MAD TRIGGER CREW brings guns, crime, and violence to the table with a funky and melancholic release that will impress you.
For those that might not know about this group/project, a brief intro:
MAD TRIGGER CREW is a rap crew representing Yokohama, that consists of Shintaro Asanuma, Shinnichiro Kamio and Wataru Komada.
“Hypnosis Mic -Division Rap Battle-” is a large-scale project that was created by Idea Factory and Otomate in collaboration with King Records EVIL LINE RECORDS. For details about this project please refer to our Hypnosis Mic tag.
Title: BAYSIDE M.T.C
Label: EVIL LINE RECORDS (King Records)
Release date: 15/11/2017
Genre: Rap/Hip-Hop
Tracklist:
1. G anthem of Y-CITY (Shintaro Asanuma) 2. ベイサイド・スモーキングブルース (Wataru Komada) 3. What’s My Name? (Shinnichiro Kamio) 4.ヨコハマ・ディビジョン MAD TRIGGER CREW Drama Track① 5.ヨコハマ・ディビジョン MAD TRIGGER CREW Drama Track② 6. G anthem of Y-CITY（off vocal ver.） 7. ベイサイド・スモーキングブルース（off vocal ver.） 8. What’s My Name? （off vocal ver.）
Track by track analysis:
1. G anthem of Y-CITY
G anthem of Y-CITY is the perfect portrayal of Yokohama’s crime life with dark lyrics, police sirens, guns, and a slow-paced, groovy instrumental. For those fans of funky hip-hop instrumentals, this one will be a treat.
G anthem of Y-CITY is built around funky bass and guitar goodness.
Those two elements are crucial to set a mildly threatening tone to this song. Adding to this instrumental are classy brass samples and a simple beat among other percussion samples. With such a simple formula, this song ended up sounding much better than expected.
Shintaro Asanuma shows his cards as a rapper surprising us as he spits fire from start to finish. His rough tone, delivery, and groove are among the best in this franchise. 5/5
2. ベイサイド・スモーキングブルース
With a completely different vibe, “Bayside Smoking Blues” had us reaching for a glass of whiskey to go along with the perfect jazz-imbued instrumental. Jazz samples – that range from guitars to bass – alongside classic brass and melodic piano samples create a laidback, melancholic mood.
Massive props to Home Made Kazoku‘s KURO for creating this stunning instrumental. This old-school hip-hop tune sounds perfect, especially after adding those vocals.
Wataru Komada raps and sings for this song. His rap flow was surprisingly good (for example, that flow from the 1:58 minute to 2:10 minute mark is gold) – his tempo changes, the rhymes, and rough tone, all left us wanting to listen to more from him, and when the chorus kicks in, his contrasting soothing singing tone completely won us over.
“Bayside Smoking Blues” has the best instrumental on this release and is one of our favorite performances in this franchise so far. 5/5
3. What’s My Name?
An early 90’s hip-hop groove welcomes us to the concrete jungle of Yokohama. Keeping up MAD TRIGGER CREW‘s trademark, the lyrics are tough, and we find an instrumental with dark synths, and more than enough bass elements to satisfy any bass lover.
In comparison with the other tracks on this release, “What’s My Name?” has an equally interesting instrumental (at least for the most part) but its chorus completely fails to cause the same impact the rest of the single did for us, it sounds out of place and ridiculous. The same can be said about the uneventful outro.
In the vocal department, Shinichiro Kamio makes good use of his deep vocals, matching perfectly the tone of the song. His flow is not at the same level as his crew mates but it’s good enough to not hinder any rap lover.
What’s My Name? failed slightly in the execution although there were going ideas/concepts behind it. 4/5
Final considerations
Dressed in a funky, bassy dark sound, MAD TRIGGER CREW doesn’t spare anyone with their fiery rhymes, raw performances with melancholic and menacing undertones. We found ourselves more than once jamming to this release. The instrumentals heavily benefited from the bassier sound and funky guitar work. Keeping the beats minimalist was also key to bringing out the best of MTC‘s threatening vibe.
Shintaro Asanuma showed once again just how much of a jack-of-all-trades he is. Adding to singing, directing, scriptwriting, and dubbing, Asanuma is also a skilled rapper with a crazy flow. “G anthem of Y-CITY“ had us jamming to it for a couple of minutes.
Wataru Komada (for those that might not know him, he’s a seiyuu/singer and also the occasional photographer for 81 Produce’s talents) surprised us with his performance on “Bayside Smoking Blues“. The mix of singing and rapping felt nice in the middle of the jazzy, laidback vibe. The best performance and song on this release.
We were expecting something better from Shinnichiro Kamio‘s “What’s My Name?“. The instrumental could have benefitted from having a slightly different chorus – those synths and brass were rather annoying right from the start. Other than that, the verses were throwback 90’s gold. Kamio‘s performance wasn’t as good as his MTC peers – only because they really raised the bar high for his performance. Nevertheless, we found ourselves enjoying his groovy and low-toned performance.
In the end “BAYSIDE M.T.C” portrays Yokohama in a menacing and melancholic way, filled with groovy instrumentals, smooth rhymes, and classic samples, all in a simple yet effective package. A gem of a release.
“BAYSIDE M.T.C” is available for purchase on CDJAPAN for all overseas fans.
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