INTERVIEW: GameboyJones on How to Write Rap Songs About Anime
Anime and hip hop have a long and deep connection. nujabes' legendary soundtrack for Samurai Champloo blew my mind as a kid, and, since then, we've seen Wu-Tang Clan compose music for Afro Samurai, as well as an increased influence going the other direction, with anime-inspired music from alternative artists like Open Mike Eagle and milo, but also mainstream artists like Drake, Megan Thee Stallion, Frank Ocean, and many more.
GameboyJones makes a living fusing the worlds of anime and hip hop. Every week, he hammers out a new song focusing on a specific anime character or series, and they're really good. This past February, we had the chance to feature him in an article highlighting Black creators and industry pros in the anime community, and we were lucky enough to sit down with him for a full-length interview!
Crunchyroll: Could you please introduce yourself and what you do to our audience?
GameboyJones: My name is GameboyJones, real name Austin Jones, I am a rapper who primarily raps about anime and pop culture as a whole — and then also I do other side content, such as reaction videos and streaming, stuff like that.
Did you start your music channel first or your reaction channel? What came first in the Austin-verse?
GBJ: Music, 100 percent. I started music first — I started doing music when I was around 21 years old, and it kind of got me some opportunities to do other things. I didn't know what I wanted to do at first, [laughs] I was just rapping to rap! So, I sat on my hands for a few years before I kind of landed on the whole rapping about pop culture idea. And then once I amassed my fan base — I think I had over 100K subs at that point on my music channel — I started making other content. I could kind of veer off and do other things, which I need to get back onto, ‘cause I’ve been SLACKING for a little bit now! [laughs]
I totally feel you, it's easy to lose sight of your creative projects!
GBJ: It’s a dedication to something, and that's hard, especially. I mean, there’s only so many hours in a day.
Listen to GameboyJones' My Dress-Up Darling inspired song "Really My Type" on Spotify here
Yeah, it’s true. So, I am interested in hearing a little bit more about how you started making music. How did you learn to rap and find beats? How did you equip yourself with all those skills?
GBJ: Okay, so, what happened was, from when I was growing up, I had the ability to freestyle and do that sort of stuff almost immediately. I could do it very well for almost no reason. I had plenty of people who were like, “yo man, you should rap, you should rap, you should rap!” and I was like, “nope, nope, nope, nope!” Especially because I thought all of the rappers in my city were corny and I didn’t want to be corny, and I was also a hyper-critical rap critic. What ended up leading me to do it was my cousin who I lived with for a little bit. He said, “hey dude, you should just get on this mic and try to audition for this thing called ‘Team Backpack’,” which was a YouTube channel that I watched. They hosted Cyphers — Cyphers are like … you play a beat, you get a group of rappers and they spit whatever bars that they got. So I made a video for that.
I got selected to go compete live in LA, which was cool. I didn’t win, but being around 300 other rappers, being in that environment full of good rappers, it motivated me to stick with it. But, again, that’s where the sitting on my hands for like three years thing happened — ‘cause I didn’t know what I wanted to do! I was just like, “I don’t wanna rap just to rap, and I’m not really rapping about my life like that …” That’s when I landed on the whole pop culture thing. When I started my channel, I would pick something off of the Top 100 songs on Billboard and I would just rap over whatever beat or instrumental it had.
GBJ: Yeah, and I actually would fill in a few things instead. You know, like I’m rapping about comic books, anime, video games and stuff over it, and just doing a verse. I went viral a few times on Facebook doing it this way, and I was like, “OK, I think I’m onto something.” Then I integrated myself with the YouTube crowd. I was watching people, they actually edit videos and they stick to things like, “I’m going to make a song about Cuphead, I’m gonna make a song about Bendy, I’m gonna make a song about whatever anime.” I had an artist named Dan Bull, he told me, “hey I really wanna do a song, but I don’t know don’t do covers and stuff, you should really start doing original music, you can monetize it, put it up,” and that’s more so my speed. So that’s how I switched over into what I do now.
It’s funny because you talked about, “oh yeah, how did you learn all these skills,” and it’s like ... well I didn’t have money to pay anybody to mix music for me or make videos, so I definitely went to YouTube University and I learned how to mix well enough to get me to the point where I could pay people and make videos. I always just bought beats off of producers, I never produced myself. But yeah, that’s how I kind of got to where I am today from just doing that.
YouTube University is just so cool because it’s opened the door for so many different creatives to learn how to do stuff that used to be locked behind thousands and thousands of dollars of coursework in colleges.
It always makes me really happy when people talk about being able to learn stuff on YouTube or online tutorials because that’s how I learned to do a lot of things, too, like how to video edit.
GBJ: Yeah! See, boom. It’s so crazy, 'cause basically, everyone who edits my videos currently, they’re all high schoolers, and they’re just like, “Yeah, I just learned to do this on YouTube and I just really like doing this.” It’s crazy to me that there’s just so many of them who edit at this insane level right now. But again, we live with all of these resources available whenever you want, and they’re almost infinite too. You know, when I was in middle school, YouTube just became a thing, but people were like, “yeah here’s me at the zoo” on YouTube. It wasn’t like, “how to repair your car,” at that point! [laughs]
Yeah totally, it’s become this really crazy huge resource, for sure.
Okay, so I wanna know who your biggest musical influences are.
GBJ: [laughs] So, this is always such a weird one for me, because it swaps around occasionally.
GBJ: I think I got it pinned down, but there’s an artist called IDK that I really like, he’s probably currently my biggest one. He’s someone who motivates me to switch it up often 'cause he does a lot of R&B and rapping, so that’s cool. A rapper named Denzel Curry, he doesn’t exactly do what I do, but a giant amount of his references and stuff are, “hey here goes this anime/here goes the Harry Potter bar real quick, I’m gonna throw that out there,” and he’s just a high energy, fun dude. Early on I’d say Childish Gambino, he was just another suburban Black dude who rapped, and that’s what I always say, “I’m just a suburban Black dude who raps." [laughs] And then an artist named Smino, he does a lot of R&B, soul, a lot of funky stuff with his voice, it’s a lot. And then I’d say Trippy Red, he’s probably like, if I do autotune aesthetic-type stuff, he’s who I go to whenever I kind of want to replicate that. There’s my five and I’ll stop there! [laughs]
That’s awesome! I do think that diversity of artists that you brought in really speaks to all of the different sounds and textures you’ve incorporated into your music.
GBJ: Yeah, I always tell people I work for my ADHD.
GBJ: People go, “Hey man, you should stick to one style of sound!” And I’m like, "I would, but ..." [laughs] I can’t focus like that, man! to do the same sound ten times in a row, I can’t do it! My mind just doesn't work that way, unfortunately. I think I kind of got something where I could do like almost the same sound, but still switch it up enough currently, that’s how my year’s been going, but yeah, for the most part, I work for my ADHD. [laughs]
Listen to GameboyJones' Demon Slayer inspired song "Tengen Uzui" on Spotify here
For sure! I'd actually really love if you could walk us through your creative process — like, what are all the steps that happen from when you first get an idea for a song to when it gets finished and released?
GBJ: So everything that I do always starts off with finding a beat. I will be on YouTube for hours, hours just scouring for a beat. I always tell people I can’t stick with a feel because ... the thing is, I could listen to a same-sounding beat that I just did for a song and be like, “nope, don’t feel it,” and I just have to move on. Then I'll listen to a plethora of different beats, just trying to figure out what I wanna do. Once I hear a beat, typically I go, “I like this,” and then I go, “what character or show can I incorporate with this sound?” Sometimes it comes to me immediately, sometimes I’ll ask a friend, like “Hey, you hear this. What character do you hear?” Sometimes it resonates with me, sometimes it doesn’t, but once I kind of get that going, I always go for my chorus first, and if I can’t make a chorus, I move on again. I find another beat. [laughs]
But let’s just say, I typically always get my chorus and I always end up getting a rough idea on how my chorus and verse will go. I’ve been working with a lot of features lately, so I typically try to get that stuff done before I send it off to somebody who I think fits on it. But also whenever I have the rough version done I can send that off to a video editor so then they have something to go off of before I actually do my actual takes and get the song mixed.
That’s a bit like in anime where they send off the storyboards for voice actors before the animation’s done.
GBJ: Yeah! Yeah, exactly!
So I basically do that and then … 'cause I work on a biweekly basis, I try to get that stuff done. I typically always tell people, “hey you know you can get the verse in by a Monday,” cause I try to get stuff done prior — but man sometimes it’s hard with all the extra stuff that I’m doing currently. So, we get all the vocals in and get it mixed and make it sound nice. Then I have a good-sounding song to throw over top of that video to post on a Saturday. Yeah, I wanna say that’s usually how the whole process goes — it always starts off with some beat and whether or not I can freestyle a good little chorus in there or not.
That’s super fascinating to me. I don’t really have any experience making music, but I wouldn’t have guessed that the beat was the first thing that comes and then you sort of connect that to a character it reminds you of. That’s super interesting!
GBJ: Yeah! There are some people who can write lyrics first, and that's way more mind-boggling to me! [laughs] Specifically because my delivery is dependent on whatever a beat sounds like. If I want to do, for example, an autotune-y delivery, I have to find a beat that works with that, with the melodies and stuff. But, if my body decides, "all right man, you wanna rap on some boom-bap stuff," well shit! I'm out of luck! [laughs]
But yeah, the beat is always where I find the vibe and then I kind of adjust from there.
Yeah, I can totally see how that would work. If you start with lyrics first it might not go. I guess you gotta find the vibe first!
GBJ: Exactly ... unless you’re someone who can make beats or find someone who can make something on top of that. But you don't typically know what your performance or how you're going to say things will sound until after that aspect is done, unfortunately. At that point, it's just, I don't know ... it's a poem. It's spoken word at that point.
That distinction makes a lot of sense to me. That was a really great explanation!
GBJ: Hey, there we go. Seems like, you know, I do stuff with words sometimes! [laughs]
GameboyJones' producing/streaming setup
I have a pretty abstract question. Looking back through the years, we’ve got the soundtrack to Samurai Champloo; we’ve got Lupe Fiasco referencing Lupin the Third in a verse on a Kanye song; we’ve got Wu-Tang doing the soundtrack to Afro Samurai; and a few years ago you have Open Mike Eagle making an album that’s literally called —
GBJ: Open Mike Eagle! Wow. I was not expecting that take to come in there, that’s awesome!
Yeah! Well, he had that album, Anime, Trauma and Divorce.
It was a really good album! But, you take all of those examples ... it feels like anime and hip hop have been linked together for a long time, and I wanted to get your take on why you think hip hop loves anime and why anime loves hip hop.
GBJ: So, I will say that, yes, hip hop and anime have been linked for a very, very long time. I feel like sometimes it comes down to something like this ... hip hop has always been linked to Asian culture. There are lots of references to samurai, kung-fu movies, and so on. That's why we have projects like Wu-Tang Clan — and I think there's some people who figured out how to blur the lines a little bit more, or just outright embrace it. I think the one reason we've started to notice it a little more is specifically because of Kanye West — actually, I should have thrown him up as another inspiration!
Kanye, especially after watching this last documentary about him, was someone who was seen as an oddity when he first appeared. Everyone was like, "Oh, here goes a guy wearing polos, he's not really gangsta, he's just some smart guy." He was over here doing that, he's not into street things, and then, somehow over the years, he was able to basically say, "Yeah, I can actually rap. I can make good music." After he blew up in popularity, people started accepting different ways to be a rapper and accept things like anime — especially with him bringing in Lupe Fiasco to do that verse, "Lupe steal like Lupin the Third." He's over here introducing people to things like that. I think it's just really good that we're at a point right now where we can accept anime in rap as a society! [laughs] We definitely still have people who go, "ah man, that's corny" — all right, cool, whatever. I'm gonna make my corny money then.
GBJ: [laughs] I like that there are a lot of people who are nerds who can now express that and not care. I had plenty of people in high school who were like, "Aw man, I like so-and-so or such-and-such, but on the low." I'm like, "Why bro?!"
I think a lot of people don't know how to say this one thing: "And?" If anyone asks you something like, "Aw man, you like those weird Japanese cartoons?" You just go, "Yeah, and?" [laughs] It shuts a lot of people up! They just go, "Yeah, uh ... It's weird, right?" "All right, and? I don't know what you want from me here." [laughs] "I enjoy it, so you're not changing my opinion on this."
I never realized "and?" was such a powerful response, but it really is! [laughs]
GBJ: Oh, it's amazing. The thing is — and not to get too deep here — people have hate for things, just unexplained hate for things, and usually, if you ask why, they don't have an answer for it. They just irrationally don't like it.
GBJ: Yeah, “and?” is the best deterrent of anything for all time for me, and even if they give whatever answer, it’s typically gonna be stupid. You can pretty much combat it.
That’s true of most hateful rhetoric. If you just ask to hear what the person saying that hateful stuff, like why they think that, they will literally either just stop talking because they don’t know, or they’ll say something that you can immediately say, “well that’s wrong because ... here’s the actual study,” or whatever! [laughs]
GBJ: Yeah, it stems from ignorance. The most common answer I get from people is, "You like anime? You mean like hentai?" Nope, not the same thing. Or, "Oh you like anime? You must like hentai, huh?" I do not. I don't knock people who are into it, but that's not me. It's fine. I'm like, "You probably do weird stuff too, but we're not gonna talk about that." [laughs] I don’t know what makes you more normal sir, but okay.
Oh my god, right? [laughter]
So, you put out great single after great single, but are you planning on ever putting out an album?
GBJ: I always tell people … no [laughs]. I don’t plan on it — I wouldn’t be shocked if I ever did, though. Because I just don’t — again, ADHD. For me to focus on a theme, something to go in on, feels damn near impossible! I tell people if anything I'd probably do an EP instead of an album. I'll give you this nice collection of four tracks that just sound fun, but that's it, man. I don't wanna strain myself doing a concept album. I don't wanna do none of that, man! I just wanna sit around and be like, "what do I feel like this week?" and just jump into it.
Yeah. It sounds like, that’s not a “no,” but it's more of a “if the vibes bring me to an album” [laughs].
GameboyJones performing live at Nerdcore Partycon 2019
GBJ: I’m a definite “go with the flow” guy. I definitely like being spontaneous, like that’s my thing. I just went to PAX, and it's funny because a lot of that was ... well, it started off as a troll. My dude Mega Ran was like, "Hey, who am I seeing at PAX?" And I said, "Me, if you give me a room and a ticket to get there. I'm dead serious, I will go to PAX right now." [laughs] And he said, "All right, bet. Call me." I called him and he said, "All right, you're on to go." I think three days before PAX started, he said, "Hey, yo, can you do a song?" And I was like, "Yeah I'll do two songs for you." Literally, I had to hurry up and hit somebody up to get a song done for a concert! But yeah, I jumped up there, did it, and it was cool. Again, spontaneous stuff. It's fun!
That’s awesome! That is such a big part of success that people don’t talk about, where you do have to put in the hard work, you do have to build your own self up and build your talents and put your stuff out there, but you also have to be open to when you're lucky enough that people notice and people are willing to help you out. I think a lot of people feel like, “oh man, I shouldn’t take this opportunity, there’s someone better who could go to PAX instead of me,” but if you joke about it and then someone says “hey, you wanna come,” you take that opportunity if you can!
GBJ: You do it, you absolutely do it. There’s so many people who don’t do it! It blows my mind! Even the dude IQ, he’s the one who actually got me there, he actually was saying, “there’s plenty of people that I know who will go, ‘yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll come,’ but then flake,” so he was like, “thanks for coming, because you could have easily did that.” [laughs] I was like, “Nah man, I’m actually about this!”
I'm not oblivious to the fact that there are plenty of people, just a crowd of, "Oh man, it should be me. How come I'm not the guy in the seat?" And I'm like, "I dunno man, are you really putting in the work that you think you are or are you slacking most of the time?" There are a lot of slackers! [laughs]
I always tell people, I do have an “unfair” advantage. I definitely was born with a “give me the spotlight” personality very early on. I’m very, I’d say, respectful about it, I definitely want to stay very humble and I don’t try to step on toes while doing it, but if you’re gonna give me an opportunity to show out, I’m about to show out! [laughs]
It seems like a really natural balance for you. You’re a really open, fun person to talk to, but you definitely come across as humble.
GBJ: Well thank you very much. Yeah, it's one thing that I’ve always tried doing over the years. I’ve always told people I try to be as well-rounded as a person as possible. I think that's what helps me do all of this — I think I can talk to almost anybody about anything. I'm this guy, I like anime, I like video games, I like comics and stuff, but I can still talk to you about what happened in the last basketball game, the last football game, I can still talk to you about politics. I can talk to you about a lot of things, and I think having knowledge in a lot of areas and a lot of interests makes it so you never have a shortage of things to say or talk about. I definitely like being a people person.
So, we were talking about this a little bit before we started recording: there’s a huge amount of good anime coming out literally every single season, but I wanted to ask if there are any currently airing anime that you’re keeping up with?
GBJ: Currently airing? Love Is War and SPY x FAMILY are the two, I guess also Shield Hero, but I’m not really liking Season 2 that much right now, but I’m keeping up with it. I hope that it picks up. But those are the three that I’m keeping up with, and then the two that just finished — well, you know earlier last year, I mean we’re already, it’s May — but I just finished ODDTAXI and Ranking of Kings. I loved Ranking of Kings. I think Bojji is a dope character. He is adorable and I would kill for him! [laughs]
He is the BEST. Do you think SPY x FAMILY is going to make it into one of your songs?
GBJ: So, I just talked about this last night with somebody, and I was like I literally do NOT know what angle I would attack this song from. It’s hard. It's so weird! Do I attack it from the mindset of the child? The husband? The wife? Just being a spy? Do I try to take it and bar out with swaggy references? There's so much going on in the main story and sub-plots, because there's three stories happening at one time!
GBJ: And I’m just like “oh my god,” I just don’t know what I would wanna do. So until I kind of get that figured out, I’m going to chill and hope that the idea finds me.
Totally. Well I look forward to it when it does make it on to your channels.
GBJ: Thank you very much, keep your fingers crossed for me.
If you collaborate with anyone, who would you collaborate with?
GBJ: My answer usually is always either IDK or Denzel Curry — I’d probably go with Denzel Curry though, because he’s more aligned with what I do as far as anime, comic books and all that stuff goes, and energy. But stylistically, I know I fit more with IDK. But yeah, man, a Denzel Curry feature right now? Yeah, that would be awesome!
Well if either of them are reading this, you know who to contact!
GBJ: Let’s do it, let’s do it. It seems like Denzel Curry started to use Twitter a lot more lately, so I’m gonna poke him a little bit ... start planting seeds. Also, funnily enough, IDK and Denzel Curry just released a song together last week, so... [laughs]
GBJ: It’s definitely one of those things where in my head it feels fully possible, it’s just figuring out the way to make it possible. So yeah, you know, fingers crossed.
Well, I’m pulling for you.
Listen to GameboyJones' Naruto inspired song "I WANT THE SMOKE" on Spotify here
Well, I hate to say it, but we’re at the last question.
Do you have anything in the works that fans should look forward to and do you have any parting words for your fans or anime fans in general?
GBJ: I’d say currently working on a track for Madara [was in progress at time of recording, now released] with my dude Cam Steady that will be dope, very high energy, moshpit type energy. I’m looking forward to releasing this song. I’m gonna be performing at MomoCon at the end of May. [again, at time of interview] I have another performance in Chicago in August I think. I got two concerts and a song dropping that I know of.
GBJ: You know, I told people 2022 is my year of figuring things out.
Totally. Well, it sounds like you’re doing it! Anything else you want to say to your fans before we hang up?
GBJ: Stream “Switch My Gear” — that’s the song I released this week [at time of recording] that I want to go viral so bad, and I think I can make it happen on TikTok. I’m gonna will it into existence, so hopefully when this thing comes out, I have done that!
Alright, let’s go boys, make it happen.
You can watch and listen to GameboyJones' music on his YouTube channel and Spotify page. You can also follow him on his Instagram and Twitter accounts!
Cayla Coats tweets @ceicocat. You can find her rarely updated YouTube channel here.
