The Methodology Behind Metaphorical Music

Perhaps the fan favorite and most well-known album of Nujabes to be released. A late 2003 release a few months after Hydeout Productions FIRST COLLECTION, dropping smack in the middle of a massive paradigm shift hip-hop—what seemed to be the end of gangster rap, and the beginning of Kanye’s reign, following his debut album College Dropout, just a few months later—Metaphorical Music was not a known release at the time, nor was it internationally recognized on the level it is presently.

Recorded and mixed primarily at Park Avenue Studio, the 62-minute project contains some of Jun’s most iconic songs, those with cult-like followings that have been spread internationally following the airing of Samurai Champloo. Speaking more with Marcus about the album, he brought up a common mistake among listeners:

Beat Laments the World is always mistaken for the Samurai Champloo ending. They’re essentially the same, but the beat was reworked/interpolated for the anime. Uyama played the piano riff on the original.

If you listen to Beat Laments the World, it sounds similar to how the original record sounds, and also has a part of Pase’s acappella in it from Blessin’ It.

On the other hand, Shiki no Uta is smoother. The drums are toned down, the filtered/synth bass was cleaned up and changed etc., and it’s just overall more accommodating for a vocalist. Less raw.

A compilation of Hydeout’s best, entitled Hydeout Productions FIRST COLLECTION, dropped in April of 2003A fan-favorite; Metaphorical Music dropped in August of 2003

Rawness and the ability to evoke heavy emotions just by sound was something listeners could observe a noticeable shift in, after working together with Fat Jon on the Samurai Champloo soundtrack. A transition both on a metaphorical level, as well as technical, as mentioned by Pase:

I would say that four people specifically: Nao Tokui, Uyama Hiroto, Fat Jon and Monorisick [DJ Deckstream], contributed a lot to shaping Nujabes’ sound.

The production on Metaphorical Music is referenced by many hip-hop heads as one of the few pinnacles of modern low fidelity and jazz-hop, far from any sort of cliché, and able to hone in on a very specific vibe. Marcus had some more information on how it came together:

From what I know he used an MPC2000XL, and other hardware. He also used Pro Tools

…

He sampled strictly from vinyl as far as I know, and had/still has an expansive collection. I was lucky enough to inherit one of his turntables from Guiness Records. It’s an old Technic SL-1200MK3 that’s on its last legs, but I still use it every day when I make music.

Three pages from a hip-hop and audio engineering magazine out of Japan from ’03-‘04’ gives more insight, into the literal setup that was used to craft this album, as well as parts of the Samurai Champloo OSTs, as seen below, courtesy of Josue Silva.

You may notice on the second page, there are two SL-1200MK3’s; the one contained within Marcus’ interview is one of those two. It was passed down to him.

Following the release of the first Hydeout Collection tape, a 14-track project in collaboration with Monorisick (DJ Deckstream) and L-Universe, as well as Metaphorical Music, was arguably the source for Jun’s international recognition, resulting in a cult-like following for his music.

The anime that follows three travelers on a journey to find a man deemed the Sunflower Samurai.