Interview with Japanese Cartoon

SLAMXHYPE recently sat down with Le Messie and Lupe Fiasco (Wasalu Jaco) for a chat about the ensemble that makes up Japanese Cartoon. Having heard minimal details of the band throughout the past year, this latest interview offers a bit more insight into the motivation behind this project and the driving force behind the music. Definitely a nice piece with one of the more intriguing musical acts of 2010. Enjoy some excerpts from the interview below.

So tell us who’s in the groundbreaking Japanese Cartoon ensemble?

Wasalu: Graham Burris, Matt Nelson, Le Messie and myself… Percival Fats pops in and out every now and then…

Now that the first project has been released what has been the collective response received by its heavy punk highly political overly brash sound?

Messie: It’s kind of a modern revival of the 70’s rebellious punk mindset. People are looking at it the same way but with a modern take on things. The new generation is learning for the first time how to make their own movement.

Was there ever any concern for alienating the masses who were accustomed to a certain sound and direction coming from a person like Lupe?

Wasalu: I always seeded leftism in my music anyway, so I always seeded different genres, mutations of genres of music so I think JC is a fuller, singular manifestation of that. Even in JC, you see different forms of music. Different genres of music within the music, metal, trip hop, punk, electro so JC’s just an extension of that.

With streetwear and fashion being such a large component in the other passions what can we expect to see arise from that direction?

Wasalu: I think we’ll have really good merch. Me and Messie (!) between us and what I like and how deep we are in streetwear, we’ll just have some damn good merch. Streetwear loves to rip off bands… now we get to make something dope for a real band. It’s gonna be dope as fuck. Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck.

Messie: you can expect physical manifestations of the JC sound in functional form.

Wasalu : dao lao tsu du lao ah (preparing for his Macau trip..)

The interview in its entirety can be found here.