The Acid Panda Cafe, an underground hip-hop club in Tokyo, is packed. The show is sold out. The racial makeup of the crowd is virtually all Japanese, except for the four African-Americans who hit the stage at 1 a.m. and launch into spirited rhyme. The words, inexplicably, are Japanese.
The song "Abarero" is the call to "get wild." "Waruguchi Sensei" is an astute primer on cuss words. "Ketsutobi" is . . . well, more about "Ketsutobi" later.
The leader and songwriter of the group is 22-year-old Eric Koffi, better known to his Japanese fans as Kokujin Tensai — "Black Genius." This is Tensai's first time in Japan, and he's already a hip-hop sensation. Says his manager, Katoman: "I believe (Eric) is a very special artist in Japanese music history. I don't know anyone else like him. He is the first Japanese rapper from Memphis."
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