The Ultimate "East Meets West" Moment - I still love H.E.R. by Teriyaki Boyz & Kanye West
Many of you might know the legendary Japanese hip hop group Teriyaki Boyz for their iconic song "Tokyo Drift", featured in the film "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift". A couple of years ago in 2020, 14 years after its initial release, the song took the internet by storm again with rappers & celebrities around Japan performing their "Tokyo Drift freestyles".
While the song continues to be a banger today, Teriyaki Boyz has many more legendary songs. If you take a look at the producer & collaborator line-ups on their 2 studio albums "Beef or Chicken" and "Serious Japanese", you'll instantly see they are no joke. Daft Punk, DJ Premier, The Neptunes, and Mark Ronson, are just some of the names you'll come across.
Ye, known then as Kanye West, is another one of these names, and our focus for this post. On the Teriyaki Boyz 2nd studio album Serious Japanese, there is one track, I still love H.E.R., featuring and produced by Kanye West. The song references rapper Common's track "I Used to Love H.E.R.", and the music video parodies an early-day YouTube, dubbed "TeriyakiTube".
Another iconic moment was when the Teriyaki Boyz, Kanye West, and NIGO performed the song together on Japan's biggest music television program, "Music Station". With a massive DJ booth that read "TERIYAKI BOYZ", decked out in matching different-colored BAPE tees, and blinged out in massive chains, the live performance on Music Station was quite possibly the show's best moment ever.
Stay tuned for our interview with the man himself, VERBAL of Teriyaki Boyz, coming on sabukaru soon. One of our biggest and most insightful interviews yet.
