© Culture Universal
Written by Jesse Viinikainen 2004

Starting out from his hometown of Chiba, Deli first started his career as a DJ on local clubs. Quick to pick up the mic between the sets, Deli teamed up with his friends Yohey & Bass to form a group called The Hot Connection in the mid 1990's and the trio went on to arrange many hip-hop events and performed at numerous clubs in the area. Working as a producer, DJ and an MC at the time, Deli decided to leave the group behind in the late 1990's to hook-up with his old friend Gore-Tex to become a member of the new Tokyo based group Nitro Microphone Underground.

Joining the supergroup in 1999 after Gore-Tex, Macka-Chin, S-Word and DJ Watarai officially formed the group, Deli got signed to Reality Records which was also the home to most of the MC's on Nitro. When they changed the game with their self titled album the year after, Deli pursued a solo career with the analog single 'Burnin', teaming up once again with Gore-Tex and the new producer from Chiba DJ Yakko. The single became an underground hit and after the success Deli and Yakko decided to join forces and created a production unit called Aquarius.

Burnin had such a huge impact on the underground scene in Tokyo that at the time of Deli's solo album debut 'Aquarius' later on that year all of the 20 000 copies pressed were instantly sold without any promotion. Kicking off the new year with a new single 'Akalien', Deli spent most of 2001 with feature works and preparing new tracks for a follow-up album which was finally released in 2002. The mini album titled 'Kuchiguruma' featured the smash hit 'Pass Da Popcorn' which ended up in popular commercials and got Deli into the attention of Cutting Edge who ended up signing him with a major deal. Debuting as a major artist with 'Delta Express Like Illusion' few months later, Deli earned himself a place among the all-stars in the game through the albums success and formed his own label Chika Chika Productions in the following year.

Deli & Yakko re-united as Aquarius for their first album together in 3 years in 2003 with 'Oboreta Machi'. Going to even higher level in success the album showed a far angrier Deli and took his flow to almost melodic directions but remained true to his original style lyrically. Most recently in 2004 Deli launched the career of his prodige/friend Mikris, took part in the Nitro Microphone Underground comeback and also released a new mini album with the american producer 327 titled 'Otakarasagashi'.

Editor's Note :

Being one of those rare people who make any production shine and equipped with one of the most vicious voices in the world of hip-hop, Deli is all about personality and consistency on the microphone.