Japanese Tunes Thursday- SEAMO

04/11/2009

By Sade

Seamo

Seamo (Takada Naoki 高田尚輝) is a Japanese rapper and hip-hop artist from Nagoya. The katakana writing of his name (シーモ) comes from the alias he used when he debuted as Sea-Mo Nator (シーモネーター) as a hip-hop and reggae collaborator. You can hear Seamo’s reggae roots come through in his 2005 solo debut single “Kanpaku” (関白).

In 1995, Seamo and other young independent musicians created the hip-hop group 「男塾」. The group began to grain recognition after organizing a “Monster Event” at Nagoya’s 男(だん)尻(じり)祭り」in 2001. In 2002 Seamo (still as Sea-Mo Nator) worked with DJ Taki-shit on 「浪漫ストリーム」which climbed to number 3 on the national radio charts. From then on, Seamo worked with famous Japanese artists like nobodyknows+ and HOME MADE家族, gaining respect with other members of the hip-hop community.

In 2005 he retired his Sea-Mo Nator alias and became Seamo. This was also the year that Seamo became a hit. In July, Seamo released his second single, “Drive” which charted as one of the top twenty most played tracks on FM radio in Japan. Soon after, he collaborated with artist BENNIE K on the song “a love story,” and hit number 1 on the radio charts and 2 on the USEN charts. That was the moment Seamo became a star.

Seamo is interesting because not only is he a famous hip-hop artist, but he has a great sense of humor. He recorded the theme song for the Crayon Shin-chan movie The Legend Called: The Singing Buttocks Bomb「クレヨンしんちゃん嵐を呼ぶ歌うケツだけ爆弾！」in 2007, which made him popular with children as well. Since then he has had success with the theme song for xxxHolic:kei, which was a re-release of his song “Honey Honey” sung with Ayuse Kozue, and his song ”My Answer” is the ending theme of the vastly popular Nartuo Shippuuden.

In October 2009, Seamo released a “Best of Seamo” album, which seems a bit quick doesn’t it?

His bio on his official website is pretty funny! He lists Terminator as one of his favourite movies and says he loves croquettes and MC Hammer!