Shing02

Wikipedia:

Shingo Annen (born 1975), better known by his stage name Shing02, is a Japanese rap artist and producer. Due in part to growing up in Western cities, Shing02 stands as one of the few multilingual rappers from Japan able to compose songs entirely in either Japanese or English. His rhyming style makes use of lyrics which are largely conceptual in nature and his hip-hop sound is known for blending various influences, ranging from reggae to traditional Japanese music to jazz. The style of music has made him a significant presence within the underground rap community, and he has achieved recognition beyond the scene for rapping "Battlecry", the theme song of the hip-hop-influenced chanbara anime Samurai Champloo, produced by Japanese jazz rap DJ Nujabes.

Biography

Shingo Annen was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1975 and grew up in various cities of Tanzania, England, and Japan. At the age of fifteen, Shing02 moved to the San Francisco Bay Area of California just following the Quake of '89, where he became involved in various creative arts programs. He then moved to Berkeley for schooling and studied art.

Living in the Oakland and San Francisco Bay-area he became immersed in the hip-hop scene amongst direct descendants of members of civil rights movement groups such as the Black Panthers and Asian-American activists. Shing02 has said of his music that "It was natural to have political and social messages in my music; I was fortunate to be exposed to it."

When his music eventually made its way back to Japan in 1996, Shing02 partnered with Mr. Higo of Mary Joy Recordings for his releases which garner enormous support in his homeland. He currently resides in the Bay Area of Oakland, California where he collaborates with numerous other artists from both America and Japan.

In 2010, Shing02 teamed up with Japanese-American Jazz vocalist Emi Meyer for her second album, Passport. The two initially met via MySpace and Meyer joined Shing02 on his summer tour of Japan in 2008, after which they began work on Passport