This human being was the only one who managed to successfully mix medieval Edo Japan with hip hop. His music is the soul behind Samurai Champloo, a beautiful piece of art by Shinichirō Watanabe (the same guy who directed Cowboy Bebop).
He comes by the name of Nujabes, which is actually the anagram of his real name, Seba Jun. If you have never hear of him before, SPOILER ALERT, he’s dead. He passed away in 2010, after sustaining fatal wounds from a car accident in Shibuya.
Here’s an interesting mix of tracks from his work with fellow Shing02, Luv(sic).
Sic is the Latin for “intentionally so written” used for misspelled words. In this case, Love means Luv, thus Lovesick = Luv(sic). The first 3 parts where an exchange of lyrics and beats between both of them, which would end the story, but then, in 2006 Shing02 changed his mind. He told Nujabes that instead of doing another sequel, he would rather do a trilogy with a theme: 4th would be about discovery, 5th about parting, and 6th about reuniting. Jun liked the idea, so they started working on it.
After a couple of years exchanging beats, they finally found a good one in what would become Part 4. In 2009, Shing02 met a young beatboxer by the name of Jeff Resurreccion, who was battling cancer. His favorite song was Luv(sic) part 3.
He passed in January 2010, and the event led Shing02 to write Luv(sic) Part 5. The first half the song was written exclusively about Jeff’s death. Before his death, Jeff had sent some beats to Shing02. He decided to use them for the fifth part, and though at first Nujabes turned them down because they were too dark, he eventually agreed. Just some months later, Nujabes died.
This hit hard home. Just at the time of his passing, they discovered that Nujabes had left a beat titled “Luv(sic) grand finale” on his cellphone, which Shing02 would finally use for the 6th part.
You can have a look on his SoundCloud, though I recommend you to f*ck off and go watch Samurai Champloo (if you haven’t already), to get a good peek on his art.
Rest in beats.
