Japanese Riddim

I remember a time when Japan was just a distant place to me. I remember a time when every Kanji/Chinese character looked the same to me. I remember when Japanese just sounded like gibberish. Now in a few days, I will be there, I will shorten that gap between me and something that used to feel so foreign.

Naturally, there were certain things that attracted me to Japan such as culture, and the fact that I love how the language flows. However, probably the greatest component of that attraction was when I saw Japanese people embracing Jamaican culture and Caribbean culture in general. I always knew that Dancehall/Reggae was prevalent in Japan, but I don't think I knew how much.

Rewind...

The first time I heard and really payed attention to Japanese was after a friend let me hear a few Utada Hikaru songs in about 7th or 8th grade, so that was probably around 2000 or 2001.
I liked it, but I feel that at the time everything just went over my head.

Fast Forward 3 Years Later....
Three years later, One of my other friends and I are what I would call riddimologist. In Jamaica, the music business mainly operates off of riddims. Usually you'll have one riddim and then a lot of artistes that make a song on the riddim. So, my friend and I knew every riddim name, and almost every artiste on a riddim at the time, and even for songs well before our time...lol We could tell you which song would be big, even before it hit the radio or the streets because we would get every riddim as soon as they came out.
During adolescence besides school, that was my life, I ate, slept, and drank Dancehall/Reggae music.

I had seen Japanese people going to street dances in Jamaica, like Weddy Weddy Wednesdays but even then it still was nothing for me to pay attention to. I used to hear about Mighty Crown, a Japanese Sound that would win sound clash after clash. We used to always listen to radio shows like BBC 1Xtra Dancehall. This show would play a lot of the Dancehall/Reggaecharts from Jamaica and England as well. What really caught my attention though, was Robbo Ranx would have dub plates with Japanese people biggin up the radio station. It would tickle me every time I heard it.

I remember watching a special on RETV and they showed Mr. Vegas going to the Yokohama Reggae Bash. There were millions of people!! Or so it seemed, the crowd was thick! There, Jamaican and Japanese Reggae artistes displayed their talent as they rode each riddim.

Ever since then, every time I think I've seen it all, there is more.

I started listening to Dancehall, Reggae, and even Soca in Japanese!! It was here I started to delve into Japanese language and culture.

What I've realized, even before then is that music is universal. Although we may not speak the same language, and go about doing things the same way, in a way we all adhere to certain principles in life, we all relate to certain things, no matter where we come from, we all connect.