I first came across the music of rapper Jaymes Bowman, aka Young Braised, through last fall’s “Snack City” music video. Directed by Metalab’s William Wilkinson, the “Snack City” video was a burger-exploding good time. Standing in a bucket hat against a green-screen background filled with pictures of food, Young Braised certainly cut an odd figure.
For his most recent release, the Japanese Tendencies mixtape, Bowman looked to mysterious Japanese producer Terio. For the tape’s lead single, “Murakami,” Bowman’s brother and frequent collaborator, Strawberry Jacuzzi, handled the visual treatment.
As the title suggests, “Murakami” carries somewhat unlikely subject matter for a rap single: the novelist Haruki Murakami, as well as visual artist Takashi Murakami, who is famous for his “superflat” cartoon prints depicting the shallowness of contemporary Japanese consumer culture. As might be expected, referring to either of these prominent Japanese figures by their last name leads to the kind of foggy ambiguity that might be exploited by someone like Bowman.
He and I met at SFU’s Highland Pub to discuss the new tape.
The Peak: Your new mixtape is called Japanese Tendencies. What kind of things about Japanese culture made you decide to give the tape this title?
Young Braised: Well, basically, the guy who made all the beats is from Japan, and there’s a line from a Lupe Fiasco song where he says “I’m American mentally with Japanese tendencies,” so I just took that name. The more I thought about it though, it also made sense because I was reading my first Murakami novel — The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle — right around the time that I first heard those beats, so it all kind of came together. I thought more about the way that people approach their lifestyles in different cultures and different countries. I feel like it’s definitely a more thoughtful existence in places like Japan, in any place where there’s less space.
The Japanese culture is a very interesting one and I think that’s why a lot of people fetishize it so much. Especially in rap you’ve got references to Japanese denim, Japanese designers and fashion and stuff and it’s like, yeah it’s cool, but I definitely look at it from a more philosophical and psychological level than I do as a “Oh, their TV shows are really weird” kind of thing.
P: You have a song called “Empty Affluence.” That kind of wealth without depth is also a theme in the artwork of Takashi Murakami, who you shout out in another song. Is there an anti-consumerist vein in your work?
YB: I think there is an anti-consumerist vein to my music and to my outlook. In fashion, everyone not actually stitching the clothes gets paid so much off of everything and then it doubles again when it gets to retail. It’s like, “I know how this works! I don’t want to buy clothes — at all!”
That song was sort of a concept song in that it’s like the “depressing song” of the mixtape. I have a friend, Pepperboy, from Little Rock ,who’s very real in telling the tales of the streets and as soon as I heard the beat I knew he had to be on it. So I pretty much made that song just for him.
P: You also have a song called “Feminist.” Do you feel an allegiance with the feminist movement at all?
YB: I do feel an allegiance for sure. My girlfriend was actually very offended by that song the first time I showed it to her, though. She’s very much a feminist; she’s opened a lot of conversation with me about my music and improved my integrity a lot, and “Feminist” is definitely tied in with that. It’s not the strongest example that I can think of, but basically it’s playing off the stereotypes of hip hop and the degradation of women that is so common in the genre. It’s trying to play around with that.
I definitely don’t think everybody’s going to like me mixing the sign of respect of giving someone a dap [a gesture of friendship] and referring to the female reproductive organ in that way, but it’s not intended as a mockery, that’s for sure. It’s very much intended to be a conversation piece and I think it will do more good than harm.
P: You said that Terio made all the beats for this album. How did you find him?
YB: I found him through a blog that I follow that has some kind of Raider Klan affiliation, which is like the SpaceGhostPurrp label. They posted Terio’s beat tape, and as soon as I heard it I was like “Woah . . . ” I got kind of anxious because I thought a bunch of songs were going to come out on them but I just kept listening to them and thinking of song ideas instantly when I heard the beats.
Two weeks after it came out I realized it wasn’t posted anywhere online anymore and so I messaged him on soundcloud right away and basically I just asked if I could do an EP with some of the beats. He said “Yes” and that was pretty much it. I’ve tried talking to him since and he seems very elusive. I don’t know where he is or what he’s doing.
In all honesty, he could very well not be in Japan at all, but that’s what he says and I made a full project about it, so I hope he is. If not, it’s just as funny.
