Modal Soul, an album that changed Hip Hop.

Modal Soul was released in 2005, the second studio album by composer/producer Seba Jun better known by his stage name Nujabes. And while it was certainly praised and seen as underrated amongst the underground scenes of Japan at the time of its release it unfortunately never really caught on in the United States until his untimely death and the rise of social media like MySpace and Youtube. And while this absence of fame and well deserved praise might seem like a bad thing it was almost by design that Nujabes would not be as well known here than in his home country. As many of his frequent collaborators have pointed out since his death he wasn’t someone who craved fame or praise, for him it was always about the music.

“Please just remember, that was all by design, Nujabes didn’t want people to know him like that”

As Fat Jon stated in an interview on the 5 year anniversary of his death, Nujabes was a quiet and personal man. Even when his unfortunate death occurred most of the people close to him did not realize. As a frequent collaborator Shing02 pointed out in his blog post announcing Jun’s departure “I had been leaving him messages the past couple of weeks, trying to get in the studio together, so the news could not have come any more unexpected”. While he passed away from a vehicle accident late in February much of the internet didn’t receive the news until the middle of March of that year. It was heartbreaking for many of his fans both in Japan and across the world as his music had gained traction internationally. It is evident that he valued his privacy very much, so much so that besides the blurry photo or grainy video here and their many people ever got to see him much less meet him in person. He did these very personal intimate shows where we would either DJ or perform his songs live with many of his collaborators. One of the rare moments that his amazing live performances were captured has always remained ingrained in my memory. This performance from his second time in Korea alongside Uyama Hiroto where he sings his soul out in the live performance. There truly is something magical about the way he captivated audiences.

So what exactly made his music and this album in particular so great? Well, I think it best to hear it from the man himself. “I started making tracks because I wanted to hear music that sampled the old soul and jazz I liked,” While he experimented with music early in his life it wasn’t until after high school that he took music more seriously. Starting with simple loops and slowly working his way up to some of the music that we would eventually hear on this record. You can hear much of the old soul/jazz inspirations in this record with many samples of that era as well as instrumentation reminiscent of an era different than his. Take for example the stand out single and his most popular song Feather. While the loop is rather simplistic it indicates deeper thinking on the part of Nujabes, choosing to go to these old 1960 era samples and building upon them to create an entirely different tone and feel. Listening to the original piece by jazz artist Yusef LATEEF gives you a much different feeling than what eventually became Feather. The song is one of hope and the promise of a better world if we all treat each other with respect and as fellow humans, letting words and despair flow through us while we drift away from them like feathers in the wind.

The next track is one that spoke deeply to me the first time I heard it. What is essentially a remix to a song by Terry Callier, Ordinary Joe serves as a more laid back melancholy approach to the same subjects that Feather touched on in the opening of the album. Of being tied to these specifically human obligations that we are required to go through. The typical politician preaching to you, the teachers teaching you, and how every little bird in the sky is free-er than us. Just wasting time in the sky without a care in the world, and how we can all relate to longing for a feeling of that type of freedom, something many of us will never truly feel.

Reflection Eternal is this ethereal and rejuvenating experience after the songs that preceded it. A simple yet smooth love song with this brilliantly chopped piano sample by Japanese artist Noriko Kose and a vocal sample by artist Kenny Rankin Nujabes masterfully transform these two slower tempo tracks into this affectionate and infatuating piece where he compares the love of his life to a beautiful river and rainbow. It can’t be understated how perfectly Nujabes manages to mold and mutate these two songs into a perfect boom-bap instrumental. Combining these very distinct styles into something that sounds this fucking amazing is not something that can be done very easily but its a testament to his skills as a producer that he would be able to pull a song like this off.

It seemed as if we had struck a chord with Part 2, and Nujabes would mention working on the next installment. I was mostly in Oakland at the time, so we would exchange emails. When I received the next instrumental for Part 3, I just wanted to speak about the power of music, and the fact that we need to go back to our roots to discover it.

Luv(sic) Part 3 was the third installment of a 5-part series that Japanese rapper Shing02 and Nujabes collaborated on, and while they had initially planned to release them all as a set Nujabes loved the record so much he decided to release it alongside Modal Soul. While the full-length song includes a third verse from Shing02 the album version is just as brilliant. The production is, of course, solid as always but what really makes this song shine is the lyrical content. It’s a song about being able to be comfortable with your emotions and therefore being able to convey them in song. About being able to pour your heart out as a poet and still having people being able to connect with your personal experiences. It’s a song about having hope in a hopeless world and being able to look past the negative and letting the music whisk you away to a happier place. In a way this song is a perfect metaphor for the album a whole, letting this vibrant and energetic record transport you to another dimension and letting the music make you happy. One of the most poignant lines of the entire record for me is during the second verse, “How far do we have to stretch the picture? Before pixelating the human texture”

Music is Mine is the only song on this record where we can actually hear Nujabes voice. And while the song is a tad bit repetitive one could argue that it is actually the most important song of the entire album. This is the only time we can really hear what is on the mind of Seba Jun, not just through his brilliant production or the excellent feature choices but from him himself. “I’m a blind man of my own world, you’re blind man of your own world. Because we don’t know what we are, but we can tell we can dance.” I choose to interpret it as people from all walks from life can come together and enjoy the common language of music. We may be from different places with different experiences, different cultures, different languages but we can all speak music.

Skipping to a song later in the album World’s end Rhapsody has always had a special place in my heart. I think this song really highlights how dynamic this album can really be at times. If you can start an album with songs like Reflection Eternal and Feather and still be able to have songs as energetic and explosive as tracks like these you know you really have something special. Albums tend to stay in one lane or maintain a steady course in terms of production, real talent emerges when you can create a cohesive project that can also be incredibly dynamic at times. I think this track when compared to for example some of the tracks in the beginning highlight Nujabes amazing talent as not just a producer by as an artist and the art of designing track listing and placement of songs.

Finally, we get to the end of this project. Horizon is a perfect ending to this beautiful album. Even though its a whole 7 minutes long it really doesn’t feel like it when you’re listening to it. It sort of a pallet cleanser for whatever song, album, or artist you plan on listening to after it. It starts as a beautiful piano piece with this nice drums attached to it but slowly transforms into this perfect outro to the album with this soothing synth piece to end the song.

So that’s pretty much it. Those are some of my favorite songs on the album and why I enjoy them so much, but you might be asking yourself “yeah this is great and all but how did this really affect hip hop?” I’m glad you asked. Before we start talking about Lofi Hip-Hop I think it’s important to distinguish between impersonation and influence. Artists like Madlib, J Dilla, and Nujabes certainly influenced what eventually lofi hip hop but they absolutely did not make lofi hip-hop. While this may sound like a dig to the popular sub-genre it's just a fact that what artists like the 3 I named were doing in the early 2000s was beyond what artists are doing in the LHH genre now. LHH is often regarded as a genre so simple that it’s beautiful. It’s not about shoving every sample or new drum pattern or vocal sample into one song but rather making a relatively short and sweet song that touches on the parts of peoples brains that evoke nostalgia or serenity. The whole reason this genre took off as a perfect definition of “chill beats to study to” is because they are simple enough to enjoy in the background while you do something else. This isn’t necessarily the type of music that Nujabes was making at the time. While personally I'm of the mindset that you can put practically any song or album on the background and still enjoy it Modal Soul has many intricacies and little tidbits in the songs that you can specifically listen for and enjoy. The songs have a lot more soul and less programmed than what you’d hear today, part in thanks to the use of elaborate sample chopping and instrumentation help from long term collaborators like Uyama Hiroto. My main point is to try and draw a line in the sand between the inspiration that he had on the genre and the fact that the music he was making was nothing like it in a sense. But with that being said let’s talk.

Lofi Hip Hop really came into popularity in main part due to artists exactly like Nujabes. Songs like Feather, Arurian Dance, and Counting Stars are great examples of this sampling style and production techniques. The low fidelity unquantized and generally messy style of production is what gave his production the human error feel to his songs. I think nowadays most of us are so accustomed to these perfect on beat drums and robotic kicks and snares that we tend to forget that that’s not really how music has been played or listened too for thousands of years. We can hear it songs like Over The Breaks by J Dilla or Pyramids by Madlib, and while Nujabes didn’t explicitly say he listened to a lot of artists like these I think it's safe to say that their styles certainly intersected with each producer branching off relying on the styles of music that were popular in their respective locations. Around late 2015 this style of music really began to pop off. With youtube channels like ChilledCow and Jazz Hop Cafe really beginning to take off particularly amongst a younger generation. And something that I really think people don’t touch on as often and I often see being questioned is why exactly anime is so directly tied to the sub-genre. And while they’re certainly a few reasons that are better left for another time one of the biggest influences was absolutely Nujabes and his work with anime. His music was heavily used in “Samurai Champloo,” an anime all about blending the history of Japan with modern influences like hip hop. His music was one of the major factors of the anime being so accessible outside of Japan and another reason why Nujabes grew to have so many fans outside of the country.

Almost every prominent creator of the genre has credited Nujabes as being an inspiration and in cases why they even became producers in the first place. Jinsang, tomppabeats, potsu, and more credit Nujabes as an influence and it really shows in their music. Without Nujabes there really is a strong chance that this sub-genre wouldn’t have been as successful as it is now. And with the genre being as popular as ever there really is only one person to credit and we’re talking about him in this very article.

If anybody knows, I came to Korea one time to DJ, but uhhh…. at that time you probably did not know me, and at that time I was maybe just a .. uhhh … first band with two or three [we were] mainly tourists to sightsee the world or something, so I was just… I AM just an ordinary guy, so I just uhh… k!

These are the words of Seba Jun during that legendary performance I shared earlier in the piece. I chose to end this piece with these words because I think it perfectly encapsulates the spirit of his music and what he was trying to convey. In reality, Seba Jun was just a guy, a guy who loved music and played his heart out every time he had the chance. A man revered by all the people who came in contact with him and a man who single-handedly inspired an entire sub-genre of hip hop. While I’m sure all this praise would probably make him a little embarrassed if he was here with us I’d like to hope that it would make him happy if he knew just how many people had been touched by music. He was an ordinary joe who changed the history of music and Modal Soul is proof of that. He should be remembered as one of the pillars of hip hop and a legendary artist. Rest in Piece Seba we miss you very much.