A Theme Song from My Childhood Introduced Me to Anime Hip-Hop.
From Spider Riders to Lotus Juice, how hip-hop transformed anime soundtracks and aesthetics in the early 2000s, and harmonized them.
“Hip-hop is the language of thugs, it’s too urban, rappers are terrible people,” a quote I heard on every corner growing up in small-town Ontario. Family members, parents of friends, and even school teachers all parroted the sentiment.
Little did they all know, in the living room during Saturday morning cartoons, I was being brainwashed by hip-hop music through anime.
‘Why is hip-hop so good?’ they would ask, inadvertedly. It slaps, it is music that makes you move, engages you in political thought, deeper discussion, or provides scene, character, and dialogue — much like a screenplay. “Shakey” by Ghostface Killah, and “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake” by Doechii are great examples.
‘I would never listen to hip-hop, hip-hop is bad.’ I would respond with a mix of ignorance and racial prejudice. Oh and ‘Superhero cartoons are the only acceptable form of animation!’
Here is a further list of opinions that changed in my life:
- Montreal sucks = Montreal is a great place and French is a poetic language.
- Hip-hop is for thugs = Hip-hop is distinct and a beautiful genre of art — not “thug music” nor the people who make it are ‘thugs’.
- I’m not racist! = We are all subject to prejudices and biases that can and should be undone for the benefit of each other.
- Anime? Ew, gross.
In eighth grade, our classmate Emily exposed us to anime for the first time. We immediately made fun of her cat ears and the nerdy ‘ick’ of the prospect of watching anime. Until we went home and booted up Netflix, and saw those wide anime thighs.
Another thing I thought I hated but was wrong about. Funny that hip-hop and anime go so well together.
Anime Meets Hip-Hop in Canadian Animated Media:
The beginning of my exposure to anime-hip-hop began in sixth grade with the anime show ‘Spider Riders’. The show followed an elite group of warriors riding spiders beneath the earth and fighting insects. In reality, they were children sucked into the center of the Earth (hollowed earth theory for you conspiracy freaks), and did battle on giant insects.
My parents thought: ‘oh, more superhero stuff, great.’ What it was: a sick show with a rap-rock opening.
“Calling All Spider Riders” was performed by Jason Gleed, Jason Dantes Balde ‘Clip’, and Annelise Noronha. Clip was a rapper from the Scarborough hip-hop group BrassMunk, founded in 1997. He raps most of the lyrics on the track, including the legendary ‘Lets ride’ (x20). The song has a ‘Collision Course’ sound to it.
I never listened to Brassmunk before this article, but their jazzy production and slick lyricism is worth exploring. The catalogue is kind of surreal to listen to, seeing that the only Brassmunk feature I knew before this was on a anime cartoon about spider-riding ten year olds.
It was on my TV set every morning at 6:00 AM before my parents woke up.
People are asking, why do so many rappers watch anime? Because it was being projected into everyone’s homes in different forms, different ‘harmonies’. Anime hip-hop was one of those harmonies that became a shared experience if you were watching television in the 2000s.
I may not have been old enough for Nujabes and ‘Samurai Champloo’, but I was old enough to know I liked the Spider Riders song. But how did this harmony between American hip-hop and Japanese anime come about in the first place?
To answer that, we have to go back to post-WWII, to the foundations of anime: manga.
Cultural Exchange Across Borders — Japan post-WWII, a Brief History of Americanization.
Japan lost the Second World War, and experienced a national desire is to turn away from the horrors of the war. Hiroshima is decimated by the American weapons and atomic project. The South Pacific is brutalized by Japanese imperialism.
People are hungry and scared about the future, while the past leaves them nothing to hold onto. Except, that was not entirely true for manga.
Jigoku zoshi or ‘hell scrolls’ depicted deformed faces, devils, suffering of sinners that fell through many pictoral representations of hell. These 12th century scrolls were solely for religious purposes, not mass consumption.
Then, in the Edo period, ukiyo-e woodblock prints gain popularity. They depicted places, faces, people — they were meant to be engaged with. After Kobuki shows, booklets of woodblock prints would be sold. These are the prototypes for mass consumed media in Japan. The proto-manga.
Western thought had impacted the political cartoons of 19th century Japan. There was the manga-comics of the Meiji period, such as “The Japan Punch” (1862–1887). It was illustrated, published and authored by English cartoonist Charles Wirgman, and introduced European notions of 19th century visual satire to Japan. Political pamphlets and journals that critique and ridicule politicians at the beginning of the 20th century were made for entertainment.
By the 20th century, Shonen Kurabu and Shojo Kurabu were created in the pre-war effort as publications to morally educate the youth. By the war time, these magazines opted for patriotism and pro-war stance. However, after the war, the magazines pivoted to focus on life in post-war; how to deal with food shortages, how to embrace a new economy and technology.
In a gross simplification, the Japanese focus is becoming hopeful of the future, while rejecting tradition and religion that dominated Japanese thought in the pre-war and wartime period. Primarily, we are embracing technology as the saviour of the nation.
Astro-Boy represents that future generation, guided by technology and an atomic heart. In a reversal of fortune, it is nuclear power that will save Japan. And this series had one of the most popular anime songs, a theme song made specifically for the anime; more on this type of song later.
‘The 1990s saw a transnational boom in the global circulation and popularity of anime. During this period, American distributors and broadcasters quite literally channeled anime into American homes. Following the 1990s boom, the global and crucial success of Studio Ghibli pushed anime deeper into American cultural conversations. Rappers who came of age during this period grew up with anime and its aesthetics as a common feature of their artistic diet.’ — William H. Bridges IV
On the American front, American artists were returning the favour of harmonization. The Wu-Tang Clan was incorporating East Asian aesthetics and kung-fu movie samples into their work. DaBlackGoku was a popular forum for fans of the series Dragon Ball Z, where characters post original characters that exist in the Dragon Ball universe. The 1990s ‘Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai” starring Forest Whittaker, which I have not seen but looks awesome, came out at this time.
Hip-hop was climbing the mainstream mountain, and Japan took notice. Being open to incorporating and harmonizing with Western ideals in their art, Japan continued the cultural exchange forward.
Series like ‘Samurai Champloo’ and ‘Afro Samurai’ are examples of this. But the combination reached every corner of anime — even a character driven show about apprentice Grim Reapers collecting souls, like ‘Soul Eater’.
The Influence of Hip-Hop on Anime Soundtracks: Soul Eater, Sounds that Determine Character.
With this history in mind, we can turn towards further anime-hip-hop harmonies. Series such as ‘Samurai Champloo’ rely heavily on hip-hop motifs and aesthetics, and music, in its presentation. Anime such as Soul Eater incorporated hip-hop in a more subtler form.
Death the Kid’s theme, ‘Bang Bang Bang’ by Lotus Juice, first appears when he charges up his mega attack — the Death Canon.
A theme song can set the scene. The ‘Death Canon’ scene is building anticipation, it is menacing, it is ‘American’ with a harmonica riff, rolling guitars, and lyrics that reference shooting guns. Also a jazz break.
The song incorporates hip-hop style sampling and sonic aesthetics to get across the message of Death the Kid: he will shoot you. But the song never resorts to stereotypical, hip-hop cool.
Black American ‘cool’ is often transmitted with hip-hop music. The ‘cool pose’, for example, is a messaging and communication of coolness — in hip-hop, this is big and adopted by performers across the board. It is a imitation of perceived blackness. Think chains, Afro-American slang, and violent lyrics about being in the gang life.
When we know you went to high school in LA to pursue music full time with mom and dad, looking at you Yeat.
Does Death the Kid do a ‘cool pose’ in relation to blackness? Not necessarily. Poses have been big in anime culture (see Dragon Ball), leaving the character open to interpretation. While he is using guns, Death the Kid is never portrayed as a stereotypical ‘thug’. He is neurotic, focused on cleanliness, symmetry is really big for this guy. And he is a demi-god that wants to succeed his father in the position of Grim Reaper.
Death the Kid is cool, and incorporates hip-hop into that aura of coolness through his theme song — but he is not trying or is portrayed as stereotypical hip-hop cool or is ‘cool posing’.
Death the Kid is uniquely a creation of Soul Eater, imbued with a hip-hop theme song. The rapper who wrote and performed the theme song is another product of this harmonization.
Theme songs began in the 1920s with radio shows, distinguishing certain shows from others. Within television, theme songs added a visual element. Themes build a brand identity, create a bond with the audience, and set the mood to immerse and attach the audience to the world.
In the 2000s, anime saw the boom of the ‘anime song’. These were songs being made specifically for anime, which led to a increase of star voice actors and ‘idol singers’ with anime-theme chart topping hits. The trend actually started back in the Astro-Boy days, as the theme Tetsuwan Atumo reached a lot of success in Japan and beyond.
Instead of an idol like Aya Hirano, Death the Kid’s theme was performed by a Japanese rapper named Lotus Juice. Lotus Juice has made a lot of themes. All of which are anime-hip-hop. They all slap. I love this golden haired freak.
- Noragami: Noratan.
- Black Butler: The Dark Crow Smiles.
- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Overdrive.
- Persona: Color Your Night.
- Katanagatari: Lay Back.
Much like the rappers of America, Lotus Juice started with a beatmaker and a rehearsal time with friends in college. Inspired by 90s hip-hop (‘Runnin’ by The Pharcyde, Wu-Tang Clan, and Mic Geronimo), LJ went on stage for the first time. In his words, he sucked.
Eventually, he released enough music and played enough shows in Japanese clubs to get the attention of Shoji Meguro, the composer of the Persona series. It took a while after that, but the work kept coming. He is undisputedly the champion of the anime hip-hop soundtrack.
Unlike Clip, Lotus Juice makes music both on the side and for anime. Where Clip performed Spider Riders and never made another appearance again, Lotus Juice found a thriving career in the anime song scene. It is an interesting divide to see how well Japan embraces and celebrates its anime song artists, while in America and the West, a song like Spider Riders is barely a footnote in an artists catalogue.
Spider Riders got its theme at the same time as Death the Kid did. The 2000s was a period of anime hip-hop at all corners and margins, harmonizing with each other in different ways. Samurai Champloo may be the poster child, but other anime like Soul Eater and Spider Riders also share in the cultural zeitgeist. They created something with anime and hip-hop often overlooked.
Harmonization is a powerful tool of creation. Inbetween the sounds and cultures of Japan and America, truly unique works of art are created. Hip-hop in anime exposed a lot of people to ideas and themes from each part of the whole. For me, it was Soul Eater and Spider Riders.
You made it through the article, thank you. Love exploring how art forms intersect? I do too! Preferably with a cup of coffee. Please consider supporting, and click here to subscribe to the blog. Signing out, later sk8er.
* All images are used with license, are promotional material, or presented here for critical and educational purposes under fair usage policy.
