Best Japanese Rappers You Can Listen to Right Now

The music industry in Japan is very diverse compared to many other countries. While they're ideal in creating traditional music, they're also really popular in hip-hop. In fact, hip-hop is one of their most loved genres. Even hip-hop artists' fashion is unique as they dress in vintage sports jackets, baggy pants, caps—overall a 90s hip-hop style. Just like how singers in pop are praised for their catchy music, Japanese rappers are getting a lot of the spotlight, too.

Many of the best Japanese rappers out there today produce amazing music that's widely popular in the country. Rappers today are all about their music, and their style, of course. And Japanese rappers take their sense of fashion seriously, since it plays a big role in their career. Aside from their style, the music that they create is huge in Japan. Through deep lyrics and head-bobbing beats, these are the best Japanese rappers that people are diehard fans of today.

Akira Yoshimura, also known as Evisbeats, is a Nara-born artist who’s a beat maker as well as a rapper himself. He’s also artistically known as Akira to many others. What makes him one of the best Japanese rappers is his mellow style.

Evisbeats is adored for his laid-back, easygoing melodies with relaxed beats. Even his rapping is very gentle and mellow and makes him easy to listen to anytime and anywhere. Not to mention that his awesome music videos are genuine and different from one another that also features the Japanese culture, like the one above.

Hokkaido-based group, Tha Blue Herb, is a group that came together in 1997 and continues to create amazing music to this day. The group is made up of members Ill-Bosstino and O.N.O., who first dropped their album in 1998 and began their tour in 2000. Tha Blue Herb appeared in music festivals like the annual Fuji Rock Festival.

While they’re really into the whole 90s trip-hop style, the group also enjoys playing around with the traditional and more modern beats as well. Even though the group released many singles and albums, members of the group like O.N.O. have also dropped solo works and even Ill-Bosstino was part of Herbest Moon with producer Wachall, in Japanese Synchro System with producer Calm, and worked with others like DJ Krush and Audio Active.

Among the best Japanese rappers, Yuki Chiba, better known as Kohh, is a hip-hop recording artist from Oji, Kita, Tokyo. Having started in 2008, Kohh has both escalated in fashion and music, but his music has definitely made a bigger impact in his career. In fact, he’s among the Japanese rappers whose name traveled overseas. He’s gained the most attention for his Yellow Tape mix tape and other albums.

Kohh has also made appearances in Worldstar as well as being interviewed by HOT 97. Piling his fame up, he also hit the runaway for Hiromichi Ochiai’s FACETASM label during Paris Fashion Week. However, Kohh’s music is truly powerful through lyrics and great beats that ties it all together.

As a co-founder of DOGEAR RECORDS, one of the successful hip-hop record companies, ISSUGI is a widely famous Japanese rapper in the hip-hop world. He gained popularity through contributing to SEEDA and DJ ISSO’s CONCRETE GREEN which was part of the MONJU with Senninshou, Mr. Pug, and 16FLIP. Before that, he dropped his first project in 2006—103LAP.EP. Even though he captured a lot of attention through that, his true breakthrough was when he exposed his first solo album Thursday in 2009.

After the success of his first album, this lured him to connect with other beat makers like Budamunk and MASS-HOLE for his second album release in 2010. Even though he’s still creating awesome music and beats today, he’s also focusing on placing younger talented artists on his label’s roster. While partnering up with BUDAMUNK, the two bring top production and deep lyrics to the fans.

PUNPEE is a phenomenal music artist as well as one of the best Japanese rappers today. He’s genuinely amazing in creating music with catchy and proficient lyrics that’s easy to listen to. Even though he started back in 2002, PUNPEE gained a larger recognition when he won the 2006 ULTIMATE MC BATTLE, which is an annual contest that’s held by Libra Records. A master at spitting staggering lyrics, the beats to his music flows easily, just like his rapping.

PUNPEE actually teamed up with GAPPER in order to create duo P&G back in 2007 right before his brother, S.L.A.C.K., joined in the duo and making it PSG. Aside from rapping, PUNPEE also produces which led him into giving a hand with popular artists like TOWA TEI, Rhymester, tofubeats, and others. Just when you thought he’s done everything, PUNPEE also successfully creates advertisement jingles.

KANDYTOWN is a rap group that was signed to Warner Music Japan and is also internationally popular across the globe. Unlike other rappers or rap groups, KANYTOWN creates hip-hop songs that bring back the 90s with tons of throwback styles. Their music easily flows just like it was back more than a decade ago. Listening to them is like bringing back the nostalgia of old-school rap, but with a modern twist.

The group consists of now 15 members, though they had 16 before their founder YUSHI unfortunately passed away. The group explores everything in what hip-hop can do such as DJing, Mrs, producers, engineers in film, and more. KANDYTOWN has even collaborated with Reebok Classics. So, it’s no surprise that the rap group is among the best Japanese rappers today.

Just at a young age of 23, Kid Fresino made his grand entry in the music industry in Japan. Among the best Japanese rappers, even though he barely rapped during his late teen years, he was really into creating beats and even DJ’d for group Fla$hBackS. Within just 10 months, Kid Fresino created an entire debut album after trying to spit bars on one track.

Although he’s hardly active on social media, Kid Fresino puts all of his opinions and thoughts right into his tracks and rapping them. He’s also really into 90s music beats and rap style. This makes his music very laid-back with the perfect balance of soul and cutting-edge beats. For someone who began young, Kid Fresino is just getting started in his music career.

Among the best Japanese rappers, kiLLa is a rap group emerging from Tokyo that consists of MCs like kZm, KEPHA, and Blaise, as well as YDizzy. This group certainly possesses the modern Tokyo, hip-hop style with a perfect blend of heavy trap influences and hard-hitting wordplay. The group is self-sustaining through their producing, engineering, and video directing in-house capabilities.

Their track, "Poser," gained a wide-spread of attention from Noisey recently. As provocative and menacing the group is, each member of the group acquires their own career, but together, they’re indestructible. And this is just the beginning for kiLLa.

A member from kiLLa, YDizzy is also one of the best Japanese rappers in current days. He claims to be the one in placing Japan on the map for rap. As confident as he sounds, the majority of his music is pretty easygoing and mellow. In fact, he’s fairly easy to listen to compared to other Japanese rappers.

His debut album DIZZiNESS actually captured so many fans’ attention. Yet, his rap on the track “BMW” even gained attention from US listeners and immediately became fond of his music. Even though there are literally no English lyrics on the track, people are more interested in the beats and the flow of his rapping. He delivers music that’s enjoyed by fans across the globe.

Finally, from the best Japanese rappers, Anarchy was actually part of Bosozoku, which is a motorcycle gang. As the 35 year old had a rough beginning through his adolescence in the gang, he decided to make a turn in his life. After connecting with Zeebra, a member of King Giddra, he decided to get into rapping.

Ever since that turn, the Osaka native artist became one of the more major figures in Japanese hip-hop. He’s dropped six studio albums under influential label R-RATED RECORDS. But aside from his awesome music, Anarchy also does street modeling and you can find him in Japan’s street magazines posing in street fashion.