Pulling from the archives for this one.

Ayoo what’s good? 😊 And welcome back to yet another installment of the one and only J-Music Exchange/Rate! Back in your guys’ lives once again this month with another pair of Japanese music album reviews.

Before we begin, as you might have already noticed, there’s something different about the cover photo for this review… 😉

These, friends, are the *official* icon/logo for this series! You’ll be seeing more of these adorning my and Al’s reviews moving forward, and it comes to us courtesy of NONLOARTS (check out their work as well as their contact info here!). Al and I just passed 100 album reviews not too long ago and seeing as this project of ours is also currently now in it’s fifth year of consecutive activity, we figured it’s about time we celebrated that fact by giving the series a fresh look. Let us know what you guys think!

Okay. Now, to get back on track; if you already know how this whole thing goes you know to skip the following paragraph, but if by chance you don’t and you’re not too sure what this is all about ー

The Exchange/Rate is a tandem album review series conducted every month by yours truly alongside my good friend and fellow Japanese music fan Al (from Omunibasu). Each month we decide on a specific theme with which our reviews would revolve around. We then pick out albums from our respective libraries which we think best coincides with that theme. We will then give the album we chose to the other person and vice versa (exchange), after which we then listen to and subsequently review the album we were given (rate). This project has not only allowed us to explore music beyond our libraries, but it provides an opportunity for us to see our favorite albums from a different point of view. It is our hope that this series is able to do the same for you and that you either find a new artist to try out and/or we offer you a fresh take on one of *your* favorite albums 

Al and I take turns deciding on the theme for the month as I mentioned, and it was again my turn to do so for this month, I thought it’d be interesting for us to review the oldest albums in our library. This one’s something that I’ve had in mind for us to do for a some time now and it’s actually a bit unique in that these albums aren’t really ones we’re freely picking out from our collection like how we normally do it for this series. These albums could literally be anything (provided they’re a Japanese album of course) and don’t even necessary have to be albums we personally recommend. I mean, ideally one’s library is full of albums that you *would* recommend to other people, but I would like to think that that’s not always. Sometimes albums are in your library just because (lol), as is the case with me and the oldest album I have in my collection.

Like, I do have an inkling as to why, but I can’t say with full confidence how I came across ACO’s Kittenish Love and why I have it in my library, but it’s there and it’s the oldest album currently have in it (check out Al’s review of it here!). Al, in turn, had Rhymester’s RESPECT to give to me for this one.

So yeah, time to run it back to the 90s 😎

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Originally having formed 1989, Rhymester (ライムスター) is a Japanese Rap/Hip-Hop group comprised of emcees Mummy-D and Utamaru, and DJ Jin. The group debuted with the single Plus Alpha in 1995 and are still currently (at the time of writing) one of the oldest active Hip-Hop groups in Japan, with their most recent album Open The Window (their eleventh full album overall) having only come out just this past year in June of 2023.

＜リスペクト (respect)＞
(＊Spotify link to the full album)

CDJapan Affiliate Link(s):
N/A

＜T ｒａｃｋｌｉｓｔ＞

０１・R.E.S.P.E.C.T
０２・キング オブ ステージ/king of stage
０３・「B」の定義/B no teigi feat. Crazy-A
０４・B-Boyイズム/b-boyism
０５・麦の海/mugi no umi
０６・Hey, DJ Jin
０７・マイクの刺客-DJ Jin 劇画Remix-/mic no shikaku (DJ Jin Gekiga Remix)
０８・野性の証明/yasei no shoumei
０９・ブラザーズ/brothers feat. Kohei
１０・ビッグ・ウェンズデー/big wednesday feat. Maki The Magic
１１・隣の芝生にホール・イン・ワン/tonari no shibafu ni hole-in-one feat. Boy-Ken
１２・敗者復活戦/haishafukkatsuden
１３・耳ヲ貸スベキ/mimiwokasubeki
１４・リスペクト/respect

Ａｌ：For the past year or so, I’ve definitely been dabbling in a bit of American rap, more specifically some old school, East Coast stuff. Fantastic artists like MF DOOM, Wu-Tang, De La Soul and especially A Tribe Called Quest; it’s funny cause my sudden interest in ‘90s boom bap, and especially jazz-infused, hip-hop did originate from a Japanese artist we’ve talked about before on the Exchange/Rate, after I saw that Tribe was a direct influence of reina’s (and even got me to buy a vinyl of Midnight Marauders while I was in Japan a couple months ago). And while I’ve heard my fair share of Japanese rap from much more modern artists, it really is fascinating to see how Japan was also going through its own hip-hop movement in the ‘90s with many MCs and groups coming into fruition from the influences of American rappers. One of which being the Yokohama-rooted trio RHYMESTER.

I’ve talked about this in a past E/R review but Japan’s general take on hip-hop has been a bit questionable, as you often see people or characters in anime doing fairly cheesy and ‘bare-bones’ rap impressions, especially in scenarios where it’s mainly used for comedic purposes. But when done right, it’s clear that Japan has had a really nice grasp on this genre and what Mummy-D, DJ JIN and Utamaru put down in Respect feels like an early, cool example of that. I love the combination of that sick beat with the synthesizer in “B-BOYism”, all while it reflects/emphasizes the whole culture of breakdancing; the slight rock vibe in “Hey, DJ JIN” felt like an interesting mixture between two genres of music; and I also did enjoy some of the samples heard on the album, with the most noticeable one being “Respect (featuring RAPPAGARIYA)” fittingly using the famous lines from Aretha Franklin’s iconic and similarly titled hit. But one of my favorite aspects of this album is the inclusion of jazz (or jazz-esque) instruments such as in “King of Stage”, “Mimiwokasubeki” and ESPECIALLY in “Haisyafukkatsusen”, where the deep bass, loud horns, pleasant flutes and/or pianos intertwined quite well with those drum loops. It felt very “in-line” with a couple of the Western rap artists I mentioned in the last paragraph, as well as my own general tastes in music, and I do feel like Respect is a pretty fun album to check out if you’re into that ‘golden age’ of hip-hop.

＜Ｓｏｎｇｓ　ｏｆ　Ｉｎｔｅｒｅｓｔ＞

０１・R.E.S.P.E.C.T、０２・キング オブ ステージ/king of stage
I’ve chosen to start off this review by talking about the first two tracks off of the album in both R.E.S.P.E.C.T as well as King of Stage here. I mean, generally speaking (and those of you who have been following the Exchange/Rate for some time would know since I bring it up occasionally) I do like going over the album opener to sort of ease into the discussion about the album as a whole, as more often than not it does set the tone for how the rest of the songs are going to sound. Of course, this isn’t an absolute rule, and there definitely do exist albums that start out sounding completely different from how they end. However, as someone who listens to albums from the first track to the last each and every time, I do personally appreciate it when bands/artists approach making an album as such. Like, for example, how R.E.S.P.E.C.T seamlessly transitions to King of Stage here, where it kinda makes you feel that you’re meant to listen to the album in this manner with the former doubling as an extended intro for the latter.

Granted, it’s nothing revolutionary, and a ton of albums do this for the exact reason that I just highlighted, but my point really is that I find that a good opener lets me engage with the album just that more readily. R.E.S.P.E.C.T is in actuality more of a prelude track, almost like a sound check than its own song, but as short as it is it does do a good job at introducing the listener to what would be the predominant sound throughout RESPECT which is this Jazz-infused “Boom Bap” kind of beat. … Not that you won’t be made all too familiar with said beat by the time you finish listening to the album, but we’ll get more into that later. King of Stage, as I mentioned, directly plays off of R.E.S.P.E.C.T and in my opinion is made a bit more enjoyable because of it.

０４・B-Boyイズム/b-boyism
B-Boyism is the most popular track on RESPECT by a good margin, at least going by current streaming numbers. I think it’s pretty safe to assume that a lot of that might be attributable to how the song has since had quite the resurgence on social networking sites (primarily TikTok). Now, yes, you will find if you clicked on that link there that users were mostly interested in using the song’s very catchy intro for their videos more than anything else, but I would also like to think that at least a few of them got interested enough to listen to the song in its entirety which could explain the disparate play count compared to their other songs. Of course, the song could also just be a well-celebrated classic in the Japanese Rap/Hip-Hop scene (as described by Mummy-D himself in a recent-ish performance of B-Boyism on the JIM BEAM OPEN MIC YouTube channel).

Whatever the case may be, I can definitely see why people would gravitate towards this song, and I have no qualms saying it’s arguably the “best” track on RESPECT from purely a music listening perspective. Catchy intro aside, B-Boyism also just has a sort of fun and playful energy to it that’s just few and far between on the album. I mean, when the album cover has the members of Rhymester wearing imperial Japanese military uniforms, I’d imagine “fun and playful” would be the last thing you would expect to hear from any of the songs in it (lol). I’m only half-joking though as, after conducting my own research about this release in preparation for this review, I would come to find out that there’s actually quite a bit more to it than just Rhymester merely aiming to subvert expectations. Something that ultimately ties into the cultural significance of RESPECT as it relates to the history of Hip-Hop and Rap in Japan and Japanese history in general.

１４・リスペクト/respect feat. ラッパ我リヤ (rappagariya)
RESPECT closes out with a bookends kind of ending, with the album’s closing track also being titled Respect, though this time written in katakana and not in spelled out alphabetically like with the album opener. On that note, and speaking of spelling out the word “respect”, the song actually opens up with a sampling of the iconic “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” line from Otis Redding’s Respect made famous by Aretha Franklin’s rendition. … Let that sink in real quick (XD). Now, it might seem completely random to throw that in there but when you stop and think about how much influenced by Jazz this album actually is, it’s not too surprising for Rhymester to also find inspiration in adjacent genres like Soul and Blues, as what appears to be the case here.

While B-Boyism might be the most popular and arguably the best song on this album, if I had to name a favorite track I do think I like Respect the most in terms of just being a song to listen to. One of my biggest criticisms for the album is in how the prominent and consistent Boom Bap beat found in most of the tracks here made for a bit of monotony. To be fair, you have songs too like Brothers and Haishafukkatsuden that help curb that feeling, Respect does it the best with the sort of Urban/Street vibe that the track gives off (especially with how they incorporate a piano). I also liked the simpler rhyming scheme here a whole lot compared to all the other songs in RESPECT, with the chorus becoming particularly memorable because of it. By that same token I thought Rappagariya had the best flow out of the featured artists they had on for the album.

＜Ｗｈａｔ　Ｉ　ｔｈｉｎｋ　ｏｆ　リスペクト (respect)＞

In his book entitled Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization, cultural anthropologist Ian Condry talks about (among other things) the early beginnings of Hip-Hop and Rap in Japan, and its subsequent impact on cultural products in the form of music (specifically Japanese Hip-Hop and Rap) as it relates to Japan’s socio-cultural and socio-political climate at the time. This was actually a text that I had initially meant to use as a reference when Al and I did our Exchange/Rate for multicultural Japanese artists, though I ultimately went a different angle with my review, choosing instead to focus on the universality of music as a whole instead of the globalization of Hip-Hop and Rap. Here though, Condry not only talks about Rhymester a great deal throughout his book, but he also discusses RESPECT specifically.

In particular he recounts how this album’s cover art (which depict the members of Rhymester in imperial military garb, inevitably reminding the nation of World War II and the role Japan played in it) sparked a fair amount of controversy when it came out, even making it on the Asahi shimbun, with news articles admonishing Rhymester for putting a spotlight on a subject that Japan would much rather not bring up while also accusing the group of appropriating the word “respect” and using it in the wrong context. Rhymester in turn argues that what they represent is a cultural shift brought about by the introduction of Western culture, including adopting Hip-Hop and Rap as a way to voice opposition through music and lyrics, which in this case would be directed towards the Japanese government.

There’s… quite a bit to unpack there, even for me to fully sort out myself if I’m being completely honest, but I bring all this up to you to the best of my ability as it actually ties into my thoughts on RESPECT as a whole. The reason being that I do value context a lot when it comes to trying to understand how an album is conceptualized. That is to say, taking into account when it came out and what the state of the world is at the time, the people involved in making the album and their backgrounds etc.; I find to be fairly helpful in understanding why certain directions and decisions pertaining to the album in question may have been made. Granted, not all albums are going to have any further meaning behind them apart from it being a product to be sold, but even that would then speak to a more consumer-driven approach being taken by the parties involved which you can then associate with their position in the mainstream media.

I digress. RESPECT is, in some ways, the complete opposite of that. The way I would describe it is that it’s “hyper” contextual, in the sense that a lot of one’s appreciation for this album and the songs found on it will mostly be derived from having a bit more than just a basal understanding of Japan’s history. Not to say that one can’t just enjoy the album from a purely musical perspective, but Mummy-D’s calling himself a “yellow B-Boy” or his bar that goes “regardless of our numbers, our hearts are in the minority” in B-Boyism for example also just wouldn’t hit as hard when you don’t know what he’s referring to, and/or if you don’t know the language for that matter. where the most we can appreciate it for is it being a fun and playful track with a catchy intro.

＜Ｍｙ　Ｒａｔｉｎｇ＞

３.２５ ｏｕｔ ｏｆ ５

＆

６.５ ｏｕｔ ｏｆ １０

Before I proceed, allow me first to say that this rating here reflects what I think of Rhymester’s RESPECT from purely a music listening perspective, and presumes that the listener isn’t familiar with the historical context in which it takes place in. I think that’s the fairest way to go about it (at least in my opinion) considering how this album was not made with a foreign listener in mind nor do I expect people reading this review to be equipped with the requisite knowledge needed to understand what’s being rapped about. I don’t normally like lending credence to the notion that you have to be able to speak or understand the language a song was written for one to truly be able to enjoy it. I’m of the firm belief that music is able to transcend such barriers in the conveyance of thought and meaning. However, I think this is going to be one of the rare cases that I do think it to be necessary in order to get the full experience. Without it, the album at times runs too one note with nary a switch up in tempo… which I 100% acknowledge might be selling it short, but that’s also the point I’m trying to get across.

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What are your guys’ thoughts on Rhymester’s RESPECT? Let us know down in the comments! While you’re at it, let us know too what’s the oldest album in *your* library? 😉

Before I let you guys go, don’t forget to check out Al’s review of ACO’s Kittenish Love over at Omunibasu if you haven’t yet done so!