SEAMO -- Drive

I'm not a huge rap fan by any means, but then one day I was switching channels when I came across the local music video channel and smack dab found myself in the middle of SEAMO's "Drive" video. Naoki Takada（高田尚輝）, as he is known when filling out any official government documents, was rapping even faster than that yellow sports car in the video, so I decided to stay on the channel. And I got to see that primitive version of Gran Turismo with the fantastical image of a sports car whizzing away on a Japanese highway (knowing the usual congestion of traffic routes in the Tokyo area, any sports cars seen on the roads there are for show, not speed).

SEAMO was born in Aichi Prefecture in 1975, and started his music career in 2004 under the name of Sea-Mo Nator (a fusion of the word "shimoneta" （下ネタ）meaning "dirty joke" and Terminator). About a year after his debut, though, his contract was summarily cancelled. But when he joined his new company, Takada changed his nom de guerre into its current form. "Drive" was his 2nd single from July 2005 which peaked at No. 58 on Oricon. Not particularly auspicious for him, but he would be going onwards and upwards, so that a few years later, he would have his biggest hit with "Mother" which went as high as No. 5.