Tophamhat-Kyo is an Indie JP rapper who is also producing music under the Indie JP music group Fake-Type.
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He has practically no presence on the internet until 2018 rolled around, when he created his YT channel and uploaded “Dreamy Toy Rocket”, featured in his first indie Album “Blue Note”, and debuting as an Indie JP Rap Artist. It should be noted that he is already creating music under Fake-Type as a Vocalist back in 2013, and now, alongside Dwes Iwasaki.
His music is something that would really be reminiscent to ones who genuinely enjoyed the delinquency as presented in traditional JP rap, which Tophamhat-Kyo does so with plentiful passion and with precise skills. I’m personally not one who actively listens to rap, let alone have a fondness for it. But there is a certain niche from Tophamhat-Kyo that I’m sure would interest someone who understands the world of JP Rap.
Most of Tophamhat-Kyo’s indie releases all feature a mix of both the spunk of jazz and the aggressive beats and rhythms of modern rap, creating pieces of rap music that are really memorable on their own.
An outstanding example of such indie works are none other than “Mister Jewel Box'', a popular release by Tophamhat-Kyo, and the gateway song for me that introduced his music to me. It has a clear line for sections of the music, going from a driving jazz motivated by the sound of a Baritone Saxophone, before diving right into chaos, featuring heavy bass, aggressive rhythms and an instant change of tone from the original atmosphere of the music. This not only contributes to the storytelling which is always present in all tracks by him (And done so with outstanding quality and distinction!), but also serves as a trademark that can be heard throughout a majority of the music in the library.
I’d like to also point out their inclusion of other genres into their music, “Urban Caravan” for example, is more Russian than Japanese in many ways, with the addition of singing in scat, and a unique take on JP rap. Or take a listen to “Moon” by Fake Type, which is a much more modern take on JP Rap without all the aggressive rapping. A small token of thought for you.
Aside from the remarkable creative philosophy, this is only further improved by the sheer talent Tophamhat-Kyo has in rapping. The very aggressive style of rapping demands a great hold in the pronunciation of the Japanese language, and Tophamhat-Kyo makes it look like absolute childsplay, being able to precisely present all the lines with both precision and fervor, making it not only pleasant and satisfying to listen to, but also make it so that all who listened can appreciate the technical depth that is involved with being able to rap in such an impressive degree.
As mentioned above, Tophamhat-kyo’s style of music is rap, and to my understanding of the word rap, it stands for people voicing out their thoughts on the current environment they live in in a rhythmic way, and if we were to follow this definition of rap, Tophamhat-kyo is doing it right, with his Princess♂ and Mister Jewel Box being in the time with Vtubers on the rise, and Amagoi with the current lifestyle most of us have. Which I will further elaborate on.
Princess♂ and Mister Jewel Box are a duology of music videos surrounding the ascendance to fame and descendants to madness of an artist called “TOPHAMHAT-KYO”. The song itself is about how slapping on a cute 2D model to represent yourself will garner more fame than just using your face as your brand (Just to make things clear, the artist, the one that made the series in the first place is ecstatic about his success, and I’m assuming this is his way of poking fun at how he gained the fame he now has). This does hit well if you are following the vtuber scene, just imagining how different it would be if any of the Hololive members didn’t have their l2d models and just went on streaming with their actual face, sure there would be a market and audience for that, but it is pretty safe to say that their following wouldn’t be as big as it is now.
Moving away from Princess and Mister Jewel box, Amagoi is also quite an interesting music video to look at. To me this song has the same feeling that cruelty squad is screaming at me, both about how our daily life is as mundane as it gets for the average joe, but unlike cruelty squad which explores the what if scenario of having our core value in the world being turned upside down, Amagoi is more of a telling of the standardized modern day lifestyle.
-This part is completely my interpretation.
The lyrics and video of this song is mostly about how we get through the “grind” which is “grinding” through our work “grinding” through the days, and eventually “grinding” through the years, this to me is quite an apparent theme throughout the whole video, to me the part where it sings about how years are passing by, paired with the video in the back resonates strongly with me as the years does seem to pass by faster and faster as I grow older, not because my life is more interesting now, but quite the contrary, it is because of how mundane it is that it feels like it passes by faster. The symbolism the video has is also quite strong, ranging from the “funny” weird mobile game ads on YouTube to Japanese folklore ( or this part could be about okami mixed with other games, not quite sure w), to us those scenes might look bizarre and interesting. But I can be quite sure that we ourselves in our daily life are already experiencing something bizarre to the rest of us, it is just that we’ve gotten so used to it that it lost it novelty, thus becoming mundane, which is shown quite nicely about how little the characters react when put in out of the blue situation such as fighting a sea monster on a pirate ship, fighting a kaiju straight out of ultraman.
The lack of reaction they show just goes to show that, there are interesting things that are happening in our life, it’s just that it either passes by too quickly before we can fully process it or we’ve gotten so used to it that it loses all of its novelty.
Well, at least that is my interpretation of what Amagoi is about, but alas t’is but an interpretation of a random person on the internet, so of what value is hold is how much you want it to be to you.
He has practically no presence on the internet until 2018 rolled around, when he created his YT channel and uploaded “Dreamy Toy Rocket”, featured in his first indie Album “Blue Note”, and debuting as an Indie JP Rap Artist. It should be noted that he is already creating music under Fake-Type as a Vocalist back in 2013, and now, alongside Dwes Iwasaki.
His music is something that would really be reminiscent to ones who genuinely enjoyed the delinquency as presented in traditional JP rap, which Tophamhat-Kyo does so with plentiful passion and with precise skills. I’m personally not one who actively listens to rap, let alone have a fondness for it. But there is a certain niche from Tophamhat-Kyo that I’m sure would interest someone who understands the world of JP Rap.
Most of Tophamhat-Kyo’s indie releases all feature a mix of both the spunk of jazz and the aggressive beats and rhythms of modern rap, creating pieces of rap music that are really memorable on their own.
An outstanding example of such indie works are none other than “Mister Jewel Box'', a popular release by Tophamhat-Kyo, and the gateway song for me that introduced his music to me. It has a clear line for sections of the music, going from a driving jazz motivated by the sound of a Baritone Saxophone, before diving right into chaos, featuring heavy bass, aggressive rhythms and an instant change of tone from the original atmosphere of the music. This not only contributes to the storytelling which is always present in all tracks by him (And done so with outstanding quality and distinction!), but also serves as a trademark that can be heard throughout a majority of the music in the library.
I’d like to also point out their inclusion of other genres into their music, “Urban Caravan” for example, is more Russian than Japanese in many ways, with the addition of singing in scat, and a unique take on JP rap. Or take a listen to “Moon” by Fake Type, which is a much more modern take on JP Rap without all the aggressive rapping. A small token of thought for you.
Aside from the remarkable creative philosophy, this is only further improved by the sheer talent Tophamhat-Kyo has in rapping. The very aggressive style of rapping demands a great hold in the pronunciation of the Japanese language, and Tophamhat-Kyo makes it look like absolute childsplay, being able to precisely present all the lines with both precision and fervor, making it not only pleasant and satisfying to listen to, but also make it so that all who listened can appreciate the technical depth that is involved with being able to rap in such an impressive degree.
If you used to actively listen to rap music, but fell out because of what modern rap has evolved into recently in the mainstream (In both Western and Asian scenes), then I highly recommend giving Tophamhat-Kyo a listen! Perhaps it might restore some of the lost faith, or allow you to get a greater insight into the JP Rap Scene, and it’s traditions that makes it have a distinct cultural identity.
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How about starting
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As mentioned above, Tophamhat-kyo’s style of music is rap, and to my understanding of the word rap, it stands for people voicing out their thoughts on the current environment they live in in a rhythmic way, and if we were to follow this definition of rap, Tophamhat-kyo is doing it right, with his Princess♂ and Mister Jewel Box being in the time with Vtubers on the rise, and Amagoi with the current lifestyle most of us have. Which I will further elaborate on.
Princess♂ and Mister Jewel Box are a duology of music videos surrounding the ascendance to fame and descendants to madness of an artist called “TOPHAMHAT-KYO”. The song itself is about how slapping on a cute 2D model to represent yourself will garner more fame than just using your face as your brand (Just to make things clear, the artist, the one that made the series in the first place is ecstatic about his success, and I’m assuming this is his way of poking fun at how he gained the fame he now has). This does hit well if you are following the vtuber scene, just imagining how different it would be if any of the Hololive members didn’t have their l2d models and just went on streaming with their actual face, sure there would be a market and audience for that, but it is pretty safe to say that their following wouldn’t be as big as it is now.
Moving away from Princess and Mister Jewel box, Amagoi is also quite an interesting music video to look at. To me this song has the same feeling that cruelty squad is screaming at me, both about how our daily life is as mundane as it gets for the average joe, but unlike cruelty squad which explores the what if scenario of having our core value in the world being turned upside down, Amagoi is more of a telling of the standardized modern day lifestyle.
-This part is completely my interpretation.
The lyrics and video of this song is mostly about how we get through the “grind” which is “grinding” through our work “grinding” through the days, and eventually “grinding” through the years, this to me is quite an apparent theme throughout the whole video, to me the part where it sings about how years are passing by, paired with the video in the back resonates strongly with me as the years does seem to pass by faster and faster as I grow older, not because my life is more interesting now, but quite the contrary, it is because of how mundane it is that it feels like it passes by faster. The symbolism the video has is also quite strong, ranging from the “funny” weird mobile game ads on YouTube to Japanese folklore ( or this part could be about okami mixed with other games, not quite sure w), to us those scenes might look bizarre and interesting. But I can be quite sure that we ourselves in our daily life are already experiencing something bizarre to the rest of us, it is just that we’ve gotten so used to it that it lost it novelty, thus becoming mundane, which is shown quite nicely about how little the characters react when put in out of the blue situation such as fighting a sea monster on a pirate ship, fighting a kaiju straight out of ultraman.
The lack of reaction they show just goes to show that, there are interesting things that are happening in our life, it’s just that it either passes by too quickly before we can fully process it or we’ve gotten so used to it that it loses all of its novelty.
Well, at least that is my interpretation of what Amagoi is about, but alas t’is but an interpretation of a random person on the internet, so of what value is hold is how much you want it to be to you.