites he's ever done in a truly beautiful piece of [Music] music when keep on me reflection Eternal is an ethereal song a relaxing break after the high energy of the first two songs it has a short Melancholy piano Melody looping over sharp drums in a vocal [Music] sample flowers is calming Jazzy it has a bright and complex piano Loop [Music] sea of cloud is a house song with a steady beat accompanied by light piano a Melancholy saxophone part twinkling [Music] percussion the light on the land is another house song it almost sounds like you're wandering in the woods in the middle of the night far away jazz piece plays as he samples crickets high-pitched owl Hoots Horizon is the closing song it almost feels like it came from a PS1 game has that compressed midi flute playing the upbeat Melody over jazzy piano chords and compressed [Music] drums modal soul is an atmospheric Masterpiece it deserves all the praise it gets nujabes was a master of emotion and expression the songs feel so deep and textured it's like each one is in its own little world that you can fall deep into his composition his instrumentation his abilities all improved greatly on this record but this was the last studio record released during his lifetime and it only shows how far he could have gone if he were still alive today but it's impossible to talk about new jaab without talking about love sick it's a series of six songs that he and his frequent collaborator and friend Shing O2 wrote over the Spanish of 15 years the first three were released before his death and it's probably my favorite project that new jaab ever took part in each song was essentially A variation of the first track they share the same drum Loop and similar variations of the same sample but they all have a unique character and they're all beautiful while the first three were a series of upbeat love songs about their shared passion for music the last three were in shing's words encounter parting and reuniting these songs are some of the saddest songs June ever made mostly down to shing's writing he wraps about the beauty that June created with his music how much love he had for his friend and how he has to let him go to find happiness again Lovick part 5 is a truly heartbreaking song The Story Goes that this one was written shortly after nj's death and Shing on the song raps raw emotional verses about losing someone so close to him till death to SP and it did come like clouds and it HD my soul my toag it's almost difficult to listen to the beat is is dark and Melancholy and on the song Shing processes his friend's death in the Whirlwind of emotions he feels now that he's gone he ends the song with the lyrics whether a tree lives to see the end of centuries or a random hand picks it instantly life is art a miracle for all to see I must tell you that you lived beautifully Lovick part six though is a beautiful ending to The Long tradition of making music between nujabes and shingo 2 it has a Heavenly beat with a Melody provided by a looping Coral sample twinkling Harps filling the track in between the steady drums that we've to know so well Shing has let go of the pain and anger present in the previous track and now only feels love he wraps Reflections on his long career and his friendship with new jaab how much he in the world misses him and coming to terms with his absence metaphor girl world got me Day Dreams sleeping in a curl her name onama Tong fresh flavor y whenever she popped up put a swirl on my cone I used to W the track's beat is so deeply layered it feels like you're wandering through a dream as Shing wraps I see the Angels draw the drapes over the earthscape where the wine is the spirit of grapes got to finish what we started so I cut this tape nj's final project while he was alive was Hideout Productions second collection compilation album that was mostly produced and mixed by NBAs himself and released in 2007 as a compilation album it's not exactly one of the essential New jaab pieces but it has some new jaab Classics like imaginary folklore one of my favorite new jaab songs Counting Stars is also one of the most iconic new jaab songs it has a jazzy guitar playing a meditative Melody over wistful Str RS am moraca and a sparely placed Frank's natra [Music] sample after releasing this project nujabes went on a long break from music but 3 years later he would forever be robbed of the chance to return on February 26 2010 Jun Saba was in a serious car accident on a Tokyo Highway after having barely gotten Stu started but having already touched countless hearts with his music after becoming one of the most immensely large and influential Underground Music figures in Japan he was pronounced dead at the hospital later that day at the age of 36 the most tragic part of all of this being that at that time it was just a few years before social media and music streaming really took off and nujabes died without having a very active or visible fan base overseas any fans he did have in the west would be torrenting his music and discussing it on small forums with no way for him to truly know the impact he was making around the world with his music he didn't know that his songs would go on to have tens of millions of plays on YouTube and Spotify he had no idea that he would become one of the biggest most influential cult figures in underground hipop it's impossible to understate the impact that Nu jaab has on anyone who listens to his music if you look at comment sections Forum posts review websites nearly everyone who cares enough to write about their experiences feels a deep personal connection to him and his art a lot of the music from the 2000s sounds pretty dated at this point it's been almost 20 years since nujabes was active in music but his music is timeless and it feels just as fresh and interesting as ever I understand that his style isn't for everyone some people might consider it too slow or too simple but in my mind nujabes was the master of finding these long form samples and using them in entirely novel beautiful and fresh ways his love and reverence for music poured through in his songs as he sampled beautiful Jazz Classics and Hip-Hop beats and made them all his own while still respecting the original work when I listened to jaab I always feel like his music has its own life the final track of the second collection after Hanabi it shows this more than anything it starts off with 30 seconds of the sound of fireworks kids playing people shouting before a subtle drum track and a soft piano Loop plays and Dina Washington's beautiful voice repeats the same words as a sea of bells envelops the mix she sings along the stream that runs to the Sea listen to my plea listen Willow and [Music] weep [Music] songs like these are why new ja's work is more than just music it's why his samples are more than just samples he spoke through these different pieces and created tapestries that were all his own he created a bridge between our Universal experiences with all the artists he worked with with all the Melodies he created every beautiful moment in his songs there's an overarching feeling of Peace but I don't think he did that just because he liked how it sounded I think jabes made music specifically to stand up to the darkness we all experience in our lives it wasn't just a creative Choice it was a philosophical choice too by focusing on the light the Beautiful the peaceful it doesn't block out the darkness it creates a space where we can all feel safe and that's all we have from him no words no interviews no writings the person he was hardly exists as anything more than a memory for the people that knew him but that doesn't mean he's gone because in his life he made music and in his death he is music and he will be forever I'm Philip this is volksgeist thank you for [Music] watching

Channel: Volksgeist

Views: 423,218

Keywords: volksgeist, nujabes, modal soul, metaphorical music

Id: 9pHSAf4VQS8

Length: 26min 20sec (1580 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 14 2023