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Tokyo Tribes: From Shaolin to Tokyo

August 7th, 2010 by | Tags: , , , ,

Well, here’s something I never knew about.

Santa Inoue’s Tokyo Tribes is in the same kind of lane as Samurai Champloo, though it’s a rap and Japanese culture mash-up that takes place in the modern day, rather than a hazy past. I picked up the first volume years ago and liked it well enough, but didn’t pick up the rest, for some reason. Lots of references to Anthony Hamilton in that book, too, which I dug. Inoue’s not hopping on a cheap bandwagon.

Anyway, DJ Muro produced the entirely too expensive import soundtrack CD, and this song here, which I’ve had on a Ghostface Killah compilation for a couple years but never listened to, is on that soundtrack. It was weird to hear Ghostface shouting out “Musashi no kuni” and Trife talking about Tokyo Tribes. But, you know, hip-hop is worldwide.

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Posted in brief bits by david brothers |

4 comments to “Tokyo Tribes: From Shaolin to Tokyo”

  1. Oh, totally. The books didn’t sell all that well over here, I don’t think, because I was able to pick the first two (maybe three) up for less than the price of a month’s Spider-Man comics. Fantastic pace and tension, from what I recall. The sort of thing the post-Lock Stock generation would love to be able to pull off.

    //Oo/\

         by Matthew Craig August 7th, 2010 at 12:34 --replyReply to this comment

  2. oh man, thanks for reminding me of this song, i was rocking it years ago off of some compilation cd i copped in Osaka (this sweet record store that was playing this sweet Method Man feature song I still can’t find).

    will check out Tokyo Tribes, was kind of curious about it when it came out, but didn’t think it could be good

         by Skywalker OG August 7th, 2010 at 20:51 --replyReply to this comment

  3. @Skywalker OG: I may be giving it short shrift–I haven’t read it in a while, but I remember kinda digging it. Amazon sells them 4 for 3, though, so I may drop 30 bucks at some point and go all in.

         by david brothers August 7th, 2010 at 20:52 --replyReply to this comment

  4. i mean…i was waiting for somebody to recommend it before i picked it up.

    i think that sounded like i knew anything about it other than a short paragraph description. sorry.

         by Skywalker OG August 8th, 2010 at 01:44 --replyReply to this comment