Text & Photo: Atsuko Tanaka / Edit: B SABURO
Ninja We Made It in Hachioji
―Tell us about your style today.
Slow: I wear Air Jordan 1 quite a lot, but today I wore Tims boots with Levi's KAWS denim, orange North Face and KAPITAL bucket hat. I thought about matching the colors.
Zakeru: I’m wearing Air Jordan 1, Levi's pants and ARC'TERYX jacket. I especially like the Jordan 1, 3, and 4 and wear them a lot, but basically I coordinate the colors of the shoes and the cap to match.
Slim: black shorts from INNOCENCE are my favorite these days, so I put it on a lot. I like blue, so I choose these blue Air Jordan 1 and KAPITAL sweatshirts to match.
―Do you always decide on what to wear depending on how you feel that day?
Zakeru: Yes. We tend to choose the same kind of clothes so when we have a photo shoot or a show, we discuss what to wear in advance.
―Do you have any favorite brands and fashion styles these days?
Slow: I see a lot of baggy pants with slim top style lately, so I want something like that. For brands, I like BALENCIAGA.
Zakeru: I love street fashion, like Supreme, Nike, and hype clothes worn by foreign artists. I don't think ARC had an image of street fashion until Kanye started to wear. I wanna keep my eyes on what those fashion icons make popular.
Slim: I'm skinny so I've been checking on flared pants lately, and I want something from Marni in the future.
―How about Japanese brands?
Zakeru: We wear Japanese Harajuku brands quite a lot like KAPITAL. I think Japanese fashion is ahead in the world. We have Verdy and Takashi Murakami attracting attention from overseas as well.
―Then, I wanna ask about Hachioji where we did the shoot today. What kind of place is it to you guys and what kind of memories do you have?
Zakeru: This comfy cafe near Hachioji Station is where we have meetings and work on editing videos. Another local place is a former pachinko parlor and also a park sometimes we've shot dance videos there. Slim & I are from here so we have a lot of memories here. Slow and Yung are from Aomori, but now they live here too.
Slow: So I don’t have that many memories, but the country side reminds me of my hometown.
ーWhere do you usually buy your clothes?
Zakeru: We buy on internet. In the end, we think Mercari is the best.
―Are there anyone that you always check their fashion?
Slow: A$AP Bari, Bloody Osiris and CEO Slow.
Zakeru: Of course we check rappers' fashions too, but we look at street fashion icons more because they catch the trends fast. Also we have a friend who does our styling so we learn a lot from him.
―Which city do you think has the most fashionable people in the world?
Zakeru: I've only been to America, so not sure, but LA and NY seem really cool. About 3 years ago, Slim and I went to Atlanta and we thought rather than fashion, the guys were cool. They were just wearing a tank top and sagging pants with dreads.
Slim: Almost everyone had skinny jeans then. Everything they wore looked cool.
Slow: So, maybe the fashionable city is Shibuya? My thinking may be a little narrow though.
Zakeru: I think fashion in Tokyo is getting attention from all over the world. I have a hip hop journalist friend in the states and she said the same thing. So I guess it’s Shibuya or Harajuku.
―Are there any items you must have for fashion and beauty?
Slow: These dreads. This is also a part of fashion and it has helped me a lot in a way, and I think it became my strength. When it comes to beauty, things like trimming beards and hair lines. Sometimes I go get it done, and sometimes I do it myself.
Zakeru: For fashion it’s a white T-shirt. In summer I wear it 90% of the time. I think I choose it unconsciously, but it brightens me up and raises my spirits. I'm pretty lazy when it comes to beauty, but I go to Brothers in Harajuku once every 10 days, and in case of emergency, I go to a nearby shop.
Slim: For Fashion I like accessories and especially love Chrome Hearts so I wear their wallet and necklace. Somedays I want a heavy bracelet, a chain and a belt. As for beauty, I have my eyebrows and hair done at a beauty salon. I always go the day before the shoot to make look perfect.
―What style would you like to try in the future?
Slow: In the summer, we wore T-shirts a lot, but I see our fashion icons wear dress shirts nicely, so I wanna try them.
Zakeru: I like things that are pretty rough, like a white T, jeans, and a chain. I want to be as rough as possible, like covering everything with a chain.
Slim: I want to try knits and cardigans for the winter. I used to wear hoodies a lot in our dance videos because they look great, but I think the people I see on IG look cool wearing knitwear, so I want try that.
―Recently, you guys started rapping. What made you decide to rap?
Zakeru: Doing a song doesn't make us rappers, and like rapping about women or money is not our style. Dance is something that entertains people, so we want to show various aspects of us as an entertainers.
―I see.
Zakeru: Overseas, dancers such as Ayo & Tyo and SheLovesMeechie who have influenced us all release their own songs at some point, but in Japan there aren’t many dancers who do that. We don't have anyone we can refer to, so we’re still finding our ways. I think how much we can develop the scene from here depends on us.
―Even if music and dance are connected, wouldn't it be difficult to actually rap? Was it like let’s give it a try?
Zakeru: It's very hard. When we first started on YouTube, we decided eventually to create our own songs and dance to them. Around September of last year, we started doing it seriously.
Slow: We don't go out at all except when we have an event, and we don't play around with women or do bad things so I realized we don't have much to talk about, so it was kind of difficult to write the lyrics in that sense. But on the other hand, that’s who we are and that makes us unique.
Zakeru: When we make a song, we decide on a topic, and each of us comes up with the lyrics and flow. Although we're always together, there's a bit of gap and it comes out different than I expect, so it's quite difficult to put them together.
―What kind of reaction do you get from people?
Zakeru: It was better than we expected. When we first said we were going to do a song on YouTube, we got a lot of comments from the haters saying things like, "You guys shouldn’t do that" and "Don't put out bad songs". But when we put it out, there were a lot of good comments and I was relieved to see that.
Slow: It was like, there were so many critics as soon as we put out our song.
―But it might be easier to overcome the negative reactions because it’s three of you.
Zakeru: Yes. I'm a sensitive person, but when I ask them about the negative opinions, Slow is easygoing and he’s like "Don't worry about it". When I hear that, I feel it's okay.
―Are you guys working on a new EP now?
Zakeru: Yes, we plan to release a single in October and November, and an EP in December. We almost finished the recording, we just have to do the master in the studio. Now we are much quicker when it comes to making songs. We make about two songs a day and fix the details from there.
―What kind of goal are you guys aiming for?
Zakeru: As I said earlier, we wanna take a different approach from other rappers in the scene now, and eventually we wanna stand on a big stage like Budokan. We have plans for the short term and discuss with each other. But we don't know until we try, so we make a plan, and work toward it one by one.
―What’s the immediate goal you wanna accomplish?
Zakeru: We wanna get 1 million views on our music videos. So we're releasing songs for three months in a row.
―Is the wall high?
Zakeru: Very high. Our best is 950,000 views so far.
Slow: It's been a year or two and it still hasn't hit a million, so I think creating a buzz is really crazy.
Zakeru: The most important thing is speed. It's not like if something starts to buzz, it's going to go on forever like the old days. It will change in one day. It's like how many you can put out.
―So what does hip hop mean to you?
Slow: I fell in love with the culture and that made me who I am. I still have lots of love and respect for it so I wanna continue to have fun and express myself through hip hop. It’s just great!
Slim: It's the same with clothes and songs. I think it's something that expresses what's cool for me in various ways. It’s interesting because there is no correct answer.
Zakeru: For me, hip hop is freedom. It was originally a culture born out of discrimination against black people, and everyone has claimed their freedom and appealed to society through their own expressions. I was influenced by it, and made me think I can do anything if I really wanna do. I was born in such a blessed environment and if I can't succeed here, it's all my fault. I want to cherish unwavering freedom.
―Freedom, I love it! It seems you enjoy thinking.
Zakeru: I enjoy having the time to think the most. When I think about why I turned out like this, it connects to hip hop. When I was younger, I didn't think about anything, I just listened to songs I liked and played around with friends. But as I got into hip hop, I knew about the 5 elements and there was one thing I didn’t know and it was “Knowledge”. I searched and when I knew what it was, I was so amazed. If I was told by some smart guys I wouldn’t have gotten it but if people who I respect say it, I totally understand it. From there I started studying business too.
―When was that?
Zakeru: Soon after we started this group. I used to only dance, but when we started YouTube I had to learn how to reach people to get buzz. Then I learned about hip hop knowledge, and thought it was really fun. We are 23 now, and none of us have any experience working in society, so there are many things we don't understand. It’s important for us to think for ourselves, research, and try. Even if we fail, we keep going and we'll get closer to success. I think doing nothing is the biggest mistake, so I feel like it's totally okay to fail. People make fun of me when I say this, but I really think so.
Slim: Nobody makes fun of you. But yea, you used be more fun as a friend lol.
Slow: I think you've definitely become more serious. You stopped doing quick jokes.
Zakeru: That's another story lol. But whether with quick jokes or anything, it's important to divide the roles of who does what. Everyone has something they’re good at, for example, Slim responds well when we say something strange, Slow sees things optimistically, Yung sees three of us from his point of view. I think each one has his own position, so I don't have to do the quick jokes.
―Then who should do it?
Zakeru: Let’s be serious lol. But from a creative point of view, Slow is really good at making videos and editing. He’s crazy in a way so he brings out weird ideas so I leave it to him to make the music videos.
Slow: Let's stop if it doesn’t hit.
Zakeru: Anyway, I've been putting a lot of importance on our roles lately. Other than that, it’s great we just try and fail. As long as it's something that we think and make decision for ourselves, even if we fail in the worst possible way we won't have any regrets. People around us tell us so many things, which we appreciate, but we think there is meaning in that we do. We live by what we learned from hip hop and enjoy doing it, so we’re successful. I absolutely think so.
Ninja We Made It
2nd Single「福沢諭吉」Out Now