Longevity: An ever-elusive term that ceaselessly follows creatives on their come-up — no matter how long it takes. For MadeinTYO, though, he’s not only reached the greatest of heights an artist can achieve — stemming from breakout hits in “Skateboard P,” “Ned Flanders” and “Uber Everywhere” — but proves his eccentric flows stand the test of time on his latest track “Thinking To Myself” (Dec. 9).
“Maybe I should slow down / The same ones that hated, see my shit turned around,” he reflects on his opening lines. “They told me that my shit was watered down / A couple plaques years later, man, look at me now.”
At 30 years old, the Yokohama rapper also looks back on his roots growing up in Tokyo, Japan, spitting: “I just wanna take a flight to Japan and never come back / Quit all this rap. I guess they want that old thing back.” He hits Tokyo’s streets in the track’s coinciding visual, rolling with a mask-clad crew of the popular Japanese social media model IMMA.
This isn’t just a transparent look into the mind of MadeinTYO — it’s a cleansing of the soul of sorts as he skates seamlessly over “Thinking To Myself’s” minimalistic boom-bap production. Captained by P. Soul, the beat is as smooth as TYO is soulful — streaking towards an upcoming album presumably in 2023. “Who’s ready for the next album?”, he asked fans in his YouTube comments, as the Hawaii native continues to turn heads and switch up his sound nearing a decade into his career.
Prior to “Thinking To Myself,” TYO’s 4-track EP, 24HRS In TOKYO, followed he, Jay Worthy and Harry Fraud’s collaboration on “Earth Sky.” Sharing his joint tape, Yokohama, with UnoTheActivist in January 2022, the sky’s the limit for TYO as he continues to make the music he holds dearly — even if he seems to second guess where he should be on “Thinking To Myself.”
Watch “Thinking To Myself” below!
