comments:
A lot of us are older now (maybe too old to still be posting here). We grew up in that strange, almost magical stretch where hip-hop hit Japan as a sacred import, then Japan re-sampled it right back stateside with its own spin. I'd bet there isn't an a single person on here that doesn't know what BAPE is. I've always wanted to pull that apart, so this piece is me doing that. Like my K-pop piece published on BTS' 13th anniv of debut, this too was published intentionally on a specific date; today, marking 3 years since Clipse walked Pont Neuf. This is the first piece of three in a (somewhat related) series. Next up (July 7, M-FLO's debut) is a definitive look at M-FLO—one of the most criminally overlooked and interesting groups in music, quietly behind so much of the Japanese fashion, music, and pop culture we now take for granted. Can't recc Ametora enough; it was my guiding light. Marx's writing and research humbled me in my tracks. I came in hot thinking I knew enough to make this land, and ended up realizing I'm clueless.