The letters stand for our names. The N is for Nakamura, Rob's mom's maiden name. the J is for Jenny, the singer in the group. the S is for Shimo, Aki's last name.

we have performed live in Japan.

Yes

Robby Myers and Aki Shimo grew up in San Francisco, CA. They both became very interested in hip hop and the culture around it starting at an early age. When they were both in 6th grade they met through DJing and formed a crew together. They continued DJing together until they graduated high school, but then Aki went to Sophia University in Japan and Robby stayed in California going to UC Irvine so it was nearly impossible to work together. Robby still DJ's in and around his school down in southern California. Robby had been writing flows since about the same time he started DJing, and during the summer after graduating high school he and aki - who had just begun rapping that year - decided to record some songs while on a trip in Japan. Robby had also been making original hip hop beats on FL Studio since the beginning of high school, so the two of them used some of those. From this began a serious interest in producing and the Emcee side of hip hop for Aki and Robby, who have since then, worked more together, with other artists, and also on solo pieces. Their flows are very diverse, ranging from summertime upbeat songs to more serious, meaningful songs. Robby is half Japanese and Aki is full Japanese, and they both rap using English and Japanese in their songs, creating a style that is more common in Japan, but that is not heard very much in the US.

Eminem, Nas, Mike Shinoda, Talib Kweli, Dabo, Zeebra, Hannya

San Francisco and Tokyo

Logic, Protools

There's too much hate going on in hip-hop nowadays. A lot of forums and websites that are about "helping artists" and "giving feedback" to help them improve, end up turning into sites where rappers post up their music and tell everyone to "peep their shit" and when it comes to comments on other artists' work, they just say it's garbage. Dudes are getting their egos too involved in this ishh and they forget about where the music and culture evolved from.

We've noticed that, since Japan's hip-hop scene is relatively new when compared to the United States' hip-hop scene, it's still about the lyrics, the poetry, the word play. There are still messages behind lyrics. If you look at a lot of the mainstream artists in the US that are coming out right now, you see no attempt to display any skilled use or manipulation of words, no multi-syllabic rhymes, no nothing. Just look at the song Stanky Legg by GS Boyz. Literally half the song is just them saying "do the stanky legg!" Maybe it's catchy to some people, but I know of many other dance songs that have a lot more thought put into them.

I guess the point of this whole thing is just that people should think about where hip-hop came from and where it's going. Think about some of the most famous artists who have existed - 2pac, Biggie, Nas, NWA, Run DMC - and think about the content and flow of their lyrics; now think about the famous artists who are famous now - GS Boyz, Soulja Boy, Plies - and then think about their rhyme schemes and the simplicity of their songs. Of course there are some great artists out right now, too.

Let's keep it music yall,
- NjS