I'll be opening this Music section with an absolute masterpiece to me, and probably one of the most important entries related to this site. I owe the name and most of the inspiration for this to Nujabes and Samurai Champloo. Nujabes has became to be one of my all time favorites artists.

Last year, I've seen that OMA dropped some songs along with Shing02, and it made me really happy to know that he's still singing the songs he made with Mr. Seba, but I didn't know that they were on tour until a couple of months ago when I discovered the live shows on YouTube. It's surprising how these guys can play hip hop songs that were originally made mostly of samples, and how they adapted them to make it sound amazingly good with live instruments.

First two tracks didn't really hit me, they sound good, though I'm personally not to fond of rap in Japanese. Third track felt similar; I couldn't really get into it.

The show really starts at fourth song: Luc(sic) pt 1, and also starting the Luv(sic) Hexalogy, you can see in the crowd how it truly lights up. Drums and keyboards sound exactly like samples extracted straight from a Nujabes record, bass and guitar nailed a good tone that complements great with the rest of the band, and the scratches were done flawlessly. Gotta love the transition from Luv(sic) pt 1 to pt 2 tho.

Luv(sic) pt 2 sounds incredible here, almost ethereal-like. Shing knows how to move the audience, and he's so energetic despite of his age. In the middle of the song, Shing introduces Uyama Hiroto, who steps in with a wind instrument — I'm not sure if it is a flute or a sax, I'm no expert — just in time for a breathtaking solo. It sounds beautiful. It's breathtaking to see Shing and Hiroto together after so many years, two legends on stage.

Luv(sic) pt 3 was perfect too. I loved the guitar solo, and the piano solo Hiroto-san did. Luv(sic) pt 4 sounded magical, I gotta highlight how good the bassline is here, it got stuck inside my head for a while.

Luv(sic) pt 5 included a bass solo, but the bass was kinda back at the mix, they increased it later. Part 6 were great, it was Uyama's remix version, and he showed off with the flute. And with that ends the Hexalogy.

Shing tells that he had been living in Hawaii, and wrote this next song 'Southside' about the scenery there. I liked it, the chorus is catchy. After that, Shing presents the next song: 'One Day' by Uyama Hiroto. They feature Troy Everett, who has an angelic voice, absolutely beautiful. Troy's mic was kinda low in volume, they should have turned it up, you can't miss a voice like that, man. He's an amazing violinist too.

Just before the last song, Shing decides to give a speech, he said beautiful words, so I'll transcript them:

«Anime brought us together, and Anime features characters who act based on right and wrong, not what benefits them. Those characters, were probably put in place in the story to teach us a lesson, it's probably because the writers wanted those characters just to have a motivation that is pure, instead of "oh, this is going to profit me" or "this is gonna line my pockets", that's not how Anime works! So, I think hip hop behaves the same way, in my book. You know, you just go for what's yours, but also what is right, not just for what makes money.»

— Shingo Annen, Shing02.

The last song is 'Battlecry', the opening from Samurai Champloo. It begins with a guy beatboxing, not really sure why they decided to include beatbox, but well. They also brought some breakdancers, those guys made good moves. In the middle of the song, they did a drum solo, it was amazing. It was a good interpretation.

The mix on the show was clear like glass, only to notice some times some instruments or mics were a bit back, but it was absolutely killer.

OMA are making fair justice to hip hop. It's beautiful how they are keeping Mr. Seba's legacy alive, I should thank them for that.

Rest in beats, Jun seba: "Nujabes".