King Giddra
| King Giddra | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Tokyo, Japan |
| Genres |
Japanese hip hop J-pop |
| Years active | 1993–1996 2001 2002–2003 |
| Labels |
P-Vine Records DefStar Records |
| Past members |
K Dub Shine Zeebra DJ Oasis |
King Giddra was a Japanese hip hop group that started in 1993. They were signed to the indie label P-Vine Records. After a six-year hiatus, they would go on to sign with DefStar Records, a sublabel under Sony Music Entertainment Japan (SMEJ) for their second album release.
The group is made of up three members: K DUB SHINE (MC/concept leader of the group), ZEEBRA(MC), and DJ OASIS(DJ). The group is named after the 3-headed monster from the Godzilla movies, King Ghidorah. Zeebra has said that they chose the name after realizing that Godzilla is a character that represents international Japan. In the film, "King Giddra is the bad guy, but as a public enemy, he is doing an extremely positive thing." They say that as an enemy of the public, they are an enemy of the system that oppresses them, like how Godzilla was the oppressive system and King Ghidorah was the enemy.
Although all three members were born in Tokyo, each member spent some time living and growing up in the United States. K DUB SHINE, did a home stay in Florida before moving to Oakland, California where he would meet future members of the group, ZEEBRA and DJ OASIS. According to the group's appearance on the Japanese music variety show, "HEY!HEY!HEY! MUSIC CHAMP", DJ OASIS and ZEEBRA have known each other since grade school.
Their style is influenced by the American rap group Public Enemy, which is evidenced by their political views on the state of Japanese society in the lyrics of their songs, such as "Bullet of Truth." The song's opening lyrics are "Facing us is an illusion... the noise of a completely corrupt society/ Giddra lights a fire in the war of ideas in a 20-faced disguise forcing a new association of thoughts." The lyrics are indicative of a broader theme in hip hop of being critical of the greater majority in one's society. The line referencing a "new association of thoughts" promotes the efficacy of hip hop to go beyond complaining about problems and actually change the way people think. "This song is a throwback to the socially conscious lyrics of Hip Hop's beginning in the inner-cities of America." In this song, King Giddra questions the education system that "crushes the dreams of children" as well as the media overload, especially in terms of advertising, sex and violence, which becomes a kind of mind control. Their debut album (The Power from the Sky) is also inspired by Public Enemy, from their song "Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos". The title song, uses a sample from that PE song. By using American samples and rapping about Japanese issues, King Giddra mixes local and global perspectives of the world into their hip hop.
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