Nujabes

Nujabes, also known as Jun Seba, was a Japanese music producer born in Adachi, Japan, on February 19, 1974. Active from 1996, he developed a style rooted in instrumental hip hop and hip hop, drawing on jazz, soul, trip hop, breakbeat, downtempo, and ambient music. In 1995, he opened the record shop GUINNESS RECORDS in Udagawacho, Shibuya. He later ran Hydeout Productions and the record shop Tribe. Through Hydeout Productions, he released "Nujabes Featuring Funky DL – Peoples Don't Stray" in 1999, then issued the albums "metaphorical music" in 2003 and "modal soul" in 2005. His collaborations with MCs included the "Luv(sic)" series with Shing02. Under the credit Nujabes feat. Shing02, he and Shing02—a Japanese rapper and producer who writes in Japanese and English and draws on hip-hop, jazz, reggae, and traditional Japanese music—recorded "Battlecry," the opening theme for Samurai Champloo. The collaboration paired Nujabes' jazz-rap production with Shing02's multilingual lyricism. He later released "2nd collection" in 2007 and "Modal Soul Classics By Nujabes" in 2008. Nujabes died in a traffic accident in Tokyo on February 26, 2010, and his third album, "Spiritual State," was issued in 2011.