JP ALT journalist Gerry (aka Lad Psycho) speaks with Botsu on his thoughts on music, obscure manga, cinema and the current rap scene in Japan.
Dos Monos, a current Tokyo-based hip-hop trio signed under Deathbomb Arc, are the epitome of what is fresh and exciting when it comes to the Japanese hip-hop scene. From the mythological factors in their lyricism, to the abstract jazz fusion that has made them stand out from other hip-hop acts in East Asia, Dos Monos have put themselves in the calibre that gained them recognition from Injury Reserve and black midi, leading to collaborations between the two.
In this interview, I’ll be speaking to Botsu (没), also known as NGS. With his captivating energy that carries out within his solo works such as Revolver (2023), a collaboration with Naked Under Leather to his upcoming project 5 Star Cowboy alongside Bringlife and PICNIC YOU, the Tokyo-based experimental MC leaves out an active online presence that emits the youthful reach in his identity that projects his different dimensions and sounds at the digital wake. I had the chance to discuss with him what it means to be the face of experimental hip-hop in Japan. We had discussions sparring from the scene, to obscure manga and politics.
This interview with Botsu is conducted through Zoom Call.
The Interview
Lad: What is actually the difference when it comes to working solo and with Dos Monos for you?
Botsu: So different, like, as of Dos Monos, it is like starting as Zo Zhit’s project. Even though our rap bars are equal, his concept is strong in Dos Monos. Most of the beats are produced by him. So it feels more like I am in Dos Monos’s world. I feel like myself when I am doing things by myself. I feel like an actor when I do Dos Monos stuff.
Lad: In Dos Monos, I find that there is this mythical concept due to Zo Zhit ideas now when you write the lyrics for Dos Monos are there any concept or references you took in writing these bars?
Botsu: Pretty much anything. I took inspiration from Japanese myths, ancient tales and stuff.
Lad: I remember that one time you recommended this specific film, Tropicália (2012). Would you try to implement these Brazilian sounds to your music in the future?
Botsu: I love the way they mix different cultures. It is the attitude of ‘I am only this’. I think the genre is really good at that. I don’t think we’re literally going to use Brasil music. Maybe we do, we can do anything, but I don’t think we are going to copy Tropicalia but we will have the same attitude, as we mix anything, they mix anything.
Lad: Any favourite Tropicalia musicians?
Botsu: Wow, that is hard. Do you know the producer behind Tropicalia albums, Rogério Duprat. He is the producer for many Tropicalia albums from the compilation to Os Mutantes, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa. All of those are produced by him, all the orchestra sounds with the synthesizers. So I think he is important and after he left, albums that are no longer produced by him are not so interesting.
Lad: Since we are on the topic of music, I remember you talked about how your music discovery stems off from 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Botsu: Yeah, the Japanese version!
Lad: Outside of that have you got any recommendations from your family? Let’s say from your mum and dad.
Botsu: Not really…well my mum, she got me into Bjork. My parents used to play vocal jazz, but not much.
Lad: I find it very interesting that your parents would be fond for jazz and their son creates music with jazz elements too
Botsu: *Laughter* I think they like the music but they are not nerds. It is that they are just posh what I would say.
Lad: I remember that you guys collaborated with one of my favorite mangakas, Q Hayashida. How did that happen?
Botsu: Yeah that was crazy. I do not remember it really well. Maybe Zo Zhit was close to the company that made Dorohedoro. That is why they got interested in our sound and they asked us, “Can we use your music to promote?” That was crazy.
Lad: Since we are talking about manga and anime, are there any favourites of yours?
Botsu: Do you read Tezuka? 火の鳥 (Phoenix). It interested me so much. It may sounds weird but in every elementary school, they have 火の鳥 on the library. Even though the content is so harsh, we read them when we were nine.
Lad: Do you have any favourite anime openings?
Botsu: Opening? Like Intro? Damn, uh, it is so hard to pick. I love the OG Yu Gi Oh one. I love those visual kei sounds. I think those songs have really great melodies. Prince of Tennis, I like that one. For the song I was referring to earlier oh yeah the opening is 渇 いた叫 び (Kawaita Sakebi).
Lad: As for Japanese films, are there any Japanese films you love?
Botsu: Damn…maybe you should interview Zo Zhit. He is crazy. He actually planned on studying to be a film director then. You probably know, but I love Juzo Itami films. It was on national TV on weekends and I used to watch them with my dad. Those were shocking imageries for me. I come up with my most important Japanese movie too, it’s called Nemuru Mushi by Yurina Kaneko
Lad: When the international music scene talks about Japanese musicians, they rarely know about the political culture of Japan. These people were even shocked to find out about Sheena Ringo being right-wing. What is your opinion on this, especially as a rapper with music that comes from a genre that originated from the oppressed in America?
Botsu: I, myself, naturally, want to stand by the people who are oppressed. I do not know if it is related to hip-hop or not, even before that I was attracted to counter culture. I was attracted to rock n’ roll and it subconsciously made me know that it was music for the barren. My character is that I do not want to be on the side with power. For Japan, especially in the major label scene, it’s really commercial. Same worldwide, but especially here, it is as if musicians are products. So they do not want to participate in it. Even in the underground, I personally like to discuss more than stand on one point. I kind of wished it would change in the future. People need to think more freely and it is okay to change your thoughts.
Lad: In correlation to politics and music, what are some other Japanese political music that you might know?
Botsu: You use Spotify? Let me drop the link. 悲しくてやりきれない by The Folk Crusaders.
Lad: Since I am in Indonesia, you had a collaboration with Tacbo, have you explored more on the Indonesian Hip Hop experimental scene?
Botsu: Tacbo, yeah. But nah, show me.
Lad: There is one of the biggest figures here, BAP. Let me show you.
Botsu: *Playing BAP – mimimpipi* Well, wow, this is interesting. Do you know Tacbo as a person?
Lad: Well, not really but he is connected and friends with other rappers in Indonesia such as BAP and Rai Anvio. Rai is my senior, so when I saw you collaborated with Tacbo, I was like wow, dude this is crazy!
Botsu: Right… I need to make more songs with him.
Lad: Due to you loving rock, in Japan the rock scene each decade, there are bands that popped off either indie or mainstream such as Quruli or betcover!! Could you tell me more about it?
Botsu: It is so interesting right now. There are plenty of new bands coming up. Even the band that has not released yet, but they are on the live scene. Like it is going to be fun and be more interesting when they release albums.
Lad: Any bands you want to shout out?
Botsu: Shoutout to Ayato. You probably do not even know, they have not even released anything yet. How can I say? How can I describe them? They are like the acoustic version of Death Grips. They come from Yamaguchi prefecture.
Lad: With how you get respect from international artists such as black midi to Injury Reserve, and then how the Japanese music scene rolls, are there any differences between the local and international fans and how they perceive you?
Botsu: I think when it comes to international fans, they’re mostly music nerds. To my eyes, you are a big music nerd. Here, it is not necessarily like that. There are ordinary j-rock girls who fuck with Dos Monos as we do gigs a lot too. Sometimes j-rock festivals too.
Botsu: Recently, we also do band sets too. We are more in the j-rock scene, kinda rather than the hip-hop scene, actually. I don’t know how you see it from outside of Japan but there is no experimental hip-hop scene here. Can you name any other Experimental Japanese Hip Hop musicians?
Lad: I’ll try, can we consider ECD as one?
Botsu: Yeah, yeah. But, like he is gone.
Lad: Maybe Jellyabashi?
Botsu: He has an interesting sound, but outside of that there is no experimental hip-hop scene. We are the only ones. Maybe the underground is where we will meet. There are no followers. There are more younger bands that tell me that they are influenced by us though.
Lad: Are there any international musicians you are looking towards?
Botsu: Pretty V. I listen to him so much *chuckle*. He influenced me.
Lad: Thoughts on the UK and US underground movements? Especially coming from a sonically different sound in Japan.
Botsu: To me, Japanese rappers are doing something different. It is so hard to copy that sound. Traditional UK and US rap sounds are very interesting. Not so many of these sounds here, in Japan. It is too rough for a Japanese musician to do it, maybe we are sometimes too crafty? There are so many people in the scene, we have the biggest number in hip-hop, but to me a lot of them are not quite interesting.
Lad: Let’s finally hop on to one of my most anticipated programs, where I will play hip-hop music from Japanese artists. I want you to tell me your opinion on it.
- Playing jinmenusagi – 俺俺俺 –
Botsu: Oh, jinmenusagi? Yeah, he is really cool. I respect him as a rapper, he is very skilled. It was so amazing when I saw him live. He is so good live.
- Playing ECD – ただ夢の中 –
Botsu: It is crazy! It is so sonically crazy! I think half of the sound is by Illicit Tsuboi. He does all the Dos Monos mixes.
Lad: Any influences from him to your own music?
Botsu: ECD? Hell yeah, for sure.
- Playing HALCALI – タンデム –
Botsu: First of all thanks for showing them, I haven’t truly listened to HALCALI yet. It is so fun. I love the mix between j-pop and hip-hop. Same like RIP Slyme, I love those sounds. When I started the 5 Star Cowboy project, we tried to do something like this. Something fun. I think being fun is very underrated right now so I am really surprised with the sound.
- Playing Jellyyabashi – Hallelujah –
Botsu: Is he from Yoko Squad? Yeah, I fuck with Yoko Squad. I think they are really good at rapping. I think they are pushing the notion of rapping in Japanese. Even though their sound is copying to my ears, but they are very good at rapping. Do you know Brrrsos?
Lad: I don’t think so, it is my first time hearing it.
Botsu: I think he is from the Yoko Squad. He is my favorite from the scene.
Lad: I wonder if the underground trap scene and experimental hip-hop scene ever collaborate together or are you both like polar opposites in community?
Botsu: It is so different. I don’t think I am in the same scene and they don’t think I am in the same scene too.
- Playing 5lack – 街を抜けて行く –
Lad: What can you say about black, or fivelack?
Botsu: It is pronounced as slack, actually. It’s classic, his work is great. Especially his first two albums, which are classics. I think there should be more rappers like him, but there is not much here. He loves having fun and experiments a lot. There should be more lineage, and I don’t know why, but Japanese people love this type of sound. Sample-based chill sound.
Lad: The Joe Hisaishi sound?
Botsu: Hell yeah, but not so many artists want to push that sound.
Lad: In Japanese Hip Hop who would you say are the most skilled Japanese rappers out there?
Botsu: Right now…probably from the underground. Like Brrrsos. I think younger rappers are really good at rapping.
Lad: Because there are a lot of iconic rap groups such as SCHA DARA PARR, King Ghidorah, Soul Scream, would you say that these old generations have respect for the young generation the same way Nas respects the newer generation?
Botsu: I think because of the younger generation, hip-hop has become more popular and they are very thankful for that. I do not think that they are against that. You know SEEDA from SCARS? You should check it out. He is one of the best.
Lad: I will definitely check it out!
Botsu: Do you know their TV Show called RAPSTAR?
Lad: Not at all.
Botsu: It is like they show this on TV for rappers!
Lad: Definitely will be tapping in! Since we are in the discussion of being a rapper. What are the biggest struggles in being a rapper in Japan, especially economically since you live in Tokyo?
Botsu: I do sidejobs, I do video editing. It is purely like when you do music, such as Dos Monos, it is hard but for the music we get paid very well. It could be worse. From Deathbomb Arc, they pay fair.
Lad: Now to wrap it up, what would you say to your fans, and what do you love about yourself?
Botsu: For my fans, especially outside of Japan, thank you for keeping paying attention. That is crazy. Even though I haven’t met you in person. We do not rap in English, even for Japanese, it is like ‘what are you saying?’.
It’s very complex. Even though we do that, thank you so much for supporting us. We’re so happy to see people listening to our music outside. And for myself, I am so thankful that I love music. I think it is time to keep doing it. So I am proud of myself and I’ll keep doing it. I still love it!
JPALT 
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