If you haven’t seen/heard this yet, I envy you because this is so urgent and exciting that the first time is the best time. (But don’t worry, it’ll still hold up the 323rd listen, trust me, I know.) Just be warned though that if you’re viewing this on your phone, the fire just might burn your hands, so be careful…
With that in mind, turn your volume up as loud as it can go and hit the play button on “GALS” by hip-hop supergroup Zoomgals, joined by special (awesome) guest Yayoi Daimon with an unlikely but welcome cameo of Japan’s esteemed academic sociologistShinji Miyadai!!!
Yeah well, hear me out here… while maybe not really an idol in the narrow sense, Akko Gorilla did perform on the “Smile Garden” stage at the Tokyo Idol Festival this year, plus she’s tight with lots of cool people we like on this blog, and most importantly, makes fantastic next-level music with a skies-the-limit crossover potential. It’s crossed my mind several times that I thought she deserved some “Friends of Homicidols” coverage, because what’s she’s doing is amazing and really deserves to be heard and appreciated. Earlier this month, Akko made her major-label album debut with “GRRRLISM”, which I’ve been listening to a lot over the last week and decided this is the window to finally induct her into this website. If you like nontraditional rappers like Charisma.com and KOM-I of Wednesday Campanella, then you should definitely dig into this. So c’mon ya’ll, let’s talk about Akko Gorilla…
The first time I heard Akko Gorilla was in 2016 when she released her debut, “Tokyo Banana”.(She had been building up a name for herself with MC battles at the same time.) Her first album’s got this lo-fi and organic vibe that is perfect for Akko’s hyper-speed flow of words: Lot’s of live drums and natural bass with a cool vibe that one doesn’t usually get from a lot of over-produced, glossy hip-hop. If you haven’t listened to Akko Gorilla, I might suggest you go ahead and start there so you can trace her growth over the last few years.
