Zeebra - World of Music 17 October 2007
Recently tman88 has been uploading some great rap and hip-hop albums from last decade, so I thought I would play along, heh.Hideyuki Yokoi—better known by his stage name Zeebra—is one of the most popular rappers in Japan. In many ways his style of rap music has a Western flavor that sounds like it could have come straight out of Detroit or California, if it weren’t for the use of the Japanese language, heh. This style garnered Zeebra a lot of popularity with youths who craved all things that sounded Western, but it also created controversy among his compatriots, also for some of his lyrics e.g. criticizing the Japanese education system, being a high-school drop-out himself. For some years he had a tendancy to perform with American rappers, which fueled both of those fires. theless, Zeebra has had a successful career and is widely recognized as one of the leading figures in Japanese rap and hip-hop. At this time of writing he is forty-three years old, and even though he released an album in late 2013 he is more and more beginning to work behind the scenes with younger, up-and-coming artists. He invests in inordinate amount of efforting into speaking about rap and hip-hop culture in magazines, radio, television, et cetera. Personally, I have no doubt that twenty years from now we will look back and acknowledge Zeebra as one of the most historically important figures in Japanese rap.But more important than any of my stupid rambling is that I hope you enjoy the music!