Biography
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Born
1971 (age 53)
With a career spanning over 20 years, it is obvious that Twigy has been one of the founders and pioneers of the Japanese hip hop scene. His earliest records were with groups such as Audio Sports in the early 90's, which featured production by electronic producer Takemura Nobukazu and even vocals by Yamatsuka Eye now of the Japanoise group the Boredoms. In the mid 90's Twigy formed the legendary group Microphone Pager along with DJ Muro (a.k.a. the King Of Diggin') which laid the foundation of Japanese rap and released countless Japanese hip hop classics. Utilizing his high pitched voice and a mind bending sophisticated approach to rhyme construction, he is one of the few veterans of the game that are still at the forefront of Japanese hiphop. Twigy has also been featured on DJ Krush tracks like "Kiro" with Rino and "Tragicomic" with Aco, which have shown Twigy's mastery of Japanese rhymes and his avant-garde approach to word play. His crew Kaminari was the equivalent to a Wu-Tang clan in Japan with a large family of hardcore MC's, while Twigy's solo output ranged from spiritual raps reflecting his Muslim faith and even commercial hits with R&B singers such as Hi-D. Having experienced everything from the gritty underground scene to mainstream chart success, Twigy felt a need to break away from conventional hip hop, and chose to work with super-producer Prefuse 73. Prefuse's progressive take on beats and Twigy's versatile flows are a testament to hiphop as a means of transcending language, culture, and musical borders. The new album, "Akasatana" may be one of the rare chances that headz outside of Japan will get a taste of non-English hiphop at its finest.
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