(This is what happens when Jenifer Wofford [1] goes to live in Europe. She finds these things and sends them back to us.)

Meet Blumio [2]. Yes, that's right, Blume, as in "flower," and io as in "silly rapper name." He's a Japanese German from Duesseldorf, who got his moniker from hanging out with friends on hallucinogens [3] (somebody saw him all flowery one day.) But the name is appropriate because, in content anyway, he's kind of a solo, latter day, Japanese German Arrested Development, with less soul, but maybe more humor.

Apparently, at the age of 17, Blumio won some sort of MC contest and met Don Tone [4], with whom he seems to have produced most of his music, including his early mixtapes. He was signed to L Records (which seems to be defunct or hitting some sort of snag, since its website [5] gives a 404 message.) Blumio hints in the interview (above) that something shady went down. Anyway, apparently through L, he burst onto the surprisingly robust German hip-hop scene with the single "Meine Lieblingsrapper [6]" (My Favorite Rappers,) in which he parodied a number of popular German rappers, a tactic that went viral. He went on to build an audience for his songs via YouTube (the above vid for "Hey Mr. Nazi" has had over 600,000 hits in a single month.)

Since whatever happened to L Records, he decided to found his own label, Japsensoul (or "Jap-soul"), and just came out with his first album in June, The Yellow Album [7]. No word yet on how it's doing. In fact, I had trouble finding out any information on him in German or US cyberspace. But I'll keep an eye out. (By the random way, there seems to be a weird strain of orientalism among German rappers. There's a "Taichi" [who's German], and a "Bushido" [who's Northern African.])

Anyway, Blumio says he wants to break out of the hip-hop mold ... and I'm not sure he's done that yet, but he's a funny and engaging rapper with a sort of pacifist, internationalist worldview. Some lyrics from "Hey Mr. Nazi" (above):

It's not easy dealing with loneliness
Everyone wants to be surrounded by likeminded people
But then, without meaning to, you're in a group of friends pointing your finger at outsiders
And no lie, it can happen fast
Most people have racist impulses somewhere
I see racist teachers and racist officers, racist Germans and racist foreigners
And I used to be a little racist myself; do you see how easy it is?
Yeah, I know you're always hearing me say "jap" this and "jap" that
But basically I don't care; I'm a nice guy, and that word is sapping my power
So today I'm casting off all my prejudices

Here's another song, "Ching Chang Chong", in what appears to be a fan video. The rap goes by too fast for me to catch everything, but here are some choice snippets (which rhyme and scan in German, natch):

Kid, you have a tattoo in Chinese characters
You think it means "luck" but it says "penis-face"
You're so arrogant it's indescribable
We Asians are likeable and modest
But enough is enough, I'm gonna fuck you in the ass
Blumio, the first slant-eyed star

... ching chang chong, ching chang chong
Yo fuck it, if you don't like me
Then "ching chang chong" means you can all fuck yourselves

A sentiment we can all get behind, yes?