ARTIST OF THE MONTH

© Culture-Universal 2005
Written by Jesse Viinikainen
[Bracketed words] contain Sound Samples, be sure to check them out.

RAPPAGARIYA BIOGRAPHY

Lights, Gariya, Action! Those who want to rap with a purpose (the rough translation of the word rappagariya) is referring to the existence of hip-hop's many wack MC's. The story of the group began in 1993 when Rappagariya was unofficially formed by Miyoshi Senzo aka MMC Miyoshi (from Real Styla) with MC Q and DJ Tanaken (from Backgammon) along with 3 other people who participated in the crew's early recordings on demotapes and live performances. a B-Boy before joining the group, MC Q however quickly decided to break from the project shortly after due to the differences in artistic directions and seeked solo activity when Miyoshi encouraged him to be a fulltime rapper.

As Q went on his own ways influenced by the early 90's groups Zingi, Kimidori and East End, he stumbled upon to a starting MC from his neighbourhood by the name of Yamadaman. The 2 MC's after meeting several times joined forces around the early 1994 under the name of Rappagariya and appeared on compilations such as "Akumyou" with the first showcase of their talent [ Yabasugiru Skill Part 1 ]. Without a record deal but with a solid recognition from the underground scene, Yamadaman & Q frequently performed at the legendary underground hip-hop club Cave every month and eventually developed chemistry with one of the clubs residential DJ's at the time DJ Toshi who ended up joining the group as their live DJ in the later half of 1995. Now more determined than ever the trio started their search for a record deal that would get their message heard.

P-Vine Records the legendary independent label and also the home of such groups as the revolutionary King Giddra became the home for Rappagariya in the summer of 1996 when the group released their first testament for hip-hop [ Yabasugiru Skill Part 2 ]. The mini-album was a success for them and showcased raw skills and serious messages that made the group one of the most popular newcomers in the game. P-Vine that has worked as a career launcher for many hip-hop acts in Japan through the years were forced to say farewell shortly after when Rappagariya decided to leave the label after their debut to form Sohmatoh Entertainment which also became the home for the groups original founder Miyoshi Senzo as well as groups such as Indemoral & Backgammon.

In 1997 following the formation of their own label, Q decided to reform his original group with Miyoshi Zenso & DJ Tanaken and went on to work for new material under the name of Real Styla (releasing "Tha Specialist EP" on December of 1997). Keeping themselves busy while Q was taking part on his side projects, Yamadaman & DJ Toshi went on to produce Rappagariya's first single for Sohmatoh [ Yeah to IE ] which was to be the first single for their upcoming album as well. Q joined the duo in studio and with nothing to lose and many things to teach to the growing Japanese hip-hop community, Rappagariya went on to release their debut album "Super Hard" on September of 1998 which blew many Japanese b-boys away selling over 50 000 copies nationwide.

Touring aggressively and appearing on compilation albums along with many guest spots that followed, Rappagariya were on top of the independent game when the hip-hop scene in Tokyo took the next step into signing new talents with major contracts. In the summer of 1999 they performed at Club Quattro in Shibuya, Tokyo and rocked the crowds with a legendary rap-marathon that lasted for over 3 hours and took the status of the group few places higher in the heart of the hip-hop community. The huge success of the performance and their continuous feature ring (especially [ Straight Outta Nippon ] which was featured on the Japanese - American collabo album "Synchronicity") brought them into the attention of JVC who signed the trio with a major label deal as congratulations for their efforts. The hip-hop magazine Blast! also credited Rappagariya as the best group of 1998.

While Q continued with his side project Real Styla and prepared to release their first full album "Bakudan Hatsugen" that saw the daylight in December of 1999, Yamadaman having a past with guitar play and experimentations on the mixture of rap and rock lead the crew into featuring on one of the early Japanese mixture albums Mitaiken Zone by Yamaarashi (Rappagariya was featured on the song [ Arashi 2000 ]). What had started as an experimentation with a new genre, only less than a year later Q, Yamadaman & DJ Toshi found a goldmine for their success in featuring with the popular rock group Dragon Ash on march of 2000. The collabo [ Deep Impact ] was a huge success on the charts and reached number 2 spot on the oricon (Japanese counterpart for the billboard) after Sony decided to use it for their new Mini Disc commercials. Trailing their success with the mixture of rap and rock music, Rappagariya decided it was their time on the spotlight and returned to their hip-hop roots for their first major single [ Do The Gariya Thing ] only a month after their break into the mainstream.

Being one of the biggest new names in hip-hop now, Rappagariya succesfully landed to the 21st century with the follow up album "Rappagariya Densetsu" (densetsu means tradition) that gathered many of the biggest names in the game such as Twigy, Maccho, Zeebra and the whole Sohmatoh crew to create one of the most unforgettable albums of the new millennium. Densetsu reached the number 11 spot on the oricon and after the albums nationwide tour as well as taking part on the 2001's B-Boy Park theme song, Rappagariya answered to the huge demand for new material only 1 year later by releasing their new single [ It's A Showtime ] that was featured on the Japanese soundtrack of the Jean Reno/LL Cool J movie Rollerball.

Their 3rd album "Nippon Kaizou Keikaku" (loosely translates to Japan's reconstruction plan) was announced around the time of the single's release and unlike the previous 2 installments came out darker and more social aware and even featured Japan's public enemy number 1 K-Dub Shine on one of the albums better tracks [ Daitokyo ]. The release of their third album and big festivals such as Fuji Rock 2001 brought more success to the group and by the time the year changed into 2002 Rappagariya released a new single [ Enter The Ga Moeyo Gariya ] sampling the legendary Enter the Dragon Theme from the alltime classic Bruce Lee movie.

Uniting with the old friend Miyoshi Senzo once again in 2002, Q went to record the second album of Real Styla "Zendai Mimon" while Yamadaman concentrated on producing works and guest spots. During their break from recording as a group, the trio kept themselves busy and started a movie project "3 on 3" that would combine matrix style basketball with an amazing soundtrack that featured artists like K-Dub Shine, DJ Oasis, Dohzi-T, Ganxsta DX, Dabo, Macka-Chin and of course Rappagariya themselves. The movie came out in 2003 and united the group after a short break and put them back into the studio to work on a lighter follow up for the message oriented 3rd album.

The recording sessions however were quickly interrupted by the legendary b-boy Crazy-A who requested Rappagariya to record the theme song for B-Boy Park 2003 which also worked as the first step nearer to the groups 10th year anniversary. The Video of the single [ Norina ] showed the direction of their new album with a much more lighter approach (and extremely funny) while still keeping it hip-hop and real to the groups previous works. After Q lost his freestyle battle against Innosence at the B-Boy park competition, the group achieved the 10 year mark in their careers and celebrated it with the release of their 4th album "R.G. Air The 4th" just after the event in August of 2003. The Demand for being part of the album became very high amongst the fellow rappers in the scene and the final version of the album featured legends such as DJ Yutaka, Boss the MC (from Tha Blue Herb), and big names in the game like Zeebra, Uzi, DJ Hazime, Soul Scream & Yamadaman's new prodige Mineshin-Hold.

Before entering the year 2004 the group announced a temporary break to concentrate on solo careers that took Yamadaman to release his debut solo album The Message (in December of 2003) while Q went on to produce his very own clothing line Full Throttle. More recently in the fall of 2004, Rappagariya released their first best of album and while the group might be taking a break from the game at the moment, the fans of the gariya are bound to get more goodies from the second album of Yamadaman and the Sohmatoh allstars album both scheduled to drop later this year. Q has also announced the plans for his own solo album and even though the year 2005 is dominated by the groups solo projects it's still bound to continue the amazing story of 2 MC's and 1 DJ who just want to rap anytime and everywhere.

Words from the Editor:

Changing from topics of child abuse and social critisism to discrimination, Rappagariya have proven to be able to be serious, funny and charismatic which is something many groups fail to achieve even after 10 years of activity. Yamadaman, Q and DJ Toshi are one of those people who have succeeded in keeping it real to their roots where lies one of the keys to their ever growing success during their long career.

YAMADAMAN BIOGRAPHY

Hey man korega entertainmeent! Born in Tokyo Japan in the mid 1970's, Tomonari Yamada (better known as Yamadaman from the legendary Japanese hip-hop group Rappagariya) got his first experiences with hip-hop struggling to decide whether to become a guitar player or a professional boxer while attending junior high. Influenced by the likes of RUN DMC and Red Hot Chilli Peppers in his teens, Yamadaman being already a skilled musician with his guitar started to experiment with a mix of rock and rap and sometimes even metal to spend his breaks from school.

Seeing how the domestic artists in Japan were quickly catching up on hip-hop in a grand scale, Yamadaman performed at clubs as a solo artist in the early 1990's inspired by performances of such acts as Zingi and Kimidori, 2 of the more famous groups in Japan at that time. Approached by a local b-boy by the name of Q after being impressed by Yamadaman's performances made the two sit down and share their views about hip-hop and Q who having had his own crew in the past with MMC Miyoshi (Miyoshi Senzo) decided to reform the group keeping its original name Rappagariya.

Yamadaman who became the producer of the duo's new group started to experiment more with his music in the years 1993-1995 and after appearing on various mixtapes and compilation albums invited the residential DJ of club cave DJ Toshi to join them in the search for a record deal. P-Vine records became the first official home for Rappagariya and released the crews debut mini album [ Yabasugiru Skill Part 2 ] in 1996 that gave wide recognition to the trio and spawned the creation of their own label Sohmatoh Entertainment in the following year.

The birth of Sohmatoh took Q and Yamadaman to work on different projects and while Q went to form Real Styla, a new group with the old friend Miyoshi Senzo, Yamadaman went to the studio to work on the debut album of Rappagariya "Super Hard" that saw the daylight in 1998. Following the releases of Rappagariya Densetsu in July 2000, Densetsu Remixes in November 2000, Nippon Kaizou Keikaku in July 2001 and R.G. Air the 4th in August 2003 Yamadaman re-activated his own solo career after the 10th anniversary of his group and released the highly anticipated solo album "The Message" on December of 2003. 29 years old and still going strong, Yamadaman and Rappagariya most recently released a best of R.G. compilation and starred in their own hip-hop/basketball movie 3 on 3. Yamadaman has also announced the plans for a second solo album during 2005 as well as the plans for producing the first album featuring the sohmatoh allstars.

Words from the Editor:

Proving the that the commercialism of hip-hop had not taken a hold of him with his debut solo album, Yamadaman has always been about what the title of his solo album implies, about Message. A man of thousand flows and styles, Yamadaman is a master of versatility on the microphone. Crazy, funny, hardcore, serious, the ways to describe Yamadaman's whole career is endless and as a entertainer and a hip-hop artist the man definetely is a true talent.