Shingo Annen (Japanese: 安念 真吾, Hepburn: Annen Shingo, born 1975), better known by his stage name Shing02, is a Japanese-American rapper, record producer, activist and investor. According to Patrick Neate, his music "has addressed important issues from Japanese ethnicity to sexual exploitation to the education system."[1]
Due in part to growing up in Western cities, Shing02 stands as one of the few multilingual rappers from Japan able to compose songs entirely in either Japanese or English.[2] His rhyming style makes use of lyrics which are largely conceptual in nature and his hip-hop sound is known for blending various influences, ranging from reggae to traditional Japanese music to jazz. The style of music has made him a significant presence within the underground rap community, and he has achieved recognition beyond the scene for rapping "Battlecry", the theme song of the hip-hop-influenced chanbara anime Samurai Champloo, produced by late Japanese jazz rap DJ Nujabes.[3]
Biography
Shingo Annen was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1975 and grew up in various cities in Tanzania and Japan, as well as London. At the age of fourteen, Shing02 moved to Menlo Park in the San Francisco Bay Area of California just following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, where he became involved in various creative arts programs. He then moved to Berkeley for schooling and studied art at the University of California, Berkeley.[2][4] Living in the Oakland and San Francisco Bay Area, he became immersed in the hip-hop scene amongst direct descendants of members of civil rights movement groups such as the Black Panthers and Asian American activists. Shing02 has said of his music that "it was natural to have political and social messages in my music; I was fortunate to be exposed to it."[4]
Shing02 is well known for his frequent collaborations with the late Nujabes in the early 2000s. As collaborators, the two pioneered a jazz rap music style that inspired the viral "chillhop/Lo-fi hip hop" phenomenon in the 2010s. Together, Shing02 and Nujabes created work such as the "Luv(sic)" series, music for the Adult Swim anime hit Samurai Champloo, and Nujabes' 2005 album Modal Soul.[2]
In 2010, Shing02 teamed up with Japanese-American jazz vocalist Emi Meyer for her second album, Passport. The two initially met via Myspace and Meyer joined Shing02 on his summer tour of Japan in 2008, after which they began work on Passport.[4]
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