After an electrifying first day, POP YOURS 2024, Japan’s biggest two-day hip-hop festival, entered its day 2 grand finale on May 19th at the Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Center in Chiba.
Since its inception in 2022, this event has rapidly grown into being the epicentre of Japanese hip-hop, showcasing a mix of rising stars, legendary artists, and jaw-dropping surprises. With a record 35,000 attendees this year, POP YOURS has become a major cultural force in Japan’s music scene.
As we look back on POP YOURS 2024 day 2, the energy and excitement of the festival’s closing day promise to match, if not surpass, the phenomenal success of day one.
RELATED: POP YOURS 2024 Day 1: Highlights from Japan’s hip-hop melting pot
New Comer Shot Live: lil soft tennis’ promising hyperpop showcase
As part of the ‘New Comer Shot Live’ segment, which showcases up-and-coming artists representing Japan’s new sound, lil soft tennis, a member of the Nara-based collective HEAVEN, began his solo project in 2019 and quickly gained a following with the release of his first album, ‘Bedroom Rockstar Confused’, in 2021.
Delivering a whirlwind two-track taster set, he featured the title track of his 2023 album, ‘i have a wing’, and ‘VIP’ alongside Suginami Ward rapper and producer VaVA. His hyperpop and house-tinged EDM beats had the crowd jumping from beginning to end, even sparking a mosh pit. Though his time on stage was short, his fun and energetic sound, along with the positive crowd reaction, has me looking forward to seeing him perform a longer set in the future.
Daichi Yamamoto: Ice-cool masterful performance
Jamaican-Japanese rapper Daichi Yamamoto delivered a sophisticated set marked by rap precision, stellar beats, and a cool-as-ice stage presence. A multifaceted artist who truly knows his way around sound, Daichi showcased easy-listening chill pop and R&B-tinged tunes alongside hard-hitting trap tracks. Three singers provided backing vocals for the set, adding an extra layer of polish to his live sound.
He opened with the stylish KM track ‘MYPPL’ and the chill rap ‘Simple’ before switching up the vibe. Bringing out fellow cross-border talent and ‘New Comer Shot Live’ participant CFN MALIK for ‘F1’, Daichi dropped Aesop Rock-style bars over a wicked dark trap beat. The set closer, his 2019 track ‘Let It Be’, saw Daichi switch things up one more time. The crowd erupted into cheers as he ripped into seamless speedy flows on the groovy electro track, with the venue singing along to the chorus.
Daichi feels like a rapper who is in tune with both the old and the new. His style is timeless, feeling fresh while playing with hints of the classics.
kZm: Sample nostalgia galore
YENTOWN’s kZm, hitting the stage for the second time this weekend after the collective’s surprise appearance on day 1, is a master of samples, rapping over everything from rock classics to 90s Euro-club belters. He was met with venue-wide roars as he came out to the opening notes of his 2021 club bop ‘Aquarius Heaven’ which samples the guitar riff from ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION’s 2004 track ‘Last Scene’. He then showcased his intense side with the dark and heavy ‘27CLUB’.
As much as I enjoy a good sample, I have to admit that sampling the intro of ‘Mr. Brightside’ on the track ‘Dream Chaser’ is pure evil. My white guy impulse was ready to break out into a late-night karaoke rendition of The Killers’ classic. While kZm’s track is solid with a B+ flow, I couldn’t help but feel blue-balled by this one. He kept the nostalgia going on the next track, sampling the hook from Alice Deejay’s 1998 club hit ‘Better Off’.
The biggest track of the set was ‘DOSHABURI’ alongside JUMADIBA. A hype-as-hell banger, the crowd went wild, yelling along with the chorus and electrifying the atmosphere in the mammoth warehouse venue.
kZm has range. Though his overall delivery and stage presence feel aggressive, the production of his tracks allows him to jump between the hardest tracks and higher-than-life, pure fun tunes.
Jin Dogg: Laying down drill aggression
Osaka-born Japanese-Korean Jin Dogg tore up the room as soon as he hit the stage, opening with ‘OMG’ and laying his aggressive, drill driven gravelly flow on the table from the get-go. As soon as the Godzilla sample on ‘PRADA’ hit, the crowd popped off, with DADA joining him on stage to lend his own in-your-face verse to the track. The crowd was well and truly worked up. Jin Dogg is raw, aggressive in his delivery, and sick as hell. His 2020 hit ‘Machikaze’ got the crowd rapping along one last time before Jin Dogg introduced one of the next biggest segments of the night.
Team Tomodachi: One song, infinite hype
Considering the impact Yuki Chiba’s (formerly KOHH) return track ‘Team Tomodachi’ has had on Japan’s hip-hop scene in 2024, it only makes sense that this global viral hit about friendship, embracing community, and not hating on one another, no matter which prefecture you represent, gets its very own segment at a festival celebrating Japanese hip-hop culture. Led by Jin Dogg (who originally coined the term “team tomodachi”), he kicked things off by pulling out the iconic Team Tomodachi chain (initially struggling to put it on) which is emblazoned across the single’s artwork and around Yuki Chiba’s neck in all its subsequent music videos. He then launched into the Dirty Kansai remix along with fellow Kansai-ite Young Coco.
Finally, as the closing notes hit, the man of the hour, Yuki Chiba, snuck onto the stage, hiding before being called down by Jin and Coco. Coco welcomed him with a “Welcome back” to which Chiba replied “I’m home.” Getting the crowd to light up the stage with their phone flashlights, Chiba ushered in the original cut of ‘Team Tomodachi’ along with the whole squad.
Sure, it’s a bit odd to have a whole segment devoted to one song, but it was hype as hell. With Yuki Chiba stating he would never perform KOHH tracks live again, he currently only has this one track in his arsenal. Hopefully, the next time we see him on stage, it’ll be with a full set of new tracks.
ralph: The entrance of a hip-hop champion
Entering the stage like a boxer ready for a title fight, ralph wasn’t about to pull any punches. Opening with his breakout dark epic ‘Selfish’, he unleashed the deep, looming rapid-fire flow that has made him an unmissable talent on the scene since his first release in 2019.
‘Get Back’, ralph’s huge collaboration track with Watson and the recurring young talent JUMADIBA, took the gold as the biggest crowd pleaser, with each of them taking turns on the mic to spit breakneck flows.
One of the only rappers repping the sounds of UK garage, thanks to the production by duo Double Clapperz on tracks like ‘Back Seat’ and ‘D.N.R’, as well as drill, ralph’s sound and style could go round for round with the best the UK has to offer.
Tohji: From SoundCloud to stadium announcement
Closing out day 2, the charismatic enigma who has grown in popularity among the youth, was Tohji. Fresh off performances in Paris, London, and Brussels in April, fans could be heard shouting his name all over the venue even before the set began. A video reflecting the London-born rapper and style icon’s journey, who emerged onto the scene via SoundCloud in 2017, played on the big screen before Tohji and Loota appeared on stage. The two performed songs from the album ‘KUUGA’, blending industrial beats with dreamy vocals. The experimental sounds transformed the atmosphere of the venue like nothing we had heard all weekend.
From there, he upped the energy with tracks like ‘GOKU VIBES’ featuring Elle Teresa and the Ibiza-vibe jam ‘ULTRA RARE’. kZm came out to hit the nostalgia again with their joint track ‘TEENAGE VIBES’, which samples the guitar melody of UK indie rock troop Bloc Party’s 2004 hit single ‘Helicopter’.
He then welcomed gummyboy, his longtime partner as part of the duo Mall Boyz, for a series of tracks from their discography. Their signature track ‘Higher’, which helped Tohji rise to prominence, got the crowd dancing wildly. After performing his recent live staple, ‘Super Ocean Man’, Tohji took a leaf out of Day 1 headliner LEX’s book and strapped on the cables for a high-flying rendition of his world-encompassing new single ‘Phenomeno’, wrapping up the festival with a fantastical mood.
After the live performance, the LED monitor displayed the message “2025 02/02 Tohji Arena Show coming soon”. Cheers erupted, and the venue buzzed with excitement as POP YOURS 2024 came to a close.
