VERBAL holds a unique position within both the entertainment industry and popular
culture in Japan. The huge fame he achieved in his role as m-flo’s MC has been
followed by five years of his own creative projects which have gone on to inspire
a generation of Japanese stars. As honeyee CEO Tetsuya Suzuki said last year,
“VERBAL is this generations most important opinion leader, and if anyone knows
what they’re talking about it’s Suzuki-san.” Choice excerpts from TOKYODANDY’s
chat with VERBAL can be seen below.
It’s been 5 years since m-flo’s last studio album, can you give us a run down of
what you’ve done in that time?
Well 5 years ago, with music and fashion, there was a point of conversion where
people from different fields and genres kind of got bored with what they were
doing and were looking for something new. I’m not from the fashion field but I
think at that time it got exciting and there was a merging of worlds. Like how
you’ve documented with Tokyo Dandy. There were lots of parties and lots of great
energy in Tokyo. Around that time I started a brand called AMBUSH® which got me
busy in that realm, and I started DJing which was another outlet for my creativity
musically. So the past few years asides from m-flo have been a personal expression
of my creativity within music and within fashion. It’s kept me busy.
I’ve listened to the new album, it’s a big change from m-flo’s more melodic hip-hop/
J-pop roots isn’t it?
Taku produced the tracks, and when we wrote the songs together this time, the biggest
difference between this album and the previous ones is the fact that the whole of the
music industry and the economical climate has changed. Now CDs don’t sell. I don’t
care what people say, you can be the best musician there is, you can spend loads on
promotion with trucks rolling round Shibuya. But CDs just don’t sell as they used
too. I kind of look at this as an advantage. Before, when CDs sold, Japan had the
second biggest market for CD sales. Because of that an island mentality developed
where the Japanese industry saw no need to go global as there was so much money to
be made here in Japan. J-pop evolved separately from the rest of the world and was
different both in it’s mentality and musicality. As m-flo we were always inspired
by both Japanese and foreign artists but our output had to be somewhat adapted to
the Japanese way of things. The industry is totally different now. We don’t have
to worry about things like ‘Do we need more English lyrics?’ ‘Do we need more
Japanese lyrics?’. For the new album we just did what we wanted to do without
thinking about it, which is how we debuted. We weren’t really thinking about
anything we just put out a couple of tracks and it caught fire. So the title,
‘SQUARE ONE’, it’s how we’ve gone back to how we used to do things, we’ve evolved
over the years but this is honest. This is what Taku would do for himself as remix
tracks to play on the club floor. It’s not necessarily to sell it’s just something
he’s made for fun. When I rap I’m not taking about seishun or sakura kind of thing
I’m just talking about whatever the hell I would talk about with friends. The whole
station has been a catalyst for us to be able to do what we really want to do on a
big level.
Reebok Classic presents
m-flo "SQUARE ONE" Tour 2012
5.26 Sat - Makuhari Messe (Tokyo)
6.14 Thu - Zepp Fukuoka
6.20 Wed - Zepp Namba (Osaka)
6.25 Mon - Zepp Nagoya
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For more info go to :
http://m-flo.com/live/m-flo/20120229.html
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m-flo New Album "SQUARE ONE"
In Stores 3.14.2012!!!!
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Producer. MC. DJ. Designer.
Asia Pacific Creative Director for Reebok
