For sure. A really distinctive voice. I don’t really like Jpop since it all sounds the same to me but Eve definitely has his own sound and tries new things. I really like Dramaturgy, How to Eat Life and Raison d’Etre, but I’m listening to a lot of his other stuff. Any recommendations?
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My life dream is to be a musician in Japan, so needless to say this is a thread for me, I’m actually more comfortable singing in Japanese than I am english. I’ll probably end up doing my Dissertation on the subject of Music In Japan. (I’m going to study for a degree in popular music.)
But Here’s some of my favorite artists/relevant songs
LM.C - Punky Heart
Susumu Hirasawa - Mermaid Song
Coda - Goodbye Nostalgia
LM.C / PUNKY ❤ HEART【LM.C OFFICIAL】 - YouTube
Susumu Hirasawa - Mermaid Song (Original) - YouTube
- YouTube
A lot of what I like contains male vocalists, even though personally I’m a female vocalist, though I’m not as familiar with any J-Rock or J-Pop bands with a female lead vocalist, if anyone has any reccomendations of artists or bands with one, I’d love to take a listen.
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Here’s a sampling of stuff you might enjoy
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CAPSULE, for example:
- Jumper
- Sugarless Girl (Remix)
Perfume, for example:
Hikaru Utada, for example:
I highly recommend looking up the lyrics for Deep River. They’re very moving.
Fun fact: the artist for CAPSULE is also the artist for Perfume, Nakata Yasutaka.
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Some Japanese rap from this year is quite nice.
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He’s also done the last few Kyary Pamyu Pamyu albums. He’s great. I really love Perfume.
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Since I’m total garbage, Most of my knoweldge of japanese music comes from Anime and VNs, but I really like Kagerou Project from Jin (Shizen no Teki-P) and most of the stuff from the various groups who’ve done / do the insert songs in Aikatsu, though I do think they were specifically formed for those games / anime so not sure if that even counts?
Aimer’s pretty cool too, though most of what I’ve heard is just Fate VN and Anime openings
Edit: Oh, I forgot, I do listen to a lot of vocaloid but outside of Jin I don’t really know names that much ;-;
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Word! I totally forgot about that. Thanks!
Also, I forgot to add CAPSULE - Starry Sky and Love or Lies.
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Did you spell “cool” wrong?
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I’m into this, what else do you like? I feel like my japanese hip hop bubble is kinda small.
The touhou doujinshi rabbit hole is deep indeed. I never expected to seriously listen to bossa nova when I started down it!
Unfortunately, it’s a good way to get your YouTube sidebar full of lolis.
2hu is good
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Gotta plug Kobaryo. This person’s always experimenting and pushing boundaries.
This one’s not as experimental as most of their songs, but I think it’s appropriately palatable for an introduction to how that experimentation has paid off:
Aimer and Sid are my favorite japanese musicians.
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My first encounter with Japanese Hip-Hop rap was probably DJ Okawari, but he mainly does instrumental hip hop.
DJ Okawari
Then ME!ME!ME! happened and I got into (old) daoko, but new daoko is also cool.
daoko
ME!ME!ME!:
My favorite from old daoko:
Through daoko I found 不可思議/wonderboy and started to listen to some poetry rap.
不可思議/wonderboy
Then I discovered some more (hard) rappers, like KOHH, BAD HOP (there is an interesting documentary about them), Awich or ANARCHY.
KOHH, BAD HOP, Awich, ANARCHY
Some time later 太郎忍者 Taro Ninja completely changed the game (intentionally not in a details box).
Next, I discovered MIYACHI (one of the Japanese rappers on this list born and raised somewhere else)
MIYACHI
Most similar to 韻マン and also nice are probably JP THE WAVY (his fashion style and his dance moves are next level too), SALU, and especially the Mall Boyz and Neon Nonthana & Eco Skinny.
JP THE WAVY, SALU, Mall Boyz, Neon Nonthana & Eco Skinny
Then, there is Blumio. I started listening to him 10 years ago where he was rapping in German and living in Germany, but he moved to Japan and his Japanese stuff is also good.
Blumio
Finally, some more unclassified stuff.
More Japanese rap
I hope this helps to expand your bubble 
Just clicking on all the links will probably fill your YouTube suggestions with all kind of Japanese hip hop.
We could also create a thread to find more Japanese hip hop/rap enthusiasts and exchange our opinions.
Edit:
I forgot the amazing courage to tell a lie from the anime bakemonogatari
Courage to tell a lie
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Ooh, “How to Eat Life” and “Raison d’Etre” are both really a good ones. A really close favorite to Dramaturgy is “As You Like It”. One more that I listen to frequently is “Last Dance”. This one makes reference to other songs in its MV, which I love; and even without reading into the lyrics, you get a pretty interesting story from it.
“Sister” I have only listened to once, but it’s good for a cry, and if you’re into Vocaloid songs, he’s covered a handful of those.
So glad you’re getting into his music!
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For anyone looking for Japanese music: I’m part of a podcast that introduces Japanese music to overseas listeners (though we have lots of listeners in Japan, too.)
We play full tracks and give info on the artists, songs, and some Japanese culture. Monthly, we do top 10 episodes to show what’s popular in Japan. And then we also do Artist of the Month, indie episodes, culture episodes, etc. We really like to find artists that people outside of Japan are unlikely to stumble upon, and give some cultural context for the music.
If you’re interested, This is our website, or search “Japan Top 10” on iTunes.
As for other ways to find music, YouTube and Spotify are my go-to’s. Spotify makes playlists for you, but without having to have a video playing. Really good for finding artists related to ones you already know.
I usually search for music on YouTube IN Japanese, like searching "なつかしいプレイリスト” （Nostalgic playlist) brought up playlists made by Japanese people, so it’s a lot of older songs that you probably wouldn’t find yourself. Also looking up songs for kids is really interesting.
Some music I like:
Popular music: As for my favorite artists, right now Kenshi Yonezu is probs my favorite. He’s really famous nowadays, but he started as a Vocaloid artist.
Songs I listened to during entrance exam study season in Japan:
Minna ga Minna Eiyuu
Sekai no Owari: RPG
The Japanese Periodic Table Song lmaoooooo
Perfume- Flash
An Cafeー Cherry Saku Yuuki
Radio Fish- Perfect Human
Classical: Personally, I love classical music, and I think nobody really talks about Japanese classical composers, so here’s a favorite piece of mine by Yasushi Akutagawa.
Folk: とおりゃんせ or here,
another version I like is a song sung by children in Japan. It’s a really old song about asking permission to pass through a gate in order to celebrate a child’s birthday. The melody is played by some crosswalks in Japan to signal when it’s safe to cross.
See also: The Tanabata song was always a favorite of mine when I was little. Tanabata is way over, but whatever.
Seasonal: The ultimate Christmas song
I used to live in Japan, so a lot of my favorite songs are just songs that I associate with certain people, places, or times.
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I’m so glad someone else knows Fukashigi! I found him when my Japanese was still really basic, so I used his songs as my target for, “If I can understand this fully one day, I’ve made it.”
We should talk some time. I host a weekly radio show in Seattle with a sorta similar aim, though it focuses primarily on pop/dance/idol kinda stuff. But I try to present a wide range from the top of Oricon, to underground and obscure stuff. But I’ll definitely check out the podcast.
Yeah, we should! Is your radio online at all so I could check it out?