Courtesy of Universal

What do you get when you bring together an American top dawg with an all-star Japanese hip-hop group? A global mashup for the 21st century, and a Fendi party to boot.

It’s late November, and rapper Kanye West and Japan’s Teriyaki Boyz are about to give a select audience of Japanese celebrities and fashionistas a preview of their new collaboration at a party hosted by the chic Italian fashion brand inside Tokyo’s National Stadium. The Teriyaki Boyz are huddled backstage with their Universal Music people, and the boss is giving a touchingly optimistic pep talk to the effect that the Boyz are ready to take on the world.

The track that Universal hopes will break the Teriyaki Boyz abroad is “I Still Love H.E.R. featuring Kanye West.” With booty-shaking beats that West recorded back in the States featuring Philly soul group M.F. S.B. and bilingual raps by West and the Teriyaki Boyz, “I Still Love H.E.R.” soon has the crowd hoisting their champagne glasses. But even as it pays tribute to old skool hip-hop, it’s hoped the song points toward a future in which Japanese hip-hop sells abroad at a time when the domestic market is shrinking.

How did the collaboration come about? The key to the story is fashion icon Nigo, whose Tokyo brand A Bathing Ape has become a worldwide byword for contemporary Japanese cool. Executive producer of the Teriyaki Boyz (which also includes members of million-selling Japanese hip-hop groups Rip Slyme and M-flo), Nigo first befriended West during the latter’s debut Japan tour a few years back.

Nigo, who later designed a line of sneakers for West, had wanted to include the singer on a track along with other A-list contributors like Daft Punk and the Neptunes, whom the Teriyaki Boyz had turned to for their chart-killing, fast-flowing 2005 debut album, Beef or Chicken. But due to previous commitments, West was unable to participate at the time.

When Nigo was asked by Fendi to produce a party to promote its new clothing line and West signed on to perform, all the elements were in place for the long-awaited collaboration to happen. Touching down in Tokyo from a Far East tour that had taken him to Hong Kong, West was soon holed up in Nigo’s Bape Sounds studio laying down his own salacious raps on the track. “It was cool because the Teriyaki Boyz rap in English as well as Japanese, and they also gave me some Japanese words to use, so there was a lot of interchange,” West enthused backstage at the Fendi party.

With another upcoming appearance scheduled for the Springroove event, West is finding belated popularity in Japan, and it appears he takes his Japanese audience seriously. Nigo, meanwhile, has cleverly used hip-hop as a vehicle to market his clothing abroad, teaming up with The Neptunes’ Pharell to create the Billionaire Boys Club line.

The other Teriyaki Boyz don’t exactly have their heads in the sand either. Representing the new generation of internationally minded young Japanese, Ilmari (who’s half-Swedish) and Ryo-Z belong to Rip Slyme, the witty hip-hop collective that’s had Japan in the palm of its hand since they burst on to the scene at the dawn of the decade. The trilingual Verbal (Japanese, Korean and English) provides the flow for chart-topping act M-flo, while junior member Wise, also bilingual in Japanese and English, brings underground cred to the Teriyaki Boyz.

With the soundtrack to their youths consisting of groups like Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys and Jurassic Five, the Teriyaki Boyz speak the global language of hip-hop. At the same time, they’ve put their own twist on rap. With the Teriyaki Boyz having a flow and look born on the streets of Asia’s hippest city, respected imprint Def Jam Recordings (LL Cool J, Public Enemy, etc.) saw fit to release Beef or Chicken worldwide.

Global audiences have also had a taste of the group’s wordplay through their contribution to the track “Tokyo Drift” on the soundtrack for last summer’s smash film The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, while word hit the streets of Europe after trendsetting Paris boutique Colette featured Beef or Chicken in a special display.

Japanese experimental hip-hop acts, including most prominently DJ Krush, already have worldwide cred in spades and numerous collaborations with US rappers under their belts, but something similar has yet to occur in the mainstream.

Is the world ready for J-hop? The trajectory of “I Still Love H.E.R.” should provide some indication. “I Still Love H.E.R. featuring Kanye West” is available on Universal Music.

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