My cousin who now lives in Japan put me on to Seba Jun nee Nujabes (get it, Jun Seba – Nujabes) when we were in college. When the idea of living in Japan was just a dream, said cousin was extremely into Japanese culture, especially their interpretation of hip-hop. Nujabes was always one of the leading Japanese hip-hop producers (with Hydeout Productions) because he incorporated a mellow jazzy sound with traditional 90s-style boom bap. This might sound weird but his music was almost like elevator music meets hip-hop (but in a good way). Years later, I met Substantial, the only other American I had met (at the time) who was familiar with Nujabes because of a record deal he had in Japan with Hydeout.

I regret to report that Nujabes passed away last month, but news of his death has only recently reached The States.

He died on Feb 26 in a fatal car crash when Japan experienced a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. Rest in peace.

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Tags: Hydeout Productions, Nujabes, Substantial

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 at 11:00 AM and is filed under Hip-Hop, Music, News, Pop Culture, Reflections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.