Creepy Nuts’ new track “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” is blasting its means up the charts — not solely in Japan, however on a world scale.
Creepy Nuts is a hip-hop unit consisting of R-shitei (R-rated), the first MC in J-rap historical past to win the nation’s prime MC battle competitors UMB Grand Championship thrice consecutively, and DJ Matsunaga, who received the world’s largest DJ competitors DMC World DJ Championships in 2019 and carried out at the closing ceremony of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. While they each have such spectacular titles beneath their belts, each members of Creepy Nuts are recognized in their residence nation for his or her laid-back personalities and discuss expertise, making them standard staples in TV selection reveals. They have additionally been common hosts on the historic All Night Nippon radio program for 5 years, and many individuals in all probability acknowledge them as radio stars as nicely.
Music-wise, their mini-album To Us Former Prodigies, launched August 2020, reached No. 2 on the Billboard Japan Hot Albums chart. Also, their monitor “Nobishiro” from the album Case turned their first track to surpass 100 million streams (as of Dec. 1, 2022), and “Daten” — the opener for the anime Yofukashi no uta, which relies on the duo’s track of the identical title — launched in 2022, reached No. 35 on the Japan Hot 100, the highest place for them at the time. On their tour selling the album Ensemble Play that features this monitor, they offered out the Saitama Super Arena close to Tokyo, the largest capability venue in their profession as much as that time.
Then, “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” shot to No. 5 on the Japan Hot 100 on the chart dated Jan. 24, the week after it debuted No. 27, which was already increased than the duo’s report for “Daten.” The following week, “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” turned Creepy Nuts’ first-ever No. 1 hit.
This monitor is definitely gaining extra traction exterior of Japan. Featured as the opener for the anime collection MASHLE Season 2, the comical dance by the protagonist Mash set to the chorus of the track’s title attracted consideration on TikTookay. The track was downloaded and streamed on a world scale earlier than it reached Japanese audiences. As a consequence, “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” hit No. 8 on the Global Japan Songs Excl. Japan chart (Jan. 18), which ranks “songs from Japan” being listened to in greater than 200 nations and areas round the world exterior of the nation. In its second week on the tally, the viral hit hopped over the prime seven songs from the week earlier than to take the prime spot. Total factors and streams earned by “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” that week broke the chart’s all-time excessive, and the following week it shortly rewrote its personal report to carry at No. 1 for the second week in a row (Feb. 1). The monitor continues to be at No. 1 for the fifth week on the chart dated Feb. 22.
Looking nearer at the rankings for every nation calculated from the Global Japan Songs Excl. Japan chart’s knowledge, we are able to see that “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” has completed an unprecedented feat, dominating seven of the 9 nations at present included in the tally: Thailand, Singapore, France, the U.Ok., South Africa, the U.S. and Brazil. In phrases of factors gained, the track’s reputation in the U.S. is exceptionally excessive, adopted by France.
The duo’s breakthrough didn’t cease there. The following week, “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” debuted at No. 77 on Billboard’s Global 200 chart (Jan. 27) that ranks streaming and downloads on main digital platforms in greater than 200 nations and territories worldwide. It surpassed even YOASOBI’s “Idol” and King Gnu’s “SPECIALZ” — two current J-pop hits with a longtime world following — to turn into the highest-ranking track on that week’s listing by Japanese artists. It additionally bowed at No. 48 on the Global Excl. US tally that week. “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” continued to ascend, and is at present at No. 12 on the former and No. 2 on the latter (Feb. 24) — once more the highest place for Japanese artists on these weeks, indicating that the rising help in the Japanese market performed a big position in the breakthrough on each world charts.
Why did “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” all of the sudden appeal to a lot consideration on a world scale? The motive is easy: the synergistic impact of TikTookay, dance, and animation. Encouraging customers to take part in TikTookay dance challenges is now a promotional normal, however that alone isn’t sufficient. Adding the factor of a tie-in with an anime collection, particularly one being distributed worldwide on Netflix and different world platforms, to the synergy brings a track to the forefront of public consideration.
Of the prime 20 songs on the Global Japan Songs Excl. Japan chart, about half are anime tie-ins most weeks, indicating that being connected to a serious anime title is sufficient to attract worldwide consideration to new J-pop songs. Anime songs are significantly standard in France; about 14 songs out of the prime 20 and over 65% of the whole knowledge collected are tracks linked to anime titles. Other such anime tie-ins which have made the Global Japan Songs Excl. Japan prime 3 embrace YOASOBI’s “Idol” (Oshi no Ko opener), Tatsuya Kitani’s “Where Our Blue Is” (Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 opener), and King Gnu’s “SPECIALZ” (Jujutsu Kaisen Shibuya Incident story arc opener), all of which turned hits in Japan and commenced climbing the charts worldwide at about the identical time, then all of the sudden unfold explosively on a world scale. This pattern of simultaneous sharing is prone to turn into extra outstanding in the future, and never solely with anime tie-ins.
But the motive “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” turned such an breakout hit will be attributed to the proven fact that in addition to its hyperlink to a preferred anime title, it turned a TikTookay favourite the place non-anime followers might share the track, mixed with the factor of dance, which has robust distribution potential. Plus, the unique manga that the anime was based mostly on was serialized in the Weekly Shonen Jump journal, launched worldwide in a number of languages by way of the official MANGA Plus by SHUEISHA app, so the already established world fan base for the unique manga gave “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” a bonus.
The monitor additionally adopts the Jersey membership sound, a world pattern originating in the U.S. used in music by different current breakout acts corresponding to NewJeans (“Super Shy” and so on.) and LE SSERAFIM (“Eve, Psyche & The Bluebeard’s wife”), and that is in all probability another excuse why it caught the consideration of listeners round the world, centering round the U.S.
The proven fact that the half used for the TikTookay dance problem was the chorus of the easy and catchy title may additionally have contributed to the track’s widespread reputation. The aforementioned NewJeans’ “Super Shy” and LE SSERAFIM’s “Eve, Psyche & The Bluebeard’s wife” have been additionally standard dance challenges on TikTookay, and the viral snippets featured brief rhymes in the lyrics or refrains of the identical phrase, not restricted to the songs’ hooks. While geared up with the sort of TikTok-friendly chorus, the lyrics of “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” as an entire overlap sympathy with the place of MASHLE’s principal character Mash with the rapper’s personal braggadocio in a intelligent means. It’s good as an anime theme track and a hip-hop single, a high-quality quantity that may fulfill each followers of the unique work and followers of hip-hop.
After making an surprising, but comprehensible influence on a world scale with their first launch of 2024, Creepy Nuts adopted up with one other Jersey club-infused monitor referred to as “Nidone” (“Back to Sleep”) on Jan. 27, which is being featured as the theme track for the time-traveling drama collection Futekisetsu nimo hodo ga aru! (which loosely interprets to “That’s so Inappropriate”). As they start to increase their attain past their residence nation, we are able to stay up for extra “Nobishiro” (“Room for Growth”) from the duo.
—This article by Maiko Murata first appeared on Billboard Japan
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