I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Welcome to another Hump Day in the middle of the final full week of March. We're still making our slow way to spring weather as we hover a little over 0 degrees Celsius here in Toronto, but at least we've made some progress with the sun.
As such, why don't we lift some of those spirits up with a bit of m-flo? I haven't discussed about LISA, VERBAL & ☆ Taku in over a year, and I was able to find this nice pick-me-up which was released as the group's November 1999 6th single, "L.O.T. (Love Or Truth)". To be honest, I'd never heard of this one before since for one thing, it hadn't been included on the lone BEST collection I have of them, "Award Super Nova".
m-flo to me has usually meant hip-hop or hip-pop so to hear this one is quite the revelation because "L.O.T.", which was written and composed by m-flo with H.U.B.'s help on the lyrics, strikes me more as a contemporary Latin pop number with some jazz elements (although VERBAL has got his usual rap patter in there). It's also been recognized as the group's first ballad and it's beautifully sung by LISA. "L.O.T." was used as the theme song for a TV Asahi drama series "Best Friend".
Quite the atmospheric music video for "L.O.T." but that hotel corridor looks like it came straight from "The Shining"! I was expecting a couple of creepy twin girls to invite LISA and company to play. Anyways, the video below is of the Agape Mix of the song. The song scored a No. 24 ranking on Oricon. It also appeared as a track on m-flo's first album"Planet Shining" from February 2000; it peaked at No. 6.
The above video from the channel Heisei Sound System is an AI City Pop version of "L.O.T." that was released a couple of months ago, and to be honest, it was the first version of the song that I had heard before I quickly tracked down the original. I have to admit that it does sound quite good, and usually I haven't been all that impressed with the AI attempts at urban contemporary.
Living in the Tokyo area in the 2000s, I was accustomed to regularly seeing R&B conglomerate m-flo on TV with his various buddies hip-hopping, rapping and grooving. My question is where did they all go, although as for the core, I'm happy to say that they are still around. In fact, they released something just last month.
However, let's go back those two decades to October 2003 when m-flo's 15th single was released. "miss you" with the singers for this one being Ryohei Yamamoto（山本領平）and Japanese-American singer Melody Ishikawa, stylized back then as melody. (not to be confused with the aidoru group Melody). Ryohei would also collaborate with Verbal and gang a few years later on "Summer Time Love".
I remember "miss you" because of its music video which is a conveyor belt of MC Verbal, DJ ☆Taku, Ryohei and melody. having fun and acting out a romantic relationship working out some issues inside what looks like an IKEA storeroom masquerading as a movie script read-through session venue. Between Verbal's pointed hip-hop banter and the two main singers cooing at each other, I'm also enjoying melody.'s soft grooving voice. The song managed to hit No. 8 on Oricon and it's also included on m-flo's May 2004 3rd album"Astromantic" which peaked at No. 2 and ended up as the 42nd-ranked album of the year, going Double Platinum.
One piece of trivia I found out regarding melody. is that she's married to musician Miyavi.
Happy Mother's Day! I hope that all mothers out there are enjoying the special Sunday. We took Mom out for an early breakfast at a local diner that we hadn't entered in over two years, so it was great to have those pancakes, sausages and eggs once more. Plus, the owner recognized us on sight which was very reassuring.
It's not even noon yet and already my pop culture stomach has been getting as full as my real one is right now. Some of my family will be catching "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" later today (and I'll be catching it pretty soon myself), the fourteenth Doctor Who has just finally been announced (my congratulations to Ncuti Gatwa...I've never heard of him but then again, I hadn't heard of Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant or Matt Smith before they got the job as Time Lord), and the currently running Season 3 of "Kaguya-sama: Love Is War" basically lit their corner of YouTube on fire due to a rap sequence with a couple of the main characters in Episode 5. Had no idea that Chika could swear like a sailor!
Ah, rap. It's not a genre that I know particularly well but on seeing Miyuki and Chika rapping away in the park there had me thinking back to the early 2000s when rap and hip-hop were really making their presence known in Japan. So, in the KKP backlog, I noticed that there was a video involving a couple of acts that I used to hear about when I was living there at the turn of the century, but hadn't realized that the two of them had worked together.
But in September 2003, out came a single "Candy Pop" by Japanese-American hip-popsister duoHeartsdales with help from hip-hop group SOUL'd OUT who I've remembered all these years because of Diggy-MO's distinct voice. Listening to the song, I have definitely received a lot of those m-flo vibes and sure enough, according to the JASRAC database, Verbal from that group was helping out on the lyrics along with SOUL'd OUT and Jewels, one-half of Heartsdales. SOUL'd OUT took care of the composing work.
I can't even say that I'm a hip-pop fan although I ought to give some of Namie Amuro's（安室奈美恵）post-2000 songs a chance. However, "Candy Pop" is pretty darn catchy; the title says it right there, it's got a lot more on the pop side despite the rap patter, and happily enough, it fits the lovely weather outside: sunny and refreshingly cool.
Happy Monday! The weather isn't too bad for a February day...it's a tad warmer than usual at around the 0-degree Celsius mark, and I think even the sun has come out for a peek.
Commenter Fireminer had come around to give his New Year's greetings when he mentioned the name of Crystal Kay, an R&B singer that I used to hear about regularly in the early to mid-2000s. She's actually represented here on the blog but as part of a couple of articles on compilationalbums but she's never had her own article on "Kayo Kyoku Plus".
Allow me to rectify this. In fact, I'll start the week with a two-for-one deal. First off, there is Crystal Kay's 6th single, "Ex-Boyfriend" from July 2001. She performs this with Verbal from m-flo, and I find it a bouncy and catchy number reminiscent of some older R&B that I used to hear about a decade before this single's release.
Written by Emi K. Lynn and composed by Kura T., I wish that "Ex-Boyfriend" had gotten a bit more respect on the charts but it got as high as No. 44 on the Oricon weeklies. The song was also included on Crystal Kay's 2nd album"637 ~always and forever~" from August of that year which went Gold as it peaked at No. 19.
Fireminer recommended this particular Crystal Kay song "Sweet Friends" which was from her 16th single,"Kiss", released in January 2005. Created by H.U.B. and Kazuhiro Hara（原一博）, "Sweet Friends" has less groove than "Ex-Boyfriend" but even more speed. Listening to these two songs, I've read comparisons of the singer with Brandy, but I guess being from an older generation, I also get that Janet Jackson feeling. As for "Kiss", it reached No. 10.
For me, the one song by m-flo that got me distracted and attracted enough to run out and get the CD was "How You Like Me Now" from September 2000. Great beat, droll Japanese pop cultural references, and rotational cameras in the music video. I like them just fine!
But according to J-Wikithe most successful single by the group has been "come again", their 12th from January 2001. Another speedy and sweeping tune interspersed with Verbal rap and the sweet vocals by LISA, I think "come again" also has very nice soul going for it. Interestingly in that J-Wiki article, member ✩Taku mentioned on the m-flo website that this was a song for which he completely threw out the kayo kyoku formula. Come again? I had never thought that m-flo ever did follow a kayo kyoku formula for their music, but perhaps someone can set me right on this. He also mentions that he based the song on 2-step garage which had been the popular genre at the time in the UK club scene.
"come again" went Platinum, hitting as high as No. 4 on Oricon and becoming the 46th-ranked single for 2001. It was also used as a commercial song for Kanebo Cosmetics, plus it was a track on their 2nd album"EXPO EXPO" released in March 2001. That peaked at No. 3, going Double Platinum and finishing the year as the 35th-ranked album.
When it comes to m-flo's LOVES era which ranged from 2003 to 2008 according to J-Wiki, I have to say that my favourite song there has been "DOPAMINE" with Emyli and Diggy Mo'.
However, the following single in the series, "Loop In My Heart" with m-flo teaming up with Emyli again but with the new partner being YOSHIKA, isn't too shabby either although it isn't quite as much of an earworm as "DOPAMINE". With all of the singers involved in words and music, the general arrangement has everyone playing more of that singing version of hot potato contrasting the high and melodic voices of Emyli and YOSHIKA and Verbal's rapping patter. Perhaps the hot potato being a little too hot and fast for me is the reason that I don't like this one as much as the one before. So, it's perhaps not surprising that my favourite part of the song is when things slow down briefly for the ladies to breathe out their final solos.
"Loop In My Heart" was m-flo's 19th single from July 2005 which hit No. 9 on the charts. It also first made its album appearance on the chart-topping "Beat Space Nine" from August 2005, and then it got onto "Award SuperNova", the m-flo BEST compilation in the LOVES series from February 2008.
Long time no see, m-flo. For that matter, long time no see, LISA!
Indeed, it's been a couple of years since I put up an m-flo tune, and it was around that time that original member LISA came back to the group for the first time in about 15 years (the Tripod is back!). But for me, it's only just been this year that I've heard the old trio back together again through their music video for "EKTO" which is also part of their July 2019 single "mortal portal e.p.".
Remembering their party-hearty material from the late 1990s going into the 2000s, with and without LISA, "EKTO" strikes me as being a more subdued and an older-but-wiser-if-sadder love ballad about regrets and recriminations being thrown back and forth. Still, it's undeniably m-flo with LISA's voice and Verbal's mid-tune rapping. And before I got any impressions that the original Tripod was going to slow down, I also did hear the catchy "Mars Drive" from "mortal portal e.p." just now.👍
One of my recent acquisitions that I managed to get my hands despite the rotating strikes at Canada Post. I was definitely looking forward to hearing this BEST work by songsmith Keiichi Tomita（冨田恵一）, aka Tomita Lab（冨田ラボ）. A number of songs that have been crafted by him on this March 2011 compilation have already been given their own individual due, but there are still plenty of tracks that have yet to be covered.
1. Tomita Lab feat. Maaya Sakamoto -- April Fool 2. Yumi Matsutoya -- Kaede（楓） 3. Ken Hirai -- Ring 4. Mika Nakashima -- WILL 5. Tomita Lab -- here it comes 6. m-flo loves Crystal Kay -- REEWIND! (Tomita Lab. Remix) 7. Tomita Lab feat. Hanaregumi -- Nemuri no Mori （眠りの森） 8. Tomita Lab feat. CHEMISTRY -- Zutto Yomikake no Natsu （ずっと読みかけの夏） 9. Tomita Lab -- high noon 10. Fantastic Plastic Machine -- Why Not? (Tomita Lab. Remix) 11. AI -- ONE 12. Youmou & Ohana -- falling 13. Tomita Lab -- color them green 14. RIP SLYME -- Mata Au Hi made 2010 ~ Tomita Ryu（マタ逢ウ日マデ2010～冨田流～） 15. Kirinji -- Aliens （エイリアンズ） 16. Tomita Lab feat. Motohiro Hata -- Parallel（パラレル）
Unfortunately, I couldn't find Yumi Matsutoya's（松任谷由美）contribution to the album so we're gonna start off with Ken Hirai's（平井堅）"Ring". His 17th single from November 2002, it was written and composed by the singer with Tomita handling the arrangement, and yep, the Tomita touch of groovy and soulful strings is in there along with some gospel. As you can see from above, "Ring" was the theme song for the NTV drama "Psycho Doctor"（サイコドクター）about a dedicated psychiatrist played by Yutaka Takenouchi（竹野内豊）and looking at that perpetually hangdog expression on his face, I kinda wonder if he needed help.
Hirai had another hit with "Ring" as it went to the top of the charts, going Platinum and becoming the 39th-ranked single of 2003.
m-flo teams up with Crystal Kay for its 14th single, "REEWIND!" and then puts it through the Tomita filter. So we've got the Tomita groove mixed in with the fast-paced tumble-dry style of m-flo. The original single came out in June 2003 and got as high as No. 9, and it's also a track on the group's 3rd album"Astromantic" from May 2004. That album went up to No. 2 and became the 42nd-ranked album of the year.
I had never heard of the acoustic duo Youmou & Ohana（羊毛とおはな）but I'm happy to make their acquaintance through their "falling" which was on their 2nd album"Konnichiwa"（こんにちは。...Hello.）from January 2008. Tomita arranged and produced both song and album, and it looks like he let Kazunori "Youmou" Ichikawa（市川和則）and Hana "Ohana" Chiba（千葉はな）fully show their own sound which I'm happy about. "falling" was originally written and composed by Corinne Bailey Rae, et al with Chiba providing the Japanese lyrics. Sadly, Chiba passed away in 2015 at the age of 36.
Welcome aboard, RIP SLYME! Tomita gave his own layer of glam to the hip-hop group's "Mata Au Hi Made 2010 ~ Tomita Ryu" (Until We Meet Again 2010 ~ Tomita Style) as its 17th single. The original version of "Mata Au Hi Made" was RIP SLYME's final single in November 2000 (lyrics by the band and music by Fantastic Plastic Machine/DJ Fumiya) as an indies unit before making their major debut the following year. The Tomita-arranged version of the song came out in June 2010, and though I'm not a hip-hop fan per se, this one is pretty fun. Plus, I do like the video for a few reasons which include the fact that it reminds me of the trailer for the 50th anniversary special for "Doctor Who". The 2010 version hit No. 10 on Oricon. I will have to take a look at the original version later on.
My final song is Tomita's 6th single"Parallel"(September 2009) featuring singer-songwriter Motohiro Hata（秦基博）, and it seems to make for a fine "good night" song to finish up the proceedings. Tomita composed the song with Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）providing lyrics, and hearing Hata, he and the song remind me of some of the soulful contributions by Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）and Sing Like Talking. "Parallel" hit No. 11 which makes it Tomita's most successful single to date.
Along with Matsutoya's track, I couldn't find AI's"ONE", but otherwise, including the songs that I had already covered in past articles, I believe that I've provided everything from this BEST compilation by Tomita. Looking at his list of songs that he's had a hand in providing to other artists on J-Wiki, I think, though, there are still many gems to be unearthed, and certainly, I won't be stopping at this album when it comes to him. Incidentally, "〜beautiful songs to remember〜" peaked at No. 77.
Spoke about "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2" in my last article and one of the big guest stars in there was Kurt Russell as Ego, The Living Planet.
However, I first knew about Russell when he was acting in all those crazy Disney comedy movies of the 1970s...titles like "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" and "The Strongest Man in the World".
Speaking of Walt Disney, another oft-seen movie series from the Mouse House on Sunday nights on TV was the "Love Bug" series starring Dean Jones with a seemingly sentient Volkswagen Beetle called Herbie. I enjoyed plenty of hilarity as a little kid watching all these movies on NBC.
So you can imagine several decades later my surprise when I heard that there was a song with that title "the Love Bug" by m-flo and BoA. Not sure whether VERBAL and company had been giving a shout out to the Disney character but then again, the guys did pay some tribute to another American TV chestnut "Star Trek".
As part of the "m-flo loves..." series, this was released in March 2004 although no VW Beetles were involved. I've featured some of the other songs from the series such as "Summer Time Love"with Emi Hinouchi and Ryohei, and they all follow the similar formula of a pretty upbeat arrangement with the guest singers putting in their part while VERBAL floats in and out like a takekoputa (inside joke) plus provides some mid-song rap. "the Love Bug" is apparently the second in the series and I remember it best for BoA giving her "hip hop" patter.
The song was m-flo's 16th single which went Gold as it peaked at No. 8 on Oricon. It also appeared on the group's 3rd album"ASTROMANTIC" from May 2004. That album hit No. 2 and ended up as the 42nd-ranked release of the year, going Double Platinum.
Nope, I'm not really a rap or hip-hop fan although there are a few songs here and there that I have enjoyed such as "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (and please...save your comments concerning geriatrics). And frankly even with that classic, when I first heard the intro, I thought it was the beginning of a new Yellow Magic Orchestra tune that I had yet to hear. Basically, my love for R&B is geared more towards the old-time soul, disco and Quiet Storm (I love Anita Baker).
And so it goes with J-R&B. Folks like bird and Misia will be more along the lines of that soul, disco and Quiet Storm. However, there is m-flo which does go into the hip-hop/rap area (or maybe purists might say it's more hip-pop), and it was during the turn of the century when VERBAL and company were starting to take a fairly big role in the R&B that was sweeping through Japan.
One of those acts was a sister act called Heartsdales. That name was enough to peak my interest but there was also their catchy debut song"So Tell Me" which came out in December 2001. I still remember the music video (it got lots of airplay on the music channels when I was back there) which was apparently filmed on some sort of military vessel perhaps. And of course, there was no way that VERBAL was going to be left out from being in front of the camera and the recording booth although he also helped write the lyrics with the Heartsdales sisters themselves. The m-flo impresario also took care of the music along with R&B producer T. Kura and his wife, singer and music producer Michico.
"So Tell Me" simply stood out for me for that whirlwind mixture of English and Japanese, the delivery of the lyrics by Rum (Yumi Sugiyama...杉山ユミ) and Jewels (Emi Sugiyama...杉山エミ) especially the "Hearts-da-L-E-S" and "So tell me what you want...", and that shift between the rap and the musical refrain. However, I'm kinda wondering whether VERBAL's grunts on yet another song were starting to get a bit wearying for some listeners.
As I mentioned, the name Heartsdales rather intrigued me as a name for a hip-hop duo. Apparently, Rum and Jewels had spent their formative years in Yonkers, New York and decided to adopt the name from another small district in the state called Hartsdale. Another thing that I hadn't known was that the Sugiyamas had gotten their big break through the TV Tokyo Sunday night audition program "ASAYAN" which then I would cheekily state that they could be "cousins" of Morning Musume and Chemistry.
"So Tell Me" went all the way up to No. 8 on Oricon and became the 96th-ranked single for 2002. With sales of over 100,000 copies, it was their biggest hit. Heartsdales itself lasted from 2001 to 2006 with 14 singles and 4 albums. According to Wikipedia, the sisters are now living apart with Emi in Tokyo and Yumi in New York City taking care of her own studio and a little son.
(Sorry but the video has been taken down)
January 19 2017: I was watching "Matsuko no Shiranai Sekai"（マツコの知らない世界...The Worlds Matsuko Doesn't Know） tonight which is that popular TBS variety show featuring tarento Matsuko Deluxe（マツコ・デラックス）. Apparently back in late 2015, Emi 'Jewels' Sugiyama appeared on the program (with only the smallest blurb stating that she is a former rapper) as an expert on nuts. The above is a product that she introduced known as Mr. Honey... a jar of assorted nuts preserved in honey. Dang, that does look tasty and apparently it works quite well as a topping on ice cream. Too bad I couldn't find any footage of Jewels on the show, though.
It was quite the time at the end of the century for Japanese popular music. Things were starting to break out in bona fide R&B. Misia and bird were making an impression with their soulful voices and then later on came some of these hip-hop/rap units such as Bennie K and Diggy Mo'. And within the mix, there was m-flo. J-Pop, meet m-flo (sorry...couldn't help it).
Most of my entries on the J-R&B unit have dealt with their "m-flo loves..." projects. However, the one song that has kept playing over and over again in my memory has been their 2nd single from December 1998. The video for "been so long" may have had Taku, Verbal and Lisa strutting around like some hybrid of the Beastie Boys and hip-hoppers from Edmonton but what they were singing sounded like some good old-fashioned soul from a decade or so back. I think it was Lisa's sweet vocals and that underlying keyboard which could have been inspired by "Just the Two of Us" by Grover Washington Jr. that had my attention. In any case, it's one of my favourite songs from that early J-R&B era.
Surprisingly, the single itself didn't seem to chart but m-flo's debut album from February 2000"Planet Shining" which had "been so long" peaked at No. 6 and went Double Platinum. The DJ Hasebe remix version on the 1999"the tripod e.p." got as high as No. 9 on the charts.
For those who love summer time here, they are certainly getting it now. I wouldn't mind frolicking about with those folks from m-flo in the above video but I don't think I quite pass the beauty index or the waist size conditions.
In any case, I do remember watching this video for m-flo's June 2006 20th single, "Summer Time Love" a fair bit on the music stations around 10 years ago, and what better choice for a summer article than this one. When it comes to the "m-flo loves..." series, I've known some of the folks helping out the DJ such as Bonnie Pink and Chara, but there are also these other hip folks that I had never heard of and for that matter, haven't heard since.
This time, it's Osaka-born urban singer-songwriter Emi Hinouchi（日之内絵美）and Kyoto-born singer-producer Ryohei who m-flo loves this time helping out in the writing and performing of this tune which is bursting with the atmosphere of an island paradise. It's kinda weird saying this considering that this was produced less than a decade ago, but the music sounds so natsukashii since I haven't heard this sort of retro-disco portion of J-R&B that I often heard from bird and Misia in recent years. I wouldn't mind hearing a revival (neo-retro-disco?) again someday.
"Summer Time Love" made it as high as No. 12 on Oricon and got onto m-flo's 5th album, "Cosmicolor" from March 2007 which peaked at No. 3.
Oooh...it's so sparkly! Yup, I did pick up m-flo's"Award Super Nova - Loves Best" album with accompanying DVD back in the day since I kept seeing those catchy videos by the duo on Space Shower TV back in Japan.
And one of those m-flo videos was for "Lotta Love" which actually had come out a couple of years earlier on "m-flo inside - WORKS BEST II" in 2006. I have to say that the video does stand out at how these kids could bust a move (while I risk busting a hip just walking the wrong way) , almost terrifyingly so. They were some pretty talented students, some of whom can probably enter real clubs legally now.
The song was performed by m-flo and MINMI, an Osaka singer of hip-hop and reggae. One of the things about m-flo's "LOVE" collaborations is that although the duo has worked with people that I have known such as Bonnie Pink and Akiko Wada, I've also gotten to hear singers that I probably would have never have gotten a chance to hear such as MINMI, Emyli and Emi Hinouchi（日之内エミ）. Although I'm not really big into hip-hop, it's been nice to listen to some of these collaborations that are very different from what I usually put on the player.
However, it's not the first time I've heard a song under the title of "Lotta Love". My first love for "Lotta Love" will always be with Nicolette Larson's urban 70s classic written by Neil Young.
Well, talk about the expression "When life throws you lemons, make lemonade!" In 2002, smooth-voiced Lisa of m-flo left the group but remaining members Verbal and ☆Taku stayed cool and started a series labeled "m-flo loves who?" from the following year in which a rolling series of guest vocalists would give their own contributions to the oft-sunny hip-pop of the unit. To be honest, though, I'd only known one example of this series before I bought their 2nd BEST album, "Award SuperNova - Loves Best-" in 2008, and that was m-flo loves Bonnie Pink, "Love Song".
One day in my sweltering apartment, I was watching one of the cable music video channels, Space Shower, and it was playing a spotlight show of m-flo hits. The various videos were pretty fun and despite that I have never been a hardcore hip-hop fan, I liked m-flo's lighter touch to the genre. And what sent me over the edge to buy "Award SuperNova", their BEST album of "m-flo loves who?" was when the commercial for this album popped up right after the spotlight. I just went "Why not?" and the next time I hit one of the CD shops, I pulled out the yen. Snazzy cover.
"Award SuperNova" has the audio CD and a DVD filled with all of the "m-flo loves who?" videos with singers as varied as Crystal Kay and veteran singer Akiko Wada（和田アキ子）. Strangely enough, the one video which didn't have its audio equivalent on the CD was the one for "DOPAMINE", m-flo's 18th single from February 2005. I had seen the video on that spotlight show and just thought the song would have been the first hip-hop number suited as the theme song for a comedy-variety show. (And I guess it is the first Japanese pop song named after a neurotransmitter.) Bright and day-glo colourful and infectious with Verbal flying about in anti-gravity and then-teenaged EMYLI shaking her booty, it was a hap(py)-hop song at the Apple Store! Heck, even Diggy Mo' from hip-hop band SOUL'd OUT came across as being fairly cuddly considering that he looked like a fellow who could twist me into a sizable pretzel if I stared at him the wrong way.
Although the influence doesn't show up as prominently in the video, "DOPAMINE" sampled "The 900 Number" by 45 King. It peaked at No. 20 on Oricon. As for "Award SuperNova", it hit the top spot and eventually became the 62nd-ranked album for 2008.
Anyways, although I cannot say that I'm really all that deep into J-R&B, I've had my eye off and on over the years on the unit called m-flo. I think the one reason for that is, despite all of the hip-hop and rap, the guys have also touched some of the older R&B tropes from a few decades ago to create their catchy music.
The two current members of m-flo, Verbal and ☆Taku (Takahashi), met up when they were students at St. Mary's International School in Tokyo and organized dance parties as members of the group N.M.D. Some years later, once the two of them got their post-secondary education in the United States, they got together again and created their first single, their version of "The Way We Were", the old Barbra Streisand chestnut in 1998. Then they invited Elizabeth Sakura Narita, better known as Lisa, and together they gave rise to the cool and groovy "Been So Long". As for the group's name, m-flo is an abbreviation of Mediarite-Flow with that first word a re-spelling of "meteorite".
"How You Like Me Now" is m-flo's 10th single released in September 2000 with the group being behind its creation. The rap and the gestures are all in the video, but what got me to like the song and eventually buy the single was just the sunny nature of it all and Lisa's velvety singing vocals. Plus, she and the gang just throw out all of the J-pop cultural references such as anime"Doraemon", the Sunday-afternoon show, "Shoten", and kaiten sushi. And of course, there is that kaleidoscopic video. I can't blame the cameraman for falling over in the last frame. Bring the bucket, please!
The song managed to get as high as No. 9 on Oricon. Thanks to "How You Like Me Now", I started to look up some of the other entries in their discography, notably those that have gone into one of their BEST albums, "Award SuperNova - Loves Best" which came out in 2008. "How You Like Me Now" first got onto m-flo's 2nd album, "Expo Expo" in 2001.
