Lux Life: group_inou’s “Mansion”
group_inou skirts that line between Japanese rap I write about and Japanese rap I do cover. I am far from knowledgeable about Japanese hip-hop today except for a very general idea of what’s popular in the more serious “rap” scene…and then the one corner I do write about a lot, pop acts taking elements of hip-hop and warping it into something totally unrecognizable from its American origins. I’m talking Halcali, Love And Hates, DJ Miso Shiru And MC Gohan. Danny Brown they aren’t – they basically merge sonic ideas mostly associated with hip-hop with more harebrained ideas (twee pop, cooking).
group_inou, on “Mansion,” aren’t going down any nutty wormholes. This is a hip-hop number backed by a flurry of cotton-candy synthesizers, creating a bouncy cartoon of a beat for the duo to rap over. Yet they aren’t spitting straight-ahead here, as they deliver their vocals mostly in little bursts. It’s playful, and matches well with the whirring music. Listen below.