Women Rappers & Making MoneyBy: Sarah Caffery, Nicole Cervi, and Macauley Drake

Women Rappers

• Women rappers in Japan• Male emcees and deejays • “Real” hip-hop• Album making• Japanese groups- male heavy• Gender is key dimension• Is there something about hip-hop ideals as expressed

in nightclubs and record companies that hinders women’s participation as rapper?

• If so, what does this suggest about the dynamics of hip-hop, gender, and globalization in Japan?

Working their way to the top

• Making it in the music industry• Carving space• Creating a vibe• “Cutismo”• Yuri & Utada Hikaru • Ai, Hime, and Miss Monday

Resisting the Stereotype

Yuri & Utada Hikaru vs.

Miss Monday & Hime

Cutismo in Pop Music

• Pop idols • “normal girl”• Girl groups members

•Tokyo Performance Doll

Back to East End

• Starting off• East End• Gaku, DJ Yoggy, and DJ Rock-Tee• The beginning of the end• idol=puppet• Denim-ed Soul• “Da.Yo.Ne.” • Denim- ed Soul 2• “Ne”• Break up

Women Consumers

• Achieving success• Competing• Best Sellers• History • Femininity • Using English• Cult of Cute• Cutismo Hamasaki Ayumi

Japanese R&B Boom

• 1990’s- R&B Boom• Misia, Utada Hikaru, Double, and Sugar

Soul• Remixes with Japanese rappers like Zeebra

and Rhymemaster• Gender divide• Authentic vs. Fake• First Love, sold 9 million copies• Women regarded as “more Japanese”

Making Money Japan Style

• Reputation and money• “Hit-driven” industry• Rock Steady Crew• Japan’s recording industry• Japan’s music industry is unique in 3 ways• Japan has a wide range of national artists• rental CD shops• low rates of online piracy

Making Money cont’d

• Consumer driven market• Music is expensive to produce but cheap to

reproduce• Data Watch• Decline in sales and million sellers• Umedy• Music business in Japan is not driven by

money but rather by culture and artists

US vs.

Japan