BAD HOP WORLD DELUXE

“I think it’s important to build a hip-hop culture in Japan,” BAD HOP rapper YZERR tells Apple Music. “We need to show this attitude to the next generation. We wanted to create an album that would become a textbook for the young people who have roles in the new hip-hop scene.” BAD HOP’s 2019 Lift Off EP brought them international attention, thanks to killer production from Mike WiLL Made-It, Murda Beatz, Metro Boomin and Mustard, among other US heavy hitters. With BAD HOP WORLD, they plan to stretch their influence even further. “We’ve crammed in everything over the past three years, and we put in a lot of enthusiasm,” YZERR says. “We felt that we could not even waste one day until the album was finished,” adds G-k.i.d. Below, six of BAD HOP’s eight members—YZERR, G-k.i.d, Tiji Jojo, Vingo, Bark and Benjazzy—talk through each song on BAD HOP WORLD. Intro Bark: “It was [BAD HOP’s] T-Pablow who gave me the idea of the intro that would lead to the entire album. ‘How about a story like this?’ he said. From there, we wrote it together.” The Lead Benjazzy: “The song features beats and guitar sounds we haven’t used in previous BAD HOP songs. We tried to rap over it in many different ways.” G-k.i.d: “When we entered the recording booth, the beat threw down vibes like we were going to a brawl.” Round One YZERR: “We originally made three songs with the same theme, worried about them until the last minute, and chose the best one of the three.” Bat Man Benjazzy: “We made this song because we wanted something absolutely intense for live concerts. It’s a beat that’s not trendy in the US right now, so we chewed it up and put our original flavour on it.” Vingo: “It has an irregular structure, with Bark entering from the midpoint, and thankfully I was able to kick a verse.” Bark: “We thought it would be interesting if there was only four bars before my low-toned voice comes in.” Project Boy YZERR: “When T-Pablow went to China, he said the scene at the housing complexes was coo