Taika × Nagaaki Onoe: The Frenzy Born from Freestyle Chemistry

With "High School Rap Championship" and "Freestyle Dungeon" in the spotlight, MC battles have leapt into the mainstream of entertainment. The countless words rappers deliver through improvisation and their call-and-response style captivate many. Copywriters in the SNS era also engage in call-and-response online. What happens when these two meet on the same stage to exchange words?

For the first installment of this series, Taika, the human beatboxer who established the current MC battle rules, converses with Dentsu Inc.'s Onoe.

Taika (left) and Onoe

 

 

 

 

Content steeped in passion draws people in

Onoe: Today's discussion topic is "words," but as a copywriter, I'm kind of unorthodox...

Taika: Is that so?

Onoe: Most copywriters learn under a mentor and gain experience, but I have almost none of that. I've mainly designed campaigns—planning, video, events, copy—whatever it takes to make it talkable or effective. Lately, I've been doing mostly things I love, like planning for Nissin Foods' "Donbei" and the 40th anniversary & final campaign for "Kochikame."

Taika: You made that MC battle-style PV for "Donbei," right? Do you listen to hip-hop?

Onoe: Yes. I've listened to international music for a long time, but I really started listening to Japanese music properly because of "Freestyle Dungeon." I especially like MSC, the group MC Kan belongs to, which Taika is part of. That timing coincided with "Donbei's" annual "East vs. West Taste Comparison" campaign. Donbei uses different broths for the East and West versions, and during this period, both are available at mass retailers. I thought it might spark some friendly competition. Plus, I felt it was a peaceful and positive idea to take the East Coast/West Coast rivalry—which is a tragedy in American hip-hop—and reimagine it in Japan using food as the theme.

Taika: With MC battles gaining mainstream acceptance, rappers are increasingly being cast in commercials. That PV was really cool.

Onoe: Thank you (tears)! I was really blown away by the freestyle rap world, so I didn't want to just copy the form and consume that culture. That's why I studied both the overseas and Japanese scenes, and made the track and video entirely with people from the hip-hop scene, not advertising people. I thought if I couldn't genuinely feel and love it myself, I couldn't create something people would connect with.

Taika: A love for hip-hop is essential in rap.

Onoe: These days, everyone's tastes are so fragmented. That makes me wonder if people are drawn more strongly to things where the creators' passion is intense. Like the Kochikame campaign—I love Kochikame so much I even live in the old downtown area, so I could push myself endlessly. That's also why I think the reason I got blown away by freestyle MC battles was the sheer intensity of energy when people who love rap to their very bones clash.

Taika: MC battles really took off. As a host involved with "UMB" (*), I helped shape the battle format on-site. Traditionally, the DJ would stop after the first battle to switch to the second. We changed it to a style where the DJ keeps the beat going with 8 bars, switching attackers and defenders seamlessly without stopping. I think this created more exciting chemistry.

※UMB: Abbreviation for "ULTIMATE MC BATTLE," where the crowd's cheers determine the winner.

Taika

Onoe: That's a major innovation... Did you also rap, Taika-san?

Taika: Yes, just a little bit before. Back in Osaka, I wrote songs with SHINGO☆Nishinari.

Onoe: How do rappers create their lyrics?

Taika: For rap lyrics that emphasize rhyming, I think you really need to freestyle in your head to some extent. Even rappers who don't freestyle publicly probably refine their mental freestyle to craft their lyrics. Collecting usable rhymes is something everyone does as a matter of course. How do copywriters create copy?

Onoe: I'm more of a project execution person than a copywriter, so this might be presumptuous... But if I had to say, I spend decades studying copy considered masterpieces, thinking "What makes this work?" and deconstructing its structure. Or, while scrolling through smartphone news daily, I think about things like "In this kind of atmosphere, if this kind of person said this, wouldn't it resonate?"

Words are one of the instruments that create groove in a space.

Onoe: I listened to Taika's album "Faceplant." Taika's beatboxing has this really strong analog feel to it, you know?

Taika: I started out as a hip-hop DJ. I later began rapping too, but I became captivated by beatboxing—playing black music beats with just my mouth. So even in beatboxing, I've always been conscious of that groove sensibility that black artists possess. Creating pauses between sounds makes the beat groove. This applies to rapping skills as well.

Onoe: When you say rap skills that create groove...

Taika: The part that controls rap's groove is the rhyming. You use the flow inherent in words to make them swing. Ideally, a rapper should be able to manipulate words like a percussion instrument or a keyboard instrument. While rhyming fundamentally involves aligning vowels and counting syllables to hit the beat, that alone rarely creates a truly satisfying flow. For example, saying "Anpanman" as "Enpenmen" still gets the point across, right? You also lay groundwork before and after to ensure it's understood. Actively manipulating words—even breaking grammar rules—is fine as long as it pulls the audience into that pleasure.

Onoe: I see. So the purpose of rhyming is to get the people present excited. The purpose of advertising is also to get people excited to some degree, leading to product sales or increased favorability, so perhaps they're similar. The medium could be video or events, but lately, the proportion of words within them seems to be increasing.

Taika: Your work, Onoe-san, like the "It was so easy, just add hot water..." line when the Shibuya Station Donbei specialty shop "Donbareya" closed, doesn't feel like typical ad copy. It has this vibe of looking down on the world (laughs).

Onoe: No, not at all... (laughs). Online, clever copy just doesn't land. In the vast internet filled with people sharing interesting things, being clever just gets buried. With SNS widespread and everyone now a content creator, I focus on how to engage on the same level, like a cypher (*).

※Cypher: Multiple rappers forming a circle and improvising rap together.

Onoe-san

Taika: I used to pass by "Donbareya" at Shibuya Station and always think, "Is this something you'd go out of your way to open a shop for?" (laughs).

Onoe: Exactly (laughs). So, that kind of message feels "real," right? If it's not "real," it just doesn't land. More rappers are turning everyday "real" stuff into lyrics now, right? Like stories from the countryside, or even hanging laundry being called hip-hop.

Taika: Today's rappers aren't exaggerating; their lyrics have this cool, detached vibe.

Onoe: Except for those like MSC who focus on the underground "real" (laughs). Living normally in Japan, "real" themes just keep getting closer to home. Conversely, recent overseas ads are getting "real" with tougher topics like refugee issues.

Taika: I think rap has the power to turn painful topics into entertainment through skill and humor. The topics are found right in our own lives and experiences.

Agile communication that resonates with the SNS generation

Taika: I always thought ads were carefully crafted, but your approach, Onoe-san, is quite improvisational.

Onoe: Not everything is like that, but often, something that comes out in five seconds on the spot after getting a prompt is more appreciated than something polished and crafted. Even team meetings – instead of bringing materials and staring at them for hours, bouncing ideas off each other spontaneously via messenger creates a multiplier effect for ideas, making things suddenly much better. It's like a rap rhyme path, but not exactly.

Taika: That's my ideal form for MC battles. I want us to reach that groove through this kind of spontaneous, interactive influence. Since many rappers now write lyrics using smartphones, I've been thinking it might be interesting to co-create lyrics through email exchanges.

Onoe: Sounds cool! I use my phone a lot too. When I send myself a sudden idea via text, the moment the push notification hits, I can objectively judge if it's good or not. Topics spread on smartphones, so that's more user-centric, I guess.

Taika: It's fascinating how something can emerge from these spontaneous exchanges. Right now, I want to transform MC battles into tag matches or have them pass rhymes one bar at a time. First, teams create an 8-bar rhyme pass internally, then opposing teams counter with their own rhyme passes. When chemistry meets chemistry, incredible things happen. We've been running an experimental battle called "AsONE RAP TAG MATCH" since 2013. Cypress Ueno, who won the inaugural championship, seemed to experience his own brain blossoming through the tag match format.

Taika

Onoe: Definitely! I got excited watching Punchline Fetish switch members every verse on Freestyle Dungeon recently! Changing the battle format sped up communication and heightened the musical groove. Changing the format changes what emerges. Like exchanging lyrics via text message—Taika, you consciously invent formats, don't you?

Taika: MC battles are serious contests, but freestyle is an extension of play. Without that playful element, it's absolutely no fun.

Onoe: That's right. Even with clients, there's a set format: get the brief, present, then revise repeatedly. But sticking to the same method tends to produce similar results. So maybe it's better to communicate directly and quickly, building things together. You can't pull it off without involving the client's representative, but the clients we've done something close to this with really felt the impact.

Taika: That's playful, isn't it?

The chemistry sparked by reacting with each other expands the circle.

Taika: Today's conversation is pure freestyle, isn't it?

Onoe: Definitely. I'm constantly thinking about what to say next while listening to Taika-san (laughs).

Taika: Hey, what was that "10-minute Donbei" thing? I jumped on it right away too.

Onoe: The method of letting Donbei sit for 10 minutes before eating was slowly gaining traction online. I got curious and looked into it, and the source turned out to be Makita Sports' radio show. During that show, Makita said, "The folks at Nissin must know about this." So I asked the Nissin representative, and they said, "No, we didn't know."

Taika: So that's why you made the segment urging Nissin to apologize?

Onoe: When friends communicate, if you didn't know something, you admit it and say "Sorry," right? So, we should apologize. Also, Makita-san said on the radio he wanted to talk with someone from Nissin, so we made it a project that included a talk show. Even if the apology became a topic, it wouldn't matter. Unless the conversation about "10-minute Donbei is great, right?" became a topic, it wouldn't sell.

Taika: So you just did the obvious thing.

Onoe: Even in MC battles, if you don't properly respond to your opponent's words, people get bored and think, "That guy's just spouting canned lines!" On social media too, the moment someone speaks up, a context is created around it.

Onoe-san

Taika: Regarding this project, did Makita-san get dissed or anything?

Onoe: Not at all. Because there was absolutely no falsehood.

Taika: That's ideal. In freestyle rap, setting up the context is crucial too.

Onoe: MC battles have this narrative quality where it's cool to reference the context from back then and use it to take someone down.

Taika: Logic alone wouldn't have evolved freestyle skills this far. It feels like the MC battle format was created to draw out the power of emotion that transcends logic. Emotion accelerates skill. As MC battles increase, chemistry happens everywhere, forming the scene's context. That's why MC battles resonate, I think.

Onoe: Emotion accelerating skill... that's pretty cool... Advertising campaigns mainly follow a format of roughly three months per season, but that's not really based on the audience's needs. It feels more natural to flexibly adapt while listening to the buzz on social media. Emotions don't move in quarterly cycles. I think humanity's reflexes have become incredibly fast. This state where everyone is constantly posting and reacting is unprecedented in human history. So companies should ignore old formats too. When there's a reaction, jump on it and give an answer. Building rapport while buzzing together. That's how chemistry happens, right?

Taika: That's awesome. The MC battle scene grew that way. It's tough when things blow up, but there's passion behind it.

Onoe: Having both praise and criticism is healthy. Even those who dislike it basically like it, right? Ads that ignore context tend to backfire, but if they get a good reaction, people instantly think, "This guy's interesting," and become fans.

Taika: With MC battles too, it shouldn't be all about winning or losing. Ultimately, regardless of who's friend or foe, both the audience and judges just want to laugh together. We want each event to have proper context and be a fun festival.

Onoe: And then the circle gradually expands. Seriously, MC battles are an incredible invention. I want to create new formats like that too, sparking a huge wave...

Taika: With your skills, Onoe-san, you could probably write lyrics on the spot.

Onoe: No way, no way... I couldn't do it... Though watching MC battles does make me want to rap for no reason sometimes (laughs).

Produced by: Shunsuke Kaga
Title Calligraphy: Kengo Aoki