Looks like the good times are still rolling with "Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!"（ガンバレ!中村くん!!...Go for It, Nakamura!）with not just the main show but also with the ending credit sequences which include the songs of yesteryear (specifically, those of the Showa and Heisei eras). We've already gotten Kozo Murashita's（村下孝蔵） "Hatsukoi" (初恋）and Da Bubblegum Brothers' "Won't Be Long" for Episodes 1 and 2 respectively.
The ending of Episode 3 has gone into the hip-hop field this time apparently, so the target song here is "Kon'ya wa Boogie Back" (Tonight is Boogie Back) which was the March 1994 7th single for hip-hop group Scha Dara Parr with Kenji Ozawa（小沢健二）, formerly of Flipper's Guitar. It was pretty interesting hearing Ozawa going rap but then again, I've learned that he's tried all sorts of genres including jazz and of course, Shibuya-kei when he was with Flipper's Guitar.
Incidentally, there are two versions of "Boogie Back": the "smooth rap" and the "nice vocal" takes of which the former has Scha Dara Parr taking the lead while the latter has Ozawa behind the mike most of the time.
The thing is that the first time I ever listened to "Kon'ya wa Boogie Back", it was not through the original artists. It was actually listening to some musical guests covering the song on the late-night Saturday music variety show "Love Love Aishiteiru" (Love Love 愛している....Love Love I Love You） hosted by the Kinki Kids. At the time, I hadn't heard a whole lot of Japanese rap although we were just on the cusp of a big J-R&B boom from the late 1990s, so I wanted to hear the original with Ozawa and Scha Dara Parr.
I believe Kanye West referenced/mentioned this song a long time ago. Also, Scha Dara Parr was featured on American hip-hop group De La Soul's 1993 song, "Long Island Wildin." The song also had Japanese rapper Takagi Kan as well.
ReplyDeleteAlways good to hear and see cross-pollination across the Pacific. 😊
DeleteThis isn't related at all to this post but I wanted to say thanks for keeping your blogs up after all these years. It's super cool to read about how life and J-music was back then, especially going thru your Ringo Shiina posts (my all time fav)!
ReplyDeleteHello hello hello. Thanks very much for your kind comments and I hope that you keep on reading. Ringo Shiina has always fascinated me with her panache and jazziness...although she initially scared the heck out of me when she first popped up in those music videos.
DeleteWith a title like "Kon'ya wa Boogie Back" I was expecting a very different genre! Now, that is not to say that this is bad, but it was surprising.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it was something out of the blue for me as well when I first heard it.
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