Keep your nose clean and stick to the bag
January 28, 2026 8:23 am
Despite blowing up the underground scene within the last 2 years, UntilJapan keeps an extrordinarily low profile. With no interviews to date and very little social media activity, this rapper is clearly lazer-focused on his craft.
The elusive rapper began releasing music on Soundcloud years ago, but only truly blew up with the release of SAFE TRAVELS in 2023. In the meantime, he released several crucial tracks that steadily built his audience and underground credibility, including “Rain“, “See Through”, and “Ounce“.
He also released an album in this period, DARK OUTSIDE, VOL 1, which performed quite well and further contributed to his discography. As discussed however, SAFE TRAVELS is widely regarded as the album that truly set him apart from his peers in the underground. With its stellar production quality and profound lyrical themes, this album represents Japan’s ‘coming of age’ as an artist.
Tracks on this project like “KISS N TELL“, “4KEEPS“, and “EU SWAG” especially stood out. From his past releases, we can see that Japan has a truly creative approach to his craft, delivering winding monologues of love, betrayal, and despair over intricately designed beats. My favorite aspect of his production is the consistent use of masterfully-procured samples, in a style similar to artists like Clams Casino. His music is deeply emotional and introspective in a way that I believe a lot of hip-hop tries and fails to be, and in that sense, japan carves out a niche of his own.
After SAFE TRAVELS, Japan releases a few more singles, such as wildly successful track “Feel Like We Back“, with an impressive 2.4 million plays, especially for an underground artist. We can clearly see Japan’s meteoric rise in popularity after SAFE TRAVELS, and how that leads into the era of trompe l’oeil.
Trompe-l’oeil is a French phrase that means to “deceive the eye”. The mysterious title effectively sets the tone for not only the album, but Japan’s whole vibe. His affinity toward being mysterious, his complex storytelling, even the way his most confident and boastful tracks still contain an evident twinge of pain and sadness. It could also refer to the themes of betrayal and abandonment throughout the album; both are cruel methods of deception that Japan has clearly faced throughout his life. On “Pyramidz”, he sings: “I can’t even trust my mama, put me outside“. Dealing with this level of betrayal from one’s own mother is overwhelming, and almost certainly lead to more relational issues Japan speaks about on trompe l’oeil. He discusses feeling the need to run away from any emotional comittment, and sensing betrayal in every situation; friends and relationships alike.
The emotional depth and complexity of Until Japan’s music is matched by the creativity and versatility of the production. Throughout the album, the tracklist weaves through different energy levels while maintaining a cohesive sound, featuring ethereal melodies utilizing a vast array of instrumentation and audio techniques, deep bass, and great uses of sampling. The project features notable contribution from producers Iankon, revisitingearth, and others. The tracklist also features production work from untiljapan himself, which is pretty sick. Overall, trompe l’oeil is a very pleasurable first listening experience while containing a great deal of lyrical and musical complexity to dive into during later listens. There’s also more to explore on Youtube, 4 uncleared tracks are up on his Youtube that aren’t on Spotify: MERCEDES:2005, TIGHTROPES, OLD VICES. NEW CITIES, and LONDON BY NIGHT. Also, check out our Instagram post for Trompe L’oeil.
UntilJapan is an incredibly talented underground artist who clearly puts his soul into his work. From the production, to the songwriting, to the lyricism: the craftsmanship is top-notch. This project is a culmination of Japan’s work, and solidifies him as a major figure in the underground rap scene. His introspective, deep, and vulnerable lyricism pairs excellently with the similarly emotional and ethereal production evident throughout the project. I am excited to see where Japan’s deep authenticity and dedication to his craft will take him in his career.