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As a musical
form without the
distraction of a
melody but a
well-defined
beat, rap offers
an opportunity
to explore the
rhythmic and
musical aspects
of a language.
An interesting
case study is
rap in Japanese,
which has
completely
different
syntax,
vocabulary,
accent patterns,
and phonemes
from English.
Several pioneers
of Japanese rap
initially
thought that
rapping in their
own language was
impossible:
while the most
striking aural
patterns in
American rap are
the rhymes and
stress accents,
which punctuate
and vary the
rhythm, Japanese
verbal arts have
traditionally
not emphasized
rhyming, and the
language lacks
stress accents.
Therefore,
Japanese rappers
had to find ways
of exploiting
the grammatical
and phonological
resources of
their own
language to
create flow
while upholding
a rap aesthetic.
Drawn from a
combination of
interviews with
rappers,
transcription,
and analysis,
this paper
explores the
problems that
Japanese rappers
initially faced
in rhyming and
rhythm, the
solutions they
have applied,
and the
innovations they
have made. To
form rhymes,
Japanese rappers
capitalize on
their varied
vocabulary,
enriched from
Chinese,
Japanese, and
Western sources.
Rappers also
take advantage
of the pitch
accents of the
Japanese
language to
create a
melodious flow
and exploit the
rhythms inherent
in certain moras.
Hence, the
rappers have
shown that
Japanese is
“unsuitable” for
rap only when
viewed with the
restrictive
notion that the
sound of the
English language
itself, with its
stress accents
and poetic feet,
is the kata, or
form, rather
than the hip-hop
sound.
Furthermore,
they have
reflected the
culture by
employing such
hallmarks of
Japanese
communication as
image-painting,
subtle turns of
phrase, and
onomatopoeia,
creating raps
that are not
only musical but
whose
sensibility
would be lost if
translated into
English.
The paper thus
explores the
issue of
language in
adapting a
global genre and
the process in
which imitation
leads to
innovation. As
studies of the
interaction of
the features of
a language and
rap remain
relatively
neglected, the
author suggests
potential areas
for further
investigation.
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