, better known by his stage name Shing02, is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

hip hop recording artist, record producer, activist and investor who was described by

Patrick Neate Patrick Neate (born 1970) is a British novelist, journalist, poet, screenwriter and podcaster. Early life Born and raised as a Roman Catholic in South London, he was educated at St. Paul's School and Cambridge University. He spent a gap year in ...

as one of the Japanese emcees who "has addressed important issues from Japanese ethnicity to sexual exploitation to the education system." Due in part to growing up in Western cities, Shing02 stands as one of the few multilingual rappers from Japan able to compose songs entirely in either Japanese or English. His rhyming style makes use of lyrics which are largely conceptual in nature and his hip-hop sound is known for blending various influences, ranging from reggae to traditional Japanese music to jazz. The style of music has made him a significant presence within the underground rap community, and he has achieved recognition beyond the scene for rapping "Battlecry", the theme song of the hip-hop-influenced

chanbara , also commonly spelled "''chambara''", meaning "sword fighting" films,Hill (2002). denotes the Japanese film genre called samurai cinema in English and is roughly equivalent to Western and swashbuckler films. ''Chanbara'' is a sub-category of '' ...

anime ''

Samurai Champloo is a 2004 Japanese historical adventure anime television series. The debut television production of studio Manglobe, the 26-episode series aired from May 2004 to March 2005. It was first partially broadcast on Fuji TV, then had a complete ai ...

'', produced by late Japanese

jazz rap Jazz rap (or jazz hip hop) is a fusion of jazz and hip hop music, as well as an alternative hip hop subgenre, that developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. AllMusic writes that the genre "was an attempt to fuse African-American music of th ...

Nujabes , better known by his stage name , was a Japanese record producer, audio engineer, DJ, composer and arranger best known for his atmospheric instrumental mixes sampling from hip hop, soul, and jazz, as well as incorporating elements of trip hop, b ...

Biography

Shingo Annen was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1975 and grew up in various cities in Tanzania and Japan, as well as London. At the age of fourteen, Shing02 moved to Menlo Park in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

just following the

1989 Loma Prieta earthquake The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on California's Central Coast on October 17 at local time. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz County, approximately northeast of Santa Cruz on a section of t ...

, where he became involved in various creative arts programs. He then moved to

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

for schooling and studied art at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. Living in the Oakland and San Francisco Bay Area, he became immersed in the hip-hop scene amongst direct descendants of members of civil rights movement groups such as the

Black Panthers The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxism-Leninism, Marxist-Leninist and Black Power movement, black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. New ...

and

Asian American Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...

activists. Shing02 has said of his music that "it was natural to have political and social messages in my music; I was fortunate to be exposed to it." Shing02 is well known for his frequent collaborations with the late Nujabes in the early 2000s. As collaborators, the two pioneered a

music style that inspired the viral " chillhop/Lo-fi hip hop" phenomenon in the 2010s. Together, Shing02 and Nujabes created work such as the "Luv(sic)" series, music for the

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

anime hit ''Samurai Champloo'', and Nujabes' 2005 album ''

Modal Soul ''Modal Soul'' is the second full-length album by Japanese hip-hop artist Nujabes, released on November 11, 2005, on Nujabes' own record label Hydeout Productions. Like its predecessor, ''Metaphorical Music'', ''Modal Soul'' fuses jazzy, smooth rh ...

''. In 2010, Shing02 teamed up with Japanese-American jazz vocalist

Emi Meyer Emi Meyer (born March 1987) is a Japanese-born, American-raised jazz pianist and singer-songwriter who is based in Seattle and Tokyo and active in both the Japanese and American markets. Background Meyer was born in Kyoto, Japan, but grew up in ...

for her second album, ''Passport''. The two initially met via Myspace and Meyer joined Shing02 on his summer tour of Japan in 2008, after which they began work on ''Passport''. Shing02's remix of the song "Odakias" by

Ryuichi Sakamoto is a Japanese composer, pianist, singer, record producer and actor who has pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto inf ...

was uploaded to Sakamoto's

SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...

in July 2012. As of 2020, Shing02 lived in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

Discography

Albums

* ''Homo Caeruleus Cerinus'' (1999) * ''400'' (2001) * '' Waikyoku'' (2008) * ''ASDR'' (2012) (with Chimp Beams) * ''1200 Ways'' (2013) (with DJ $hin) * ''Zone of Zen'' (2016) (with Cradle Orchestra) * ''246911'' (2019) (with Spin Master A-1) * ''Triumphant'' (2020) (with Jack the Rip)

Mixtapes

* ''Shing02 Limited Express Mix'' (2003) * ''For the Tyme Being'' (2009) * ''For the Tyme Being 2'' (2010) * ''For the Tyme Being 3'' (2012) * ''Live from Annen Annex'' (2013) * ''For the Tyme Being 4'' (2013) * ''For the Tyme Being 5'' (2017)

EPs

* ''Evolution of the MC'' (2003) * ''iTunes Live from Tokyo'' (2008) * ''Jikaku'' (2013) (with Kaigen) * ''1200 Ways EP'' (2013) (with DJ $hin)

Singles

* "A Day Like Any Other" (1998) (with

El-P Jaime Meline (born March 2, 1975), better known by the stage name El-P (shortened from his previous stage name El Producto), is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Starting his career as a member of Company Flow, he has been a ...

Murs Murs may refer to: People * Marc Athanase Parfait Œillet des Murs (1804-1878), French ornithologist * Olly Murs (born 1984), English singer-songwriter * Murs (rapper) (born 1978), American rapper Places * Murs, Indre, France * Murs, Vaucluse, Fr ...

and Yeshua Da Poed) * "Pearl Harbor" b/w "Japonica" (1998) * "The Empire" b/w "Laid in Japan" (1998) * "Gigabyte" b/w "Streets of Tokyo" (2000) * "My Nation" (2001) * "Yukoku" (2002) * "400" (2002) * "Y-Song" (2004) * "2005" (2005) * "Anoi" (2006) * "Game" (2007) (with

Ghostface Killah Dennis Coles (born May 9, 1970), better known by his stage name Ghostface Killah, is an American rapper and a member of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan. After the group achieved breakthrough success in the aftermath of ''Enter the Wu-Tang (36 C ...

and Napoleon) * "Big City Lights" (2008) * "Wankyoku" b/w "Katsubou" (2008) * "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised 2012" (2013) (with Hunger)

Guest appearances

* The Grouch - "Car Troubles Pt. 2" from ''Nothing Changes'' (1996) *

SupremeEx Yameen is an American hip hop producer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. His most recent album, "Diamond is Unfadable" was released in 2017 on Rumble Pack Records. Light of Love / Sound of Fire In 2010, Yameen released an anime ...

Tajai Tajai Massey, known by the stage name Tajai (born April 21, 1975), is an American rapper and producer. He is one of the four founding members of the Oakland, California-based underground hip hop group Souls of Mischief and, with Souls of Misch ...

- "Contact" from '' Projecto: 2501'' (2000) *

Five Deez Five Deez is an American hip hop group from Cincinnati, Ohio and a part of the Wanna Battle collective, which also includes DJ Hi-Tek, Talib Kweli, Rubix, and Lone Catalysts. The group consists of members: Fat Jon the Ample Soul Physician ( ...

- "Sexual for Elizabeth" from ''

Koolmotor ''Koolmotor'' is the first studio album by American hip hop group Five Deez. It was released on Counterflow Recordings in 2001. Track listing Personnel * Fat Jon Jon Marshall (born September 8, 1975), better known by his stage name Fat Jon ...

'' (2001) *

- "Luv(sic) Part 1" (2001) * Nujabes - "Luv(sic) Part 2" (2002) * DJ Top Bill - "Farewell to a Friend" and "Avatar" from ''Prelude to One Dollar Store'' (2003) * Nujabes - "F.I.L.O." from ''

Metaphorical Music ''Metaphorical Music'' is Nujabes' first solo album released in 2003. It offers a combination of hip hop and instrumental jazz, and features artists like Shing02, Substantial, Five Deez and Cise Starr (of CYNE). Despite the fact that the album ...

'' (2003) * Nujabes - "Battlecry" from '' Samurai Champloo Music Record: Departure'' (2004) * Nujabes - "Luv(sic) Part 3" from ''

'' (2005) * Pismo - "Velodrome" from ''Within Transition'' (2006) * Rebel Familia - "Ghost Town" from ''Guns of Riddim'' (2007) * Suburban - "Shiori" from ''Suburban'' (2007) * KK - "Lift the Fog Up" from ''Light in a Fog'' (2007) * Goodings Rina - "Daitoshi o Densha wa Yuku" from ''Daitoshi o Densha wa Yuku'' (2007) * Eccy - "Ultimate High" from ''Floating Like Incense'' (2007) *

Tokimonsta Jennifer Lee, known professionally as Tokimonsta (stylized as TOKiMONSTA), is an American record producer and DJ based in Los Angeles. She has collaborated with artists such as Anderson .Paak, Earthgang, Isaiah Rashad, Selah Sue, and ZHU. Additio ...

- "Start Again" from ''Bedtime Lullabies'' (2008) * The Heavymanners - "Taiyo" from ''The Heavymanners'' (2008) * Eccy - "Halo: Ten" from ''Blood the Wave'' (2009) * DJ Baku - "Goooooooooooal!!!!!!!" from ''The 12 Japs'' (2009) * Meiso - "Yomichi" from ''Yoru no Touzoku'' (2009) *

Ken Ishii is a Japanese Disc_jockey, DJ and record producer from Sapporo. He graduated from Hitotsubashi University. He has released work under his own name as well as under the pseudonyms: FLR, Flare, UTU, Yoga, and Rising Sun. Strongly influenced by De ...

- "Over Driver" from ''The Works + The Unreleased & Unexpected'' (2009) * Lems - "Gala Dress" from ''Ping Pong Box'' (2009) * Candle - "Ragumi" from ''Tsukimi Soushi'' (2011) * Nujabes - "Luv(sic) Part 4" (2011) * Tamurapan - "Demo Nai" from ''Worldwide'' (2012) * Chimp Beams - "Aquatrium" from ''Slowly'' (2012) *

Self Jupiter Ornette Glenn (born March 16, 1970), better known by his stage name Self Jupiter, is an American rapper from Los Angeles, California. He is a member of Freestyle Fellowship alongside Myka 9, P.E.A.C.E., and Aceyalone. He is also one half of The ...

Kenny Segal Kenny Segal (born December 3, 1979), also known as Syndakit, is an American record producer and DJ based in Los Angeles, California. In 2018, ''Mixmag'' described him as "one of the best hip-hop producers in the city." He has been a member of Team ...

- "Outer Rings" from ''The Kleenrz'' (2012) * I-Dep - "Fuku" from ''Da Base'' (2012) *

Kero One Kero One is a Korean-American hip hop MC, producer, and DJ from San Francisco, California. He has been recognized for re-introducing the jazz rap sound in the early to mid 2000s with his jazz-hop album Windmills of the Soul. History Kero One ...

- "The Last Train" from ''Color Theory'' (2012) * Marcus D - "One People" from ''Melancholy Hopeful'' (2012) * Nujabes - "Luv(sic) Part 5" (2012) * Haruka Nakamura - "Luv(sic) Part 2: Acoustica" from ''Melodica'' (2013) * DJ Baku - "Mixture" from ''Japoneera'' (2013) * Lex (de Kalhex) - "Fast Forward" and "Circulations" from ''Full Cycle'' (2013) * Grand Groove - "A Long Way" from ''III'' (2013) * DJ Kou - "Steady Eighty" from ''My Whole Life'' (2013) * Nujabes - "Luv(sic) Part 6" (2013) *

jizue , stylized as jizue and pronounced "Jizu", is a Japanese instrumental jazz-fusion band from Kyoto. The band's name is taken from an alternate spelling of French soccer star Zinedine Zidane’s nickname "Zizou". History Jizue was formed in 2006 ...

- "Shinkuro" from ''Shiori'' (2014) * Gagle - "Ca La Mode" from ''VG+'' (2014) * DJ Deckstream - "Young World" from ''Dress Code'' (2014) * Nitsua - "Visa" from ''Dayscape'' (2015) * Ohtoro - "This Is Yuzu" from ''Kumamoto EP'' (2016) * Scholar - "Real Man" from ''Art of Worth'' (2016) * Uyama Hiroto - "South Side" from ''Freeform Jazz'' (2016) * Kenichiro Nishihara - "All These Years" from ''Sincerely...'' (2016) *

- "Wakusei" from ''Story'' (2016) * Scott SK Miller - "Sunflower Samurai" from ''Hiro'' (2018) *

ALI (band) ALI (acronym for Alien Liberty International) is a multinational hip hop/funk band formed in Shibuya, Tokyo. All members of the band are mixed with roots in Japan, Europe, America, Asia, and Africa. ALI released their first single "Wild Side", ...

- "DAZE N SUNSHINE" from ''LOVE, MUSIC AND DANCE'' (2021)

Compilation appearances

* "Blank Paper" on ''Tags of the Times'' (1997) * "Ecdysis" on ''Tags of the Times Version 2.0'' (1998) * "Monster!" on ''Catacombs'' (1999) * "Competition Within" on ''Strictly Indee'' (2000) * "Confessions (of Three Men)" on ''

Tags of the Times 3 ''Tags of the Times 3'' is a 2001 alternative hip hop compilation album, released by Mary Joy Recordings. It also served as a soundtrack to a documentary of the same name. Takashi Futatsugi of ''Riddim'' named it one of the 12 best albums of 200 ...

'' (2001) * "The Clash: A Call to Arms" on ''African Jag Vol. 1'' (2006)

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 1975 births Living people Japanese rappers Musicians from Tokyo University of California, Berkeley alumni Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area Japanese emigrants to the United States American musicians of Japanese descent