GAKU-MC reflects on his past as a rapper and when “DA.YO.NE” was a big hit

GAKU-MC (53) is a rapper who took the world by storm in the 1990s with the million-selling song “DA.YO.NE.”

In 2013, he formed a unit called “Ukasukaji” with Mr.Children vocalist Sakurai Kazutoshi, and the following year he released “Kiku no Ega wo Kimi to”, which became the Japan Football Association’s official support song for the Japanese national soccer team.

He and Sakurai also launched “MIFA (Music Interact Football for All)”, a project that aims to fuse music and football to realize various forms of communication.

GAKU-MC was recently interviewed by Bunshun Online (in a series of interviews). Here is an excerpt from the first part of the interview:

GAKU-MC first became interested in rapping when he was in his first year of high school. He was a member of the soccer club, but couldn’t get a regular position and quit the club, saying, “This isn’t the place for me”.’ Rap filled the gaping hole in his chest.

Back in 1992, GAKU-MC said, “I made my CD debut with EAST END in 1992, and at my debut live, I did my best to memorize and perform English rap. But I was so nervous that I forgot the second verse and sang the first verse again, but none of the audience noticed and said, “I don’t understand what you’re saying”. We really wanted people to listen to our music, but we just couldn’t sell it at all. The annual income in the first year of debut was 320,000 yen (about $3000 at the time). I never thought I could make a living from rapping. After graduating from university, I thought I would become a newspaper reporter or journalist”.

When EAST END teamed up with YURI in 1994 to form EAST END X YURI, his thoughts were, “When my team and I were talking with the staff at his record company, it was decided that we should make a song using the words that Japanese people use the most, so my friend YURI and I released this song. , it was “DA.YO.NE”. However, this also did not sell at first. It caught fire when it was picked up by a radio station in Hokkaido, then spread to Okinawa, and gradually began to be heard all over the country. In 1995, I appeared on Kohaku Uta Gassen, and I never thought I would make it this far. Before it was sold, I started playing at small clubs and asking customers to turn around, and no matter how hard I tried, people would say, “I don’t know your music.” But after it became a hit, when we performed live, people started listening to it right away. I often went to karaoke for movie launches, and I could hear “DA.YO.NE” coming from the room next door. I was so happy that I rushed into the next room and got excited and said, “It’s me!” It really was a good time”.

When asked if it changed his life, GAKU-MC said, “I never thought I would make a living through rap, but when it became a hit and appeared on Kohaku, I realized for the first time that there was a possibility for me to establish myself in the music industry. Even though I was getting a lot of attention, I started to get approached by a lot of people, and I was able to have conversations with musicians from other genres. At that moment, I decided to live my life with a microphone instead of a pen. Well, there was a lot of pressure. “DA.YO.NE” became a hit, and naturally people wanted the next one. Both me and the record company had a strong desire to make even better songs. But no matter how many songs I make, people always say, “The previous one was better.” I was also at a time when I hadn’t decided on my goals yet, so I was wondering every day whether it was right to continue with similar songs, or whether I should expand my world with a different type of song. During that time, I also received slander and criticism from people I thought were friends. It was a time when there was no social media, but I suffered real damage, and I lost my sense of direction, so it was a very painful and difficult time”.

When asked how he met Mr. Children’s Sakurai Kazutoshi, GAKU-MC said, ” I was doing a regular program on a radio station called GAKU FM North Wave, and when I heard that Mr. Children was coming, I went to the lobby to say hello. I knew that Sakurai loves soccer and plays soccer, so I said, ‘I also play soccer, so would you like to play soccer together sometime?’ Immediately after that, we played a match between Mr.Children and the GAKU-MC team at the Meiji Jingu Gaien futsal field. It was a lot of fun. From there, I started playing soccer with Sakurai and deepened our friendship”.