Nujabes – The Godfather of Lofi Hip Hop

Nujabes – The Godfather of Lofi Hip Hop

By Sana Pethurupillai

As a student and young person who constantly soundtracks their life, music is my best friend. During one of those late-night last-minute assignment struggles, I discovered the sounds of the late Japanese musician, Nujabes. The laidback jazzy hip-hop beats transported me back to my trip to Japan and before I knew it, my hands were typing, and my head was bopping to his rhythms. I had stumbled upon gold.

Jun Seba (Nujabes spelt backwards) was a DJ, composer and record shop owner born in 1974 in Tokyo, but unfortunately passed due to a car crash in 2010. After opening Guinness Records in Shibuya, Jun began producing beats and even launched a record label called Hydeout Productions. He has released numerous singles and two full-length albums during his lifetime, but a third album was released after his death and he has since been recognised as a pioneer of lo-fi hip hop.

Feather, Blessing It, and Beat Laments the World are some of his jazz-inspired beats that uncovered a completely disparate side of hip hop to me. Encompassing everyday melancholia and yet still beautifully encouraging a state of peace and optimism for life, his music is in my opinion, the perfect accompaniment to the contradictory human condition.

His instrumental mixes and projects take inconspicuous samples and rather than altering their original sound, Nujabes produced emotive melodies around them. As I write this, I am listening to my favourite track, Lady Brown (feat. Cise Starr), in which Nujabes samples Luiz Bonfá’s The Shade of the Mango Tree. What I love is that rather than changing or overpowering his samples, his production prompts us to listen to sounds the way he does, to listen into how Nujabes hears the music.

The artist’s auditory aesthetic started to gain global traction after soundtracking Manglobe’s cult anime series Samurai Champloo, a show which possesses the unlikely combination of samurais and hip hop culture in feudal Japan. Nevertheless, it went on to become a great indie success and propelled his genre blending instrumentals to the world. In particular, his flowy, nostalgic track Arurian Dance, featuring a motif sample from The Lamp is Low by Laurindo Almeida, became one of his most famous songs to date, with various 1 hour YouTube loops of the song gaining millions of views.

Although Nujabes never got to see his legacy grow, his spirit lives on in the beats he created and has inspired.

The magic of his music lies in the mellow instrumentals which attune to any given moment, and perhaps this is why it gathers such a wide range of listeners. His signature style became the building blocks for one of the most listened-to sub-genres by all, particularly students like me who have found lo-fi hip hop as a musical sanctuary in stressful times. Whether walking through a crowded street, reading a book in a café, or cranking out an assignment at ungodly hours, Nujabes’ unique sense of artistry and emotional sincerity shine through his songs, comforting me amidst the burdens and uncertainty of human life.

Rest in peace, Nujabes.