Even as Japanese music enjoys greater attention on the global stage, the success of duo Creepy Nuts stands as a total curveball. The pair of DJ Matsunaga and R-Shitei never intended to be representatives of J-pop outside of their home country. Yet over the last year that is exactly what they’ve stumbled into.
Thanks to the viral success of the springy “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” at the start of 2024, Creepy Nuts have found themselves placed in the same pop gravitational pull of YOASOBI and Fujii Kaze. The pair found themselves performing in North America, remixing Dua Lipa and finding themselves as one of the faces of J-pop in the 2020s. They once again hop-scotched up streaming charts later in the year with the similarly uptempo “Otonoke.” A surprising pair — but one starting to string together consistent global hits.
To reduce Creepy Nuts down to a web-born surprise, however, does a disservice to a project that has been connecting hip-hop, dance music and J-pop for over a decade now. Before they blew up, they had already become stars in Japan thanks to an eclectic and energetic approach to sound. The group’s come-up in 2024 shouldn’t be seen as an oddity coming out of nowhere — rather it was a blow up long in the making.
In It To Win It
Creepy Nuts’ worldwide trajectory reads a bit like an underdog story — duo largely unknown outside of Japan suddenly becomes global concern — but the backgrounds of the individual members reveals that it’s actually somewhat of a Japanese hip-hop supergroup. R-Shitei (real name Kyohei Nogami) emerged from the Kansai hip-hop scene as a battle rapper. In the early 2010s, he won Japan's Ultimate MC Battle three years in a row, establishing himself as one of the finest freestylers in the nation.
DJ Matsunaga (Kunihiko Matsunaga), meanwhile, excelled behind the turntables. From a young age, he emerged as a skilled DJ, dropping out of high school to pursue the art form. He entered and won many DJ tournaments, establishing himself as one of the most talented turntablists in the country. His greater triumph in the field would come after Creepy Nuts formed, as he won the DMC World Championship in 2019, confirming him as one of the best on the planet.
Owing to both having hip-hop backgrounds, the two naturally intersected. They came together as Creepy Nuts — a name serving as kind of a linguistic face tattoo, as neither thought it would ever get that big, so why not go for something silly — and started releasing music at an indie level. Matsunaga would take sounds from a variety of genres — rock, jazz, reggae, whatever could be manipulated into something interesting — and create a bouncy backdrop for R-Shitei to do his thing. The pair displayed a pop sensibility, while also flexing plenty of humor and a touch of irony aimed at polite society, defining their indie era and setting the stage for what would come next.
Major Case
My main memory of Creepy Nuts’ initial foray into the upper echelons of J-pop is crystalized by a text message. It was New Year’s Eve 2021, and the duo appeared on some music show helping to ring in 2022. The pair took the stage and delivered a high-energy, slightly deranged performance. The music was catchy, but the duo themselves added a dash of unpredictability to it all.
A friend also watching the program sent me a message. “What the hell is Creepy Nuts’ deal?”
A good snapshot of 2018 to the end of 2023. Creepy Nuts quickly moved up the J-pop ranks thanks to a combination of catchy sounds and hooks — still built around a sonic foundation of rock and jazz, adding a brightness to their mainstream mutation on hip-hop — but spiked it with oddball moments along with plenty of rap swagger that gave the pair’s music an edge. They struck a balance between the two sides, best captured on 2021 full-length album Case, sounding both smooth enough for a Daiso soundsystem but with enough prickles around the edge to keep those who came up with them satisfied.
Creepy Nuts’ stock in Japan only rose from there, with singles such as “Daten” becoming mainstream hits. They were getting more opportunities to create tie-up songs for TV dramas and anime (which…read on), and the size of the duo’s live shows just kept growing. In the process, they continued to walk the tightrope between J-pop staples and hip-hop upstarts. They collaborated with the members of YOASOBI on the playful song “Baka Majime,” but also toured with rap outfits such as BAD HOP. Their domestic status kept growing, but their interest in the space they came from remained strong. That would play a part in the next big leap.
Big Bang-Bang
At some point, Creepy Nuts became fascinated with the kinetic sound of Jersey Club, an American-born dance mutation defined by its uptempo energy, sliced-up samples and unrelenting beats. The sound intrigued the pair, especially the corner of it featuring rapping over it, best captured in the early 2020s by Newark’s Bandmanrill. R-Shitei and DJ Matsunaga wanted to give it a try — they first dabbled in it on 2023’s sonic hip-check “Billiken” — and kept playing around with it. They didn’t hold it back either — when they were enlisted to create the theme song to the second season of the anime Mashle: Magic And Muscles, they crafted a J-pop Jersey Club cut topped off by touches of Latin pop elements. This would end up being one of 2024’s biggest hits around the world.
“Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” became an internet sensation days into 2024, helped by its anime placement but eventually growing bigger than it thanks to all sorts of people embracing it on platforms such as TikTok. It thrusted the two into the global spotlight — completely unexpectedly — and is arguably the biggest Japanese rap hit on the world stage since “Tokyo Drift.”
It hinted at a big year to come. At the same time “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” was popping up across feeds around the world, the duo provided the theme to the TBS drama Extremely Inappropriate!, which became a massive hit…and helped them stand out even more at home. In the fall, they continued exploring Jersey rhythms — this time paired with guitar strums and a lighter mood come the chorus — for “Otonoke,” which served as the opening number for the anime adaptation of Dandadan.
The uptempo dance style continues to fascinate the pair — their latest single adds a more urgent and constricting air to it — and has helped to make Creepy Nuts one of the most surprising forces in J-pop today. Yet they shouldn’t be viewed as a total left-field story — the sound of J-pop in the 2020s is defined by unexpected combinations and stylistic risks, and few have done that as well as these two, eager to take the hip-hop they grew up in and slam it together with something aimed at everyone…with plenty of weird touches.
Five Essential Songs
“Joen Danyuu-sho” (2016)
A good example of the pair’s indie-era sound…and a fantastic example of how they had fun and mocked parts of modern Japan, both in terms of lyrics and the self-aware video.
“Yofukashi No Uta” (2019)
Despite making the major-label leap, Creepy Nuts’ love of moody backdrops remains on this early hit. This one also offers a great snapshot of R-Shitei’s flow in action.
“Nobishiro” (2021)
As sunny and pop-facing as Creepy Nuts have ever gotten, powered by easy-breezy guitar melodies.
“Billiken” (2023)
Creepy Nuts’ first foray into Jersey Club is, in many ways, “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” in pupa (you can hear elements of that hit lurking deep in this one). Yet on its own, it’s one of the most aggressive Creepy Nuts’ songs of the major-label era, reminding of where they come from while pulling no sonic punches.
“Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” (2024)
I mean what else to say about this one? How about…what a weird song to become a global hit and the defining J-pop hit of last year. It deserves this spot for just pushing Jersey Club in front of every demographic in Japan, from toddlers to the retirement home crowd.
