Shing02

Shingo Annen built his career as a bridge, connecting the Bay Area's underground hip-hop scene of the ‘90s, where he cut his teeth, with the emergent jazz-hop movement in his native Tokyo. Of course, for millions, he is the indispensable voice across Nujabes’s six-part “Luv(Sic)” series, a philosophical, cross-continental dialogue on life and love that continued even after the producer’s tragic passing in 2010. But his own catalog reveals a fiercely independent mind, weaving between Japanese and English with a calm, deliberate flow, whether tackling nuclear anxieties on his 2002 album 400 or directing his own sharp, minimalist music videos.