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Japan has a long tradition of talented DJs and beatmakers - DJ Krush, DJ Honda, Muro and more recently Kentaro. Another Japanese producer and DJ who’s made a name for himself worldwide in the last few years is Mitsu the Beats, the alias of a diminutive yet very talented Sendai City native who stormed everyone’s favourite charts a few years back thanks to his first solo LP, ‘A New Awakening’, and his group’s, GAGLE, first album. Signed to the Jazzy Sport label in Japan, Mitsu the Beats soon found himself being name checked by the likes of Pete Rock, Gilles Peterson and DJ Spinna after relasing his LP, which featured the likes of K-Otix, Dwele, Mark de Clive Lowe, Rich Medina and many more.
The growing success allowed him and the label to call in some remix favours and re-release ‘A New Awakening’ in 2 volumes jam packed with remixes ranging from downtempo to broken beat, jazz, hip hop and more. Remixes came from the likes of Sa Ra, Wajeed (from Platinum Pied Pipers), Medaphor, Kev Brown and Rich Medina amongst others. And if all that wasn’t enough, his success also brought the attention of many western labels, who called on him for remix and production duties. These include Chocolate Industries, Blue Note, Ubiquity and Universal and artists like Jazzy Jeff, Madlib, Kero One, PPP and Diverse – the kind of labels and artists you want coming knocking at your door!
All the success and interest doesn’t seem to have changed Mitsu the Beats or dented his love of beatmaking and music one bit though. With a few recent European and US tours and some more upcoming releases, solo, with his band GAGLE and for a variety of international artists, Mitsu the Beats keeps knocking shit out and repping his home country worldwide. K-Per caught up with him over email recently, to find out a bit more about where he came from and where he’s going...
Ok, well the best place to start would be with some introductions! So can you please introduce yourself to our readers – who is DJ Mitsu the Beats, where are you from and how long have you been DJing, making beats etc…?
I’m from Sendai City in Miyagi Prefecture in Japan and I’ve been DJing for 12 years and making beats for like 10 years or so.
There’s another DJ named Mitsu in Japan and so I added ‘the Beats’ because that represents my love for and the time I spend on making beats.
I was moved when I saw the DMC championships on TV, after that I became seriously interested in DJing. I naturally started beat making after I listened to a lot of records. I was also inspired by Muro and Rhymester at the time, two famous Japanese DJs.
I formed GAGLE with my younger brother HUNGER, who’s an MC, and DJ Mu-R. Me & HUNGER used to be part of a different group but then we hooked up with DJ Mu-R for a live gig, and we formed GAGLE after that. Mu-R was the perfect addition for us because he’s a dope live DJ. GAGLE is just a traditional hip hop group really – we make sure we have dope rhymes and beats!
I love Jazz and Soul so I’m quite happy if you describe my mucic like that.
My inspiration mainly comes from my records, I’ll generally find inspiration in the samples I’ll end up using for the track I’m making.
I always talk with HUNGER and Mu-R when making beats for the group. Sometimes there might some beats I’d like to use but if the others say no then I won’t. If it’s for my solo stuff, then all the decisions are mine. But really the way I make beats doesn’t change, whether it’s for myself or GAGLE.
Most of them I worked with through e-mail or via the Internet. But I did do some recording with Rich Medina in Japan when he was in the country.
I was lucky to be able to do this remix project. I sat down with the label and we discussed who would be good for the remixes, made a list and in the end chose all the ones who I really trusted to turn out something good.
Well, I’m working on GAGLE’s new album now and then I’ll be moving on to my next solo project, that should hopefully be out next year. Right now though I’m producing beats for Hanif from Maspyke, a Korean hip hop group called GARION and also working on a demo for Muneshine from Vancouver in Canada.
I’ve enjoyed each remix I’ve done personally, but the Bakura ‘Thinking about’ remix was a bit tough to do and probably the one I enjoyed doing most in the end.
I don’t really follow a lot of music scenes out there, but as far as the Japanese hip hop and jazz you guys are hearing in Europe recently, that stuff isn’t really getting much attention out here. Certainly not like pop chart stuff. The scenes are much smaller and more underground than you might think.
They are still a lot of underground hip hop artists out here. You don’t really see anyone go pop that started underground, unlike in Europe or US. Ordinary people don’t really know much about Japanese hip hop outside of some chart stuff, which is generally more pop than hip hop.
I don’t think there’s a big divide anymore. Now that Japan has high speed internet nationwide it doesn’t matter where you are really. People everywhere can do their thing and get some attention.
Breakthrough and Grooveman Spot.
It’s a collaboration we already released. Me & Kentaro are old friends, we’ve known each other for a long time. We collaborated for this after we joined the same compilation project. I made some riffs and beats and Kentaro reconstructed them using his turntables.
Yes I’m part of Jazzy Sport, as a signed recording artist as GAGLE and also as DJ Mitsu the Beats. Jazzy Sport is a label, production house, artist management company and it also runs record shops. We also do some distribution and all the members of the company are DJs too. And then Jazzy Sport is also a football team! We all love sport and music so we just kinda combined the two together.
They manage GAGLE, myself and also a band called Cro-Magnon. If you wanna know more check the website www.jazzysport.com
Not me. But Jazzy Sport football team will be in Berlin for the Addi cup as they are the Japanese champion team.
I really don’t know. Maybe Spain!?
I know it’s hard to get my music out there but I’m gonna keep making dope beats and Jazzy Sport is trying to distribute our stuff in Europe and the US now. So watch out for our new releases. Thank you.
‘Re-New Awakening’ is out now on Jazzy Sport (original and remix volumes). Look out for more GAGLE and Mitsu the Beats releases upcoming in 06 and 07....
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© ukhh.com 2006
Mitsu The Beats Interview
Yeah I was very surprised. I never thought my solo album got much attention, even in Japan.
My basic idea for features was to pick artists I’m a fan of and then once some of them had agreed, to find which of my own productions would suit each artist best.
Which Japanese hip hop artists would you recommend people in Europe check out for?
You got any last words or shout outs?
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