The revival of Adamn Killa (Real Recap)
Say what you will about Adamn Killa but we should be talking more about his resurgence in 2024.
After publicly falling out with former collaborators Drain Gang and spending $20,000 on a Lil Uzi Vert feature that Uzi refused to clear, no one would have blamed the Chicago native for calling it quits with music and focusing on providing for his family. But after a brief hiatus, he’s stormed back into relevance this year by any means necessary, whether it’s a string of free shows at local high schools, battling to get to the top ranking on Cameo and delivering an endless stretch of social media posts with raunchy captions. Most importantly, he’s making catchy music that people are resonating with and you can tell that he truly cares about his fanbase.
On Saturday night, Adamn could see that his work paid off. While Subterranean was far from full, nearly all of the 75-100 fans who showed up were die-hards, battling to get to the front, rapping along to several of his new songs and racing to the merch line once he announced he’d be taking pictures with everyone after the show.
If Adamn keeps this up, he could be in store for an even bigger 2025. We’ll be watching closely.
First In, Last Out: A Conversation with Shing02
And how Shing02's song "F.I.L.O" with Nujabes led to the founding of Real Ones
Photo credits: Alejandro Hernandez
On May 20th of 2004, an anime by acclaimed director Shinichiro Watanabe was broadcasted on Japan’s Fuji TV late-night slot. This project— titled Samurai Champloo— was the spiritual successor to Watanabe’s breakthrough series and cult classic Cowboy Bebop. Following a loose plot structure that takes place in Japan’s late Edo-period, it focuses on a young girl who embarks on a quest to find “the samurai who smells of sunflowers” after a fate encounter with two ronin (rogue samurai), who she hires as bodyguards for the journey. In the opening seconds of it’s introduction to the world, we hear a fuzzy, hypnotic loop, and about 20 seconds in, we finally hear the first words that introduces audiences to the entire series: “Sharp like an edge of a samurai sword, the mental blade cut through flesh and bone/Though my mind is at peace, the world is out of order…”
These words are uttered by Japanese rapper Shing02, backed by an impeccable production from Nujabes, a legend in his own right. This intro is titled “Battlecry,” and Shing02’s vivid lyrics set the tone for what would eventually become one of the most influential and underrated anime in the last 20 years.
This collaboration with two of Japan’s most significant contributors to hip-hop is just one of many between the duo, but it was this song that helped introduce their catalogs to Western audiences. Two decades later, Shing02 is still active and currently on a North American tour with world-class DJ SPIN MASTER A-1 and UK band OMA— an impressive bunch that likely covers your favorite rap songs from Kendrick Lamar to MF DOOM. On August 29th, they stopped at Chicago’s Subterranean in Wicker Park and expertly performed in front of a sold-out crowd that was one of the most electrfying shows I’ve attended all year. In fact, in terms of crowd energy, the only other show I’ve been to that could have matched it was Chief Keef’s homecoming set at Summer Smash. It didn’t matter what track it was from Shing02’s impressive discography, it seemed like every person in the room knew every word to every song. When they closed out with “Battlecry” though, the audience recited it from the depths of their soul, participating in a moment of collective catharsis.
I had the pleasure of covering the show for Real Ones, and following the incredible concert, I sat down with Shing02 for a brief Q&A which follows below. (some text has been lightly edited for length and clarity)
Q: First things first, how’s the tour been?
A: I mean the tour's been just magnificent in terms of crowd interaction, energy levels. We try our darn best to make each show unique, whether it be in the form of special guests or something that's kind of unscripted. We really try to make it memorable, you know. So at the same time, the show’s evolving, whether it's like my interaction with the band or the band's interaction with A-1, introducing a prop, you know, we're having a lot of fun with it. So it's all the in-between the shows, all the logistical challenges of traveling, lodging, and the merch, it's just a lot. But all that said, we've been doing this thing for like seven, eight years now, and then, I would say this year is the best that it's been in terms of teamwork.
And for the people reading this article who aren’t already familiar with you and your work— who is Shing02 and when were you introduced to hip-hop?
Well, my name is Shing02. I spell it S-H-I-N-G-Zero-2. I was born in 1975. I went to UC Berkeley as a young engineering student in the fall of 1993 and I fell in love with hip-hop. All throughout high school, I was just an avid listener of hip-hop cassettes, you know, like Del The Funky Homosapien, The Pharcyde, A Tribe Called Quest, Digable planets. I was just in love with that kind of a sample-based hip hop. I didn't know what was happening, but I loved what I was hearing. And, of course, I loved all the East Coast stuff too. I never had dreamt that when I moved out to college, I would actually see people my age doing it and also doing it at an extremely high level. So that literally changed my life, the fall of ‘93 and 93 ‘Til Infinity.
You just mentioned you went to school at Cal Berkeley. I also know you lived in the UK and in Tanzania. How has your experience living in different continents really shaped your worldview?
I'm sure culturally, it has impacted me quite a bit. Linguistically, I was thrown into a kindergarten that only spoke English and French, you know what I mean, and I had to adapt to a Japanese style when I went back to Japan. It was a lot, a lot to handle. But I would venture to say that as much as you move and as much as you meet a lot of people, you also have a lot of alone time because a lot of times you don't make permanent friends. So within that alone time, I discovered like drawing and things that were creative in nature that led to me expressing myself through music eventually.
So 20 years ago, a little anime by the name of Samurai Champloo premiered, and the very first voice that people hear in it is yours. Did you ever imagine the type of impact that the series would have?
Absolutely not. It aired in 2004, so I must have gotten the offer in 2003 and back then, you know, I just got a little like PDF of what the anime was going to be. And of course, I knew the director, Shinchiro Watanabe, and of course he did Cowboy Bebop, and that was quite popular in the underground, you know what I mean, but in early 2000, it wasn't like everywhere. But my mentor, Del the Funky Homosapien, was a big fan of a Cowboy Bebop. So that was like my perk. Like ‘oh, I can finally show my sensei that I'm doing something that he approves of,’ but little did I know that it would actually be distributed stateside at all. I thought it was gonna be some late-night anime in Japan, and that was it.
I feel like hip-hop— even before Samurai Champloo dropped— hip-hop always had an affinity for, like, Samurai [and East Asian] culture. I think of Wu-Tang Clan, GZA’s Liquid Swords album. And I know you have actual samurai ancestry in your DNA. So I wonder, in your opinion, why do you think hip-hop has such an attachment to samurai culture?
I mean, Wu-Tang is a great example, but that was like Shaolin Kung Fu, Chinese culture. And, of course, everything in Japan came from China during the feudal eras, and then Japan slowly started forging— for lack of the better term— its own culture, as far as sword making, as far as artistry, architecture, all of that, right. So, you know, as long as it's authentic, I think it's gonna connect. So whether it's through sampling authentic things or speaking from your authentic experience, I think it'll connect with the spirit of hip-hop that tries to keep everything like rooted in culture.
So, as you probably know, the Olympics had Breaking for the first time ever. Japan won the inaugural gold medal for it. So I was curious what was the hip-hop scene in Japan like when you were first introduced to it compared to what it's like now?
I mean, when I was introduced to it, of course, it was early ‘90s and the rap game was definitely not as developed as now, but Hip-Hop had been introduced honestly around the same time that everybody was exposed to it through Wild Style, you know. So we already had legendary producers like DJ Krush, DJ Honda, among others that were making waves worldwide. So those were like our role models, if you will. And even before I picked up the pen, I would be writing rhymes over DJ Krush beats and listening to Mo’ Wax and all of that, like really experimental stuff. You know, that's what really inspired us.
This next question is about your writing style. I feel like your lyrics are very philosophical and metaphorical. Just how do you approach writing your songs?
Well, for me, 99 times out of 100, I just listened to the track and vibed out to it. So of course, we all grow up freestyling and battling, all of that, and like the most of the songs that people are familiar with, like, as far as the “Luv (sic)” series, it's kind of written in character to somebody I feel has an affinity to the vibe of the song. It's almost like acting, not fake acting, but like method acting. So that's like a very similar character that I fall into when I wrote those songs, when I recorded those songs, and also when I performed those songs. So I think the best kind of rapper, or best kind of emcee, is like a chameleon like most actors are. You're able to adapt to the beat.
Then I know you produce under the name Vector Omega. Is your approach to producing any different to songwriting?
Well, I'm kind of surprised you know that, but that is the name that I chose for about 20 years because the reason was I didn't envision me in print produced by Shing02. I wanted Shing02 to be a MC and MC only. But I mean, speaking of making beats, everybody did it around us. So I kind of fell into a unique methodology because I picked up a Kurzweil, for the machine nerds out there, picked up a Kurzweil sampling keyboard. It was called a K2-VX. So I was sampling everything and anything I could get my hands on. And that's how I produced, like, my first three or four albums. And it's game over once you get into that. And also, eventually I got tired of the limitation, and I wanted to be able to speak to other live musicians, so I started learning music theory, started picking up any kind of instrument synthesizer I could get my hands on, and started learning how to mix and dub mix, and that was my whole style.
Shing02 embracing a fan after pulling them on stage to help perform a song.
How do you find your inspiration?
I mean, just like anyone else, I think anything that is fresh to you– whether it's fresh meaning dope or fresh meaning new– then that will give you some kind of a curiosity that you want to learn more. So a lot of times, I think if you're in the music game or hip-hop game, you kind of fall into a formula, and you kind of keep going back to the same way you make beats, same way you rap, same way you record. But I think it's quite important to keep incorporating new things, or keep incorporating new blood in your work.
So for this next question, the media company that me and my friends run, it's called Real Ones, but our sister company is actually called Project FILO, which was directly named after the song “F.I.L.O.” So I just wanted to ask, how did that song come about?
Well, I do explain it on stage quite often, but F.I.L.O is a computer terminology for “first in, last out,” which is the order of how commands are received and executed. So imagine, like a food order, first in, last out is actually quite inefficient because the first order you receive is going to be going out last because the last order you received is going to be going out first. How fair is that? But in terms of some prompts and commands, that is something you have to do. You know, sometimes you have to listen to the latest request and execute it before going back to what was in the buffer, you know what I mean? I hope that's not too technical. But on stage, I always try to refer to it as, ‘hey, look at this building. There's somebody who came in first and is going to leave last to walk out the door.’ So you got to respect the founders of this culture.
And then, before we start wrapping up, just how did you link up with OMA?
So I linked up with OMA about a year ago… I went to London, and I hit them up, and then they answered fondly, and then we did a little jam at their barbershop studio where they work with other famous artists that want to play with them. And here we are a year later. Also, sorry, my thoughts are everywhere. March of 2024 was the 20th anniversary [of Samurai Champloo] as you just said, so Crunchyroll, owned by Sony, also started by UC-Berkeley graduates originally, they were nice enough to fund the whole concert so that we could all fly out there together. So that was a huge opportunity for us. So I was like telling them early in the game, ‘we really need to set up a club gig outside of the award show.’ And then legally, they couldn't do it, but we tried and rallied around to make it happen. And then that's the concert that you see on YouTube, and then that led to discussions of a tour. And now here we are.
Who are some artists that you've been keeping an eye on that maybe we should that should that should be on our radar?
Jack The Rip, my album collaborator, and of course, OMA and Oscar, he's a great producer as well. Yunsheap, there's another young producer. Champion Xegg, that walked in [tonight’s show], who remixed our tracks. So talent is everywhere, you know what I mean? So it's really up to us to reach out to the bring new talent.
What should fans expect from you moving forward in terms of music?
We have a lot of back catalogs that me and Jack need to put out. Yeah, I publicly apologize for the delay, but it's gonna happen. So we just gotta be invigorated when we do it.
I know most people probably know you through your collaborations with Nujabes but of course, you‘ve worked with others. You mentioned Uyama Hiroto [on stage] earlier. Substantial is another one. What's your relationship like with all those guys?
Yeah, it's extremely good. You know, like on the record, I can't really talk much, of course, it's been quite difficult trying to process Nujbaes gone and how to handle his catalog, and it's been very, very, very difficult. But the camaraderie and the brotherhood is always there. We have never had issues with each other.
Any final words?
Peace. Thank you so much.