This Side of Japan's Top 50 Rap Songs of 2024
Covering the year in Japan's rap through songs featuring Yuki Chiba, YENTOWN, Umeda Cypher and many more
Hi! Welcome to a special feature of This Side of Japan, a newsletter on Japanese music, new and old. We are currently prepping for our year-end coverage, but here’s a fun bonus while you wait. You can check out previous issues here.
Back in August, music show EIGHT-JAM named the three big topics of the year regarding Japan’s hip hop in their special episode focused on the scene. Even if you followed it just casually, you can easily name the first two: Yuki Chiba’s “Team Tomodachi” and Creepy Nuts’s “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born.” And the third: the disbandment of the BAD HOP crew, who held their farewell show at Tokyo Dome. But while they are all worthwhile news, they’re almost too big of a headline, especially the first two, enough to be a concern entirely separate from the rest of Japan’s hip-hop.
While I won’t elaborate on “Team Tomodachi” here—there’s a separate column for that from me—what Chiba’s viral anthem emphasized about the scene is the strength of crew love and collaborations. Whereas BAD HOP made a grand exit, YENTOWN observed a great reunion. A supergroup of sorts, which includes R-Shitei of Creepy Nuts, Umeda Cypher impressed with their exuberant pop take on battle rap. One of the best link-ups spanned generations in Scha Dara Parr banding together with STUTS and PUNPEE, showing the old school is timeless.
The excitement came more from the circles pushing an alternative face to rap. SASAKRECT celebrated its decade as a label by stringing together a posse cut with each guest representing a different branch that the label helped to foster, starting from internet wonder 4s4ki. And speaking of the internet: the best of rap was found in the digicore scene. Sure, there’s arguments to be had on whether some of the projects count, though it’s hard ruling out artists like kegon and lazydoll on some technicality when not only are they pretty rap-centric but their output is just plain fantastic.
My choice for rapper of the year seamlessly slipped into each of these seemingly disparate scenes while bridging them in their songs. e5 put out banger after banger working with names from both the over- and underground. She acted as the frontwoman to KOTONOHOUSE and DC Mizey’s wild future-bass explosions that competed with the bit-crushed beat works of her digicore buddies; but she also slid in naturally among the company of CYBER RUI, fast-rapping across (once again) KOTONOHOUSE’s wub-filled electro-hop. If things got too loud, she burrowed back to her emo bedroom-rap roots, recording alone in the style of her beloved 4s4ki or on mellow garage beats with utumiyqcom. She exceled in any style, with any company, for any circle or tier within the rap hieracrhy.
Here are my top 50 Japanese rap songs of 2024. You can also listen to this list on this playlist here.
Yuki Chiba - “Team Tomodachi”
kegon - “Arakawa”
e5 ft. CYBER RUI & KOTONOHOUSE - “PARADIGM”
Scha Dara Parr & STUTS ft. PUNPEE - “Pointless 5”
SASAKRECT & nagaco ft. 4s4ki, RhymeTube, OHTORA & Hanagata - “Don’t Look Back (DE DE MOUSE Jungle Flow Mix)”
DJ CHARI ft. kZm & JP THE WAVY - “SMASH HIT”
VaVa x ROLAND JONES - “Toukyo”
Daichi Yamamoto & JJJ - “Glassed Kyoto”
Gokou Kuyt - “Peacekeeper”
YENTOWN ft. kZm, PETZ, JNKMN, Awich, MonyHorse & U-Lee - “Fukouchu No Saiwai”
MaRI ft. MIYACHI & AKLO - “Furyo Gaikokujin”
Japanese Ape ft. Catarrh Nisin - “intercept”
S.L.N.M - “LIKE”
KOMOREBI - “Giri Giri”
chelmico ft. Neibiss - “Summer course”
PAS TASTA ft. JUMADIBA & LIL SOFT TENNIS - “byun G”
JUBEE - “Re-create”
valknee - “O.G.”
Umeda Cypher - “Odd Numbers”
7 ft. LANA & Elle Teresa - “Boss Bitch (Remix)”
Sweet Williams ft. Jinmenusagi & NF Zessho - “Beyond”
DJ KANJI ft. TOME & eyden - “GM”
Charlu - “Perfect Night”
RIP SLYME stirred by Saaya - “HOW HIGH!!?”
Creepy Nuts - “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born”
lazydoll ft. qquq - “euthanize”
TOFU & MIKADO ft. 7 & lj - “22”
Yvng Patra - “City Flag”
O.B.S. ft. iyan D1KE & Cuffboi - “Strobe Rain”
Lisa lil vinci - “Avalanche”
NENE ft. Young Coco - “YUMMY”
CYBER RUI ft. Ash-B - “CATCH UP”
NEI - “Aqua Surface”
Sound’s Deli - “CLOVER”
JJJ - “Kids Return”
STARKIDS ft. Hatsune Miku - “World Is Ours”
Yung sticky wom ft. Tim Pepperoni & Puckafall - “TOO FAST!!”
DNE, Jellyyabashi, Saggypants Shimba & DAB - “NAKAMA”
MFS - “Combo”
LANA ft. Watson - “Still Young More Rich”
Kohjiya ft. YungFLX - “Josetsusha!”
WILYWNKA ft. Yellow Bucks & Nephew - “Gorgeous”
OVER KILL ft. Yvng Patra & Muddy Soma - “RUN IT UP”
DCA ft. WAWA, 13ELL, AZNALLY & I$$EI - “The Lights”
hyunis1000 - “Seishinteki Kokyo”
OMSB ft. JJJ - “Bro”
AKKOGORILLA - “generations”
BAD HOP x NITRO MICROPHONE UNDERGROUND - “8BALL CYPHER”
oops cool - “Too busy work”
PAIN & PIEC3 POPPO - “Barbie Girl!!”
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