Inside Japan’s Underground Hip-Hop Scene in 2003 | Full Documentary

Scratching the Surface: Japan* was filmed in 2003, travelling through Tokyo, Osaka, Kanto and Kansai to document Japan’s underground hip-hop scene. MAKE A BOOK WITH SOI Got an archive, body of work or story that could become a book? We work with artists, photographers, musicians and cultural projects to make books from the things they’ve collected, created and lived through. https://www.soibooks.com/make CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction and opening credits 02:11 AFRA and beatboxing 15:23 Jif-Rock teaching scratching 19:08 Journey to Osaka 20:57 Osaka graffiti with Cosa and Zen 1 25:50 DJ Baku 44:50 Inden in Kobe 48:50 Tokyo MCs – Shinjuku 51:20 Kan MC We made the film over 20 years ago, meeting rappers, DJs, graffiti writers, beatboxers and breakers across Japan. It features *AFRA, DJ BAKU, KAN* and many others, with footage from clubs, streets, battles, studios and performances, alongside conversations about music, influence and what was happening in the scene at the time. This was well before Instagram, YouTube and social media made scenes like this easy to discover from anywhere in the world. A lot of what we came across felt difficult to access unless you were actually there. The film was originally released on DVD and we’re putting it back out here as part of the SOI archive. Director — Suridh Hassan / @shazdirector Producer — Ryo Sanada / @ryosrk Ryo and I still work together today through at Soi Publishing, making books around music, art, photography and visual culture. We’ll be putting more of our old films and archive online, alongside new films about the books we make, books we find and the people behind them. Subscribe if that sounds like your thing. SOI https://www.soibooks.com Filmed in Japan, 2003. #JapaneseHipHop #HipHopDocumentary #Japan #UndergroundHipHop #DJBaku #AFRA