Nujabes

Seba Jun is one of the more tragic stories in music.  At 36 years old, he got into a car accident in Tokyo that took his life on February 26th, 2010.  He made music under the name of Nujabes (Seba Jun backwards) and consistently worked with some of the better underground hip-hop artists like Five Deez and Cyne.  In the past, he had also worked with C.L. Smooth, one of the more recognizable names in early '90s east coast hip-hop.  There's a good reason he worked with C.L. Smooth; the rap production of Nujabes carries much of the same jazz elements that was present in the Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth duo.  In fact, many of the songs on his 2003 album Metaphorical Music sound like a jazz track with a side of hip-hop instead of the other way around.  This helps create a very casual atmosphere to his music, and from top to bottom, it's not quite like any other hip-hop album I've heard before.  I think this speaks to the range that Nujabes was able to reach and the talent that he possessed.  He and his music will be greatly missed.

Below I've posted a remix of the Five Deez song "Latitude" and an instrumental "Letter from Yokosuka" from his album Metaphorical Music.  So feel free to kick back and relax to the pleasant jazz rap production of Nujabes.

Latitude (Remix)

Letter From Yokosuka

I've posted some more stuff from Metaphorical Music here.