Mo’ Wax — Where Are They Now: DJ Krush (1994)
Mo’ Wax was a record label started by James Lavelle in 1992, which closed about ten years later. Initially they released 12" singles and licensed a compilation from Japan of Japanese Hip Hop, until 1994 when they began releasing albums of their artists original work. While some of these artists such as DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, and Money Mark continued releasing music after Mo’ Wax closed, others have seemingly disappeared from the music scene. In this series I will look at each artist on Mo’ Wax and try to find out where are they now…
DJ Krush’s first solo release on Mo’ Wax appeared in 1994, but by this point Krush had been producing music for several years, it just hadn’t been heard outside of Japan.
DJ Krush, aka Ishi Hideaki, began his music career in 1983 after he watched the movie Wild Style and felt inspired to change his career, which at the time was as a yakuza, or gangster. After trying breakdancing and graffitti, Krush settled on DJing, bought a pair of turntables and began practising.
In 2003 Krush told Australia’s The Age newspaper:¹
I saw this movie called Wild Style, a story about American DJs, and I was very surprised and shocked that they used two turntables to create their sound. I wanted to try it myself, so I went to the store and I asked for two turntables. I still remember the shop assistant telling me that one is enough!…There was nobody who could teach me…and nobody who was interested. I had to do it all by myself, but I really enjoyed it. Then, the people in Wild Style came to Japan and demonstrated at a department store. I went to see them, bought their video and I learnt from the video. I watched it over and over again and the video became scratched because I watched it so many times.
In 1986 Krush was reguarly DJing for breakdancers at Yoyogi Park, and one year later formed the Krush Posse with MC Muro and DJ Go. In 1989 Krush Posse would win the “DJ Underground Contest №1”, a competition held by the Japanese Hip Hop record label Major Force. The group had talks to release an album on Major Force, but in 1991 they disbanded, having only released two songs on the Yellow Rapculture In Your House compilation in 1990.
After working on some remixes, in 1992 DJ Krush appeared on Jazz Hip Jap, a compilation released in Japan featuring Japanese Hip Hop which had a Jazz influenced sound. His appearance was as the programmer on Do Dat Dance?, a song by Monday Michiru, a Japanese singer who had previously collaborated with Krush Posse on her debut single Wagamama.
DJ Krush’s Slow Chase appeared on 1993’s Jazz Hip Jap 2, which was then collected on Jazz Hip Jap Project, a re-release of the two Jazz Hip Jap compilations released in England on Mo’ Wax. Jazz Hip Jap Project also featured Krush on three more songs, Monday Michiru’s Hear Between The Silence, Naked With You, and an instrumental version of Do Dat Dance.
In January 1994 DJ Krush released his first solo album in Japan, titled Krush, which was later released in the USA in 1995 with a slightly altered tracklist. Meanwhile, DJ Krush had joined Mo’ Wax after meeting Lavelle when he toured Japan at the end of 1993. This resulted in DJ Krush releasing two records on Mo’ Wax in 1994, the album Strictly Turntablized, and a split release with DJ Shadow, featuring Shadow’s Lost And Found (S.F.L.) on one side and Krush’s Kemuri on the other.
In their October 1994 issue The Wire called Kemuri “something like the processed trumpet/keyboard effect of Jon Hassell’s Dream Theory In Malaya. It banks and tilts with a feverish phosphorescent energy that’s just great to hear.” The Wire also enjoyed Strictly Turntablized, describing the album as one filled with “ heady, sparse beats, mesmeric samples, raw instrumental breaks and rough, tough production”. In the same feature, Krush explained his philosophy when making music, telling The Wire in their November 1994 issue:
“It’s more Interesting for me to use turntables as an instrument…I’m a DJ, not a rapper, so I have to describe my emotions through sounds rather than words.”
Both Lost And Found (S.F.L.) / Kemuri and Strictly Turntablized featured artwork by Futura 2000, and were the first of several collaborations between Futura and Mo’ Wax. The releases weren’t just visually different from the previous Mo’ Wax output, but also sounded different as James Lavelle moved the Mo’ Wax label further into abstract instrumental Hip Hop, and allowed his artists to develop a sound which would eventually become known as Trip Hop. The new sound was popular, and Mo’ Wax was now making its way in to the UK Charts, regularly making appearances from 1994 onwards.
Lost And Found (S.F.L.) / Kemuri entered the UK Singles Chart in October 1994 for one week and reached #82 before dropping back out. 1995 later saw Krush re-enter the UK Singles Charts with A Whim, which again featured DJ Shadow, this time with Shadow remixing Krush for 89.9 Megamix.
Although Strictly Turntablized didn’t chart, Krush followed it with 1995’s Meiso, and 1997’s Milight, which both entered the UK Album Charts Top 100. These two albums have been Krush’s only appearances in the UK Album Charts, though he has continued to release several albums since.
Following 1997’s Milight, Krush left Mo’ Wax and his next album Kakusei was handled by Columbia Records in the UK when it was released in 1998. Since then he has continued to tour and release music, with 2020 seeing the release of his twelfth solo album Trickster, a return to the instrumental Hip Hop which he had made his name with when Strictly Turntablized was released in 1994.
Through his career Krush has released albums which are instrumental as well as those which make use of interntaional guest MC’s, such as Mos Def and Guru on Meiso and Milight, but in 2017 Krush finally realised his dream to release a Japanese Rap album with the release of Kiseki. The album also celebrated the 25th Anniversary of DJ Krush’s career, and was referred to by The Japan Times as “the most vital DJ Krush album since the 1990s.”
Outside of his solo work, Krush has also appeared as a guest on albums by Jazzy Upper Cut, United Future Organization, and alongside Toshinori Kondo for their collaborative album Ki-Oku. Krush also was a member of the group RYU, a Japanese Hip Hop collective who released one album in 1999, and across his career he has remixed the likes of Galliano, Ronny Jordan, Method Man, Miles Davis, Nigo, and Herbie Hancock.
With such an extensive career it’s exciting to know Krush is still creating music today, either with new mixes or new albums, as Krush continues to explore his sound and create new interpretations of Hip Hop, one that he is happy can only be defined as being by DJ Krush.
References:
¹ Drever, Andrew 2003, ‘The Krush factor’, The Age, 9 May, viewed 17 July 2020, ProQuest Database.
