Well my first topic is this......the Teriyaki Boyz. I was up last night reading up on somestuff. I was looking for music by N.E.R.D. and their new song"Everbody Nose" (which is a banger especially the remix,love Kanye's part). N-E-Wayz. I was looking it up online and found a group known as the Teriyaki Boyz. They had a song on the Tokyo Drift soundtrack and pretty much thats where i heard them at. Well my fav song from them is "Heartbreaker" it uses a Daftpunk beat. I included a the official vid of it. I also included their new single for 08 "Zock On" which features Pharrell and Busta Rhymes. The rock.

The latest single from the Teriyaki Boyz, 'ZOCK ON!' Featuring Pharrell Williams and Busta Rhymes

MTV Japan and BAPE founder Nigo teamed up for a special show featuring some of New Wave Hip Hop's elite. Nigoldeneye was held in Hong Kong and featured artists, Pharrell Williams, Kanye West, and the Teriyaki Boyz. The entire live show including behind the scenes footage was aired as a special for MTV Asia.

Some other things to note: Hiroshi Fujiwara, Big-O, some new Phenomenon and W-Taps pieces are also featured in the mag.

Click on the pics to enlarge.

Shoppers crowd Takeshita street on a Sunday afternoon, in search of sartorial trash and treasure. If you're under 30 you can find almost anything in Harajuku to suit, from vintage stores to designer boutiques to the latest in extreme cosplay. Even if you're not interested in the clothes, watching the people is entertaining enough. On your way out, struggling your way through the tight-packed but ever-polite throngs, pick up one of the fresh, hot crepes that Takeshita is famous for, filled with berries and cream.

The Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo, is a playhouse for children and adults alike. There's no set way to explore the museum. We wandered around, from room to room, up tiny spiral stairs and down long corridors. At every turn there's something to marvel or delight over - giant robots from Laputa, the interior of the Three Bears' house, a Totoro catbus for children to clamber over - right down to the tiniest details like the stained glass in the windows, the little broomsticks in the courtyard, tap handles in the shape of cats. There is also beautiful art, of course, as you'd expect from the creators of films like Spirited Away, and a small theatre plays a short original film throughout the day.

Sushi and sashimi are probably the first to come to mind when you think about Japanese cuisine, and it was a consistently fresh and delicious choice throughout our travels. But we sampled so many other types of food too - ramen and gyoza, unagi-don, shabu-shabu hot pot, sizzling Kobe wagyu beef - most of which I brilliantly forgot to take photos of, probably because I was so busy going nom nom nom and making haste with the chopsticks.

Expatriate hang-out Roppongi is reasonably busy even on a Wednesday night. We hit the bars for cocktails and the clubs for dancing, then relaxed with some crepes and water outside 24-hour discount store Don Quijote (a great place for bargains and oddities) before heading to karaoke. The trains in Tokyo stop at midnight and don't start again until 6 in the morning, so if you're out for the night, you're out all night - but it's easy to pass the time when you're having fun.

The famous Shibuya crossing seen here rather dimly, through a crosshatched window inside Shibuya station. As you'd expect, Shibuya is huge and its department stores are scaled to match. Close to this photo are Mark City and Tokyu, each the size of small villages (even if you're not interested in the clothes, their restaurant parks and food halls are well worth visiting). Nearby is the famous 109, retail mecca if you're female and aged under 30, as well as ubiqitous chain stores like HMV. And yet, just a few steps away, we also found tiny, quirky bars, small enough to sit only 5 or 10 patrons, half of whom seemed to be friends with the bartenders. Here, as much as anywhere, Tokyo seemed like a city of huge contrasts, with enough space for almost any niche or subculture.

Sunset in Kyoto. You can often pretend you're the only tourists around in Tokyo, whereas in Kyoto every street corner and every bus is packed to the gills with foreigners, clutching maps and poring over Lonely Planets. Meanwhile, the residents of Kyoto go on about their business. Even the geishas we glimpsed in the traditional Gion district, though mobbed by tourists-turned-paparazzi, were merely on their way to work - stopping politely for a moment or two before hurrying onwards on their teetering platform sandals.

Springtime is a beautiful time to visit Japan. Cherry blossoms, and other flowers, are everywhere, even in crowded Tokyo. It is also school holiday time, so be warned of the queues if you decide to visit Tokyo Disneyland.

There are many temples you can visit in Kyoto, all exhaustively listed in Lonely Planet. We limited ourselves to four, spread over a few days. The stone temple, Ryoan-Ji, was one of the best. The gardens are large and beautiful, and for a small entry fee you can rest for a while beside the zen garden, a simple space of raked gravel and placed stones.

Another beautiful temple is Fushimi Inari Taisha, famous for the red wooden arches (torii) that frame its mountain paths and fox-statue shrines. There's a 4km looped walk up the mountain, paved but very steep, that at times I thought would kill me. Halfway up we stopped for a rest in a teahouse and after a fortifying drink of ameyu (hot and gingery and sugary) continued on our way. The walk was worth it.

The castle in Himeji. This too takes a lot of (narrow, slippery, dark) stair-climbing to reach the top, though it's not nearly as strenuous. As impressive as the fortress is, it was the women's quarters with its long winding corridors and cool, darkened rooms looking out over the cherry blossoms that really made me wonder about what it would've been like to live hundreds of years ago, contained inside these beautiful but narrow spaces.

Seoul is just as busy and complicated and fun as Tokyo. From our brief visit it also seemed more direct, the Koreans louder and brisker and more inclined to what was on their mind. The streets are lined with cheap delicious restaurants and expensive designer stores; while the pavement outside grows high with the day's rubbish (in that respect, very different from Japan). The stall above was by far the craziest at the Dongdaemun Stadium markets, everything piled up whichway. DVD players and porcelain vases next to microscopes and fishing poles. Crazy but also strangely hopeful, the thought that there could be someone out there who'd want these things, that it's only a matter of time before finding a second home, a new purpose.

We were waiting for a table at the Peninsula hotel in Kowloon when we read in a magazine that Kanye West, N.E.R.D. and Teriyaki Boyz would be playing that same night in Kowloon Bay. Hyperventilating with excitement, I made the call straight away and bought tickets on the spot, for the most expensive A-section no less. Ostensibly A Bathing Ape promotion, this was just a straight-up concert. Japanese hip-hoppers Teriyaki Boyz, with BAPE's Nigo on the dj table were fun and catchy. Second act N.E.R.D., whose first album I still love, were somewhat disappointing - though it was pretty funny when they called the Olsen twins (!) out from backstage to dance during one of the songs. But this was Kanye's night. With the stage bathed in fog and lights, he ruled with an all-hits no-filler set that included a rap breakdown during Flashing Lights about the price of fame and the importance of staying real that was felt honest and heartfelt. For the encore, Teriyaki Boyz came back out for a song before introducing Kanye and Pharrell back to the stage. I paid about twice what I would've considered my normal limit (for an artist I like but don't love) for a show in Sydney but it was totally worth it.

Of all the cities we'd visited, Hong Kong was the only one I'd been to before. I remember from that first visit years ago - one of the first times I'd been to an Asian city - feeling like this was a real city, what a city was meant to be. Walking the streets of Mongkok and Central with my ears open for the Cantonese I only half-remember, watching these loud and busy people going about their business, I felt that way all over again. Like London and New York and now Tokyo as well, it just seems like a place where there is something new and different every day, where stories happen.

AL.

These rings are crazy!!! Made by Verbal from the Teriyaki Boyz (of BAPE fame)...

Today we're going to be looking at Teriyaki Boyz's new single - Zock On, as well as Utada Hikaru's (somewhat) new album - Heart Station. Man, how tricky of her to name her SINGLE AND her ALBUM Heart Station. First we'll be taking a look at Teriyaki Boyz.

Artist: Teriyaki Boyz
Single: Zock On
Track List:
1. Zock On feat. Pharrell and Busta Rhymes
2. I Still Love H.E.R. feat. Kanye West (Low Jack Three Remix)
3. Instrumentals

A look at Zock On feat. Pharrell and Busta Rhymes:
When I first listened to the song, I kinda didn't like it. I was thinking the entire time that it could've been better. But after a few more listens, it grew on me. The beat is kinda unusual, but at the same time, it's very typical of hip hop beats - repeating the same thing over and over again. Now, I'm not a "hater" of hip hop or anything, it's just that, it's too simplistic and as far as mainstream artists go, none have tried to break this. Anyway, this song is one of those typical hip hop songs, but it's a little different at the same time. I've probably heard more complex hip hop songs or ones with better lyrics, but hey, this is the Teriyaki Boyz that we're talking about here. Anyways, overall it's a pretty decent song.
Grade: 7/10.

A look at I Still Love H.E.R. feat. Kanye West - Low Jack Three Remix:
I was a pretty big fan of the original track, and knowing that Verbal is in the group, I had a feeling that the remix version had to be different, yet stay true to the original. The lyrics haven't changed at all, something which I was hoping to be slightly altered - knowing m-flo. Then again, this isn't m-flo that we're talking about now is it? Anyways, the beat is pretty different from the original - as well it should be, considering that this IS a remix - and it's creative enough to keep me interested. Now, when I think of hip hop, I definitely wouldn't think of this track that they laid out and oddly enough, it works - and it works WELL. I think that the fusion of the two different genres of music works well - the track that they use is definitely not one would think of when thinking of hip hop tracks. I think that this version flows really well and does justice to the original.
Grade: 8/10

Final Thoughts: The one thing I really like about Teriyaki Boyz is that they're different from other hip hop groups in that they're getting international attention. Fusing American hip hop with Japanese hip hop and even going so far as to get American producers to produce some of the songs is pretty amazing. But they don't stop at getting producers, they get famous American hip hop artists and get them to join in with the Teriyaki Boyz. Doing any lyrics in English in Japanese songs isn't uncommon, but it's that they're getting American artists and producers that amazes me and fills me with hope. I'm glad that there ARE people looking to other places and seeing that yeah, there ARE artists out there who can do the same things. I like that these producers and artist have an open enough mind to try doing a collabo with other artists not within their country and you know what? It works. I look forward to more Teriyaki Boyz, I can say that much.

Artist: Utada Hikaru
Album: Heart Station
Track List:
1. Fight the Blues
2. Heart Station
3. Beautiful World
4. Flavor of Life -Ballad Version-
5. Stay Gold
6. Kiss & Cry
7. Interlude
8. Celebrate
9. Prisoner of Love
10. Take 5
11. Boku wa Kuma
12. Nijiiro Bus
13. Flavor of Life (Bonus Track)

Since this is an album, I'm not going to break down each individual song, as that would take too much time. Sorry, I'm not THAT dedicated, then again, I'm pretty sure you all knew that considering the fact that I don't blog every day, or every week for that matter. Anyways, out of the 13 songs on this album, only 5 are new. Now, let me say right now, I'm a pretty big fan of Utada. I like most of her songs. For the most part, this is a very solid album; what you would expect of Hikki. The problem here is, she put all of her recently released singles and put it on this album, though 5 new songs is a pretty large amount I suppose. All of the songs are pretty slow-ish. These AREN'T songs you would get up and dance too. They're just not. Maybe head bobbing, but definitely not songs you dance to. Nijiiro Bus and Celebrate are pretty upbeat, and are a nice change of pace in comparison. Not that I don't like the other songs, I do, it's just that having an upbeat song in there is refreshing.
Grade: 8.5/10

Final Thoughts: I'd like to see more upbeat songs from Hikki. A little faster, happier, more cheerful. She has a great voice, and she's able to control it well - She doesn't hesitate to show off her range. The only thing is that, I'd like to see her try something different, something that no one would expect of her. Except, maybe not rap. Though, a rapping Hikki would be fine too =P Now that I mention it, I kinda wanna see that. COME ON HIKKI! GIVE US ONE RAP SONG! Get Verbal to help you out =P

Interesting find for the night: Wise. I kinda randomly searched him up (for those who don't know, he's part of the Teriyaki Boyz), and listened to a few of his songs. I can say that I like what I've heard so far. Right now, addicted to Alive. It's very upbeat and is just an overall feel-good song. The MV reminds me of Takacha's Movin' video =P

Listen This Album

Zock On !

Am in the mood for some funky music. Teriyaki Boyz in da house, people ! Enjoy Zock On! feat. Pharrell William & Busta Rhymes. A cool promotion video directed by Nigo. This is definitely one good piece of work. Get it goin' people ! Simple love the part, "Yabame na baby, zock on! zock on!" Here are the lyrics below (not including Busta Rhymes's rapping tho'). By the way, the pretty lady in the clip is a popular model here in Japan and her name is Jessica Michibata (mixture of Spanish, Italian and Japanese).

VERBAL
You want that?
She want that?
They want that?
Who want that?
Come get a little bit of this and a little bit of that
if you want a bit of this なら　AH AH
言いたくて、言えなくて　良い作戦　見つかんなくて
Come get a little bit of this and a little bit of that
if you want a bit of this なら　AH AH

ILMARI
どうしてみても　無理そうなタイミング
どう転んでも　彼女は遮る
どうにもダメだから　引いてみた
でも引いたら　それが　最後だった
脳天ビリビリ　Just say give me give me
このテンションを保ってる　ギリギリ
煩悩の数だけ　僕　浮かれ気味
チャンチャラチャンチャン、ZOCK ON！

PHARELL

YABAMENA BABY！

GIGANTO！(ZOCK ON)
KAWAII BABY！
GIGANTO！（ZOCK ON！）
MO-DAIMONDAI！
GIGANTO！(ZOCK ON！)
YABAMENA BABY！
GIGANTO！(ZOCK ON!)

Man what I wouldn't do to have a custom Bape avatar of myself on a shirt. Check out Shay and Chad's avatars. Shay's is so hilariously spot on. I would have mine wear thick black framed glasses and a gold watch. Anyways, this looks like it's gonna be a massive show. Too bad everyone there won't be able to see anything due to their Bape hoodies zipped up all the way to the top. At least the concert will sound incredible.

Where the hell is Lupe?

Mmmmm...not really feeling the design on the shirt.