In July 2026, Cz TIGER — rapper and Founder of Dexfilmz — will release a Japan album. Only the artists he can genuinely say he loves and respects are gathered on this record.
Why do Jose Guapo, Skooly, Shad Da God ( T.I.’s cousin ), T.I., Young Dro, Young Thug, 2 Chainz, and Bun B place their trust in him?
In the same year, he is finishing a second album in parallel. The names lined up on it are etched deep into the history and the present of Atlanta, Houston, and Southern Hip Hop. And these are not features bought through a manager with big money.
Bun B drove himself to the restaurant to meet Cz TIGER — on the same day his wife was undergoing surgery. He had quietly paid the entire bill in advance. On day one in Atlanta, Jose Guapo called him out: “In front of the hotel. Now. Now. Now.” He sat across from T.I. for two hours and talked about the future of hip-hop. With 2 Chainz, he’s already side-by-side in the studio; a project is in motion.
Japan and overseas. What Cz TIGER has built up over more than a decade in each territory is set to land in 2026 as two albums, at almost the same time. This is a view with almost no precedent in Japanese hip-hop.
His methodology is also his own. Cz TIGER positions Speaker Knockerz — the South Carolina-born rapper who died at 19 in 2014 — as “the first person in the world to do the hip-hop style that became the mainstream we have today.” He has studied that approach and folded it into his own work: home recording, self-shot videos, releasing independently, and running the whole engine alone without leaning on a major. The origin of that methodology is here. Behind it sits his own decade: dropping out of college, paying back the scholarship while studying English in the library. “I’m doing this so I can eat” — a man who poured the hours others spent playing into English now stands at the center of Southern Hip Hop.
All of this is unfolding around a single Japanese artist, in parallel, as of the April 2026 interview. To consume it as the success story of “a Japanese rapper who broke overseas” would miss too much. This is the record of one Japanese man being recognized — as a human being — by the legends of Southern Hip Hop and the keypersons shaping its present, over more than a decade. It is also the trace of how he is now trying to return what he built in that time back to the Japanese scene, through the Japan album dropping in June 2026.
This piece is Part 1 of an exclusive interview that documents that current position in his own voice. The interviewer is Cook. This is the second installment, following the first HIPHOPCs Exclusive published in June 2025: “The Japanese Rapper Who Built Connections in the South — Cz TIGER and Legend Bun B (UGK) on the Making of ‘Let’s Get To It’.” The editorial team does not intervene; we simply lay out the exchange between the two as it happened.
Into the Interview
Cook: Thank you so much for doing this. As always, appreciate you.
Cz TIGER: Hello, nice to meet you. Thanks for having me.
Cook: Well, “nice to meet you” isn’t quite right (laughs). I’ve been the one handling your interviews. Thanks again. First of all, Cz TIGER — I’m a huge fan.
Cz TIGER: Oh, really? That makes me happy. Thank you.
Cook: I was bumping “Dojo” constantly. Listening seriously.
Cz TIGER: The fact that you named that track means you’ve been listening deep.
Cook: I love “Dojo” and “Cups” too.
Cz TIGER: Thank you. That’s really nice to hear. Those are tracks I haven’t pushed hard, but I treasure them. They’re personal favorites.
Cook: The lyrics are seriously sharp.
Cz TIGER: When someone listens to the lyrics — not just the visuals — that’s really what gets me. Thank you.
One to Two Months in Atlanta — “The Work Is Moving Faster Than I Thought”
Cook: How long were you in Atlanta this time?
Cz TIGER: Two weeks, then a gap, then a week at T.I.’s. And from tomorrow, another week. Total, somewhere between one and two months.
Cook: That’s a pretty long stay.
Cz TIGER: Yeah. The work’s moving faster than I expected.
Cook: I saw on Instagram — you and Bun B walking into Trill Burgers together. You could tell from the footage how close you really are.
Cz TIGER: Honestly, it’s unbelievable to me how good that feels. Even now, if I call him he picks up instantly. 24 hours a day — whenever I call, he answers. He talks to me like an uncle in the family. He gives me his time without holding any of it back. That day was actually the day his wife was getting surgery, and he still came because “I made plans with Taiga.” Drove himself, showed up right on time. And the staff at the spot already knew Cz TIGER was coming.
Cook: Wow.
Cz TIGER: This time I brought BANNINGS (Code6, ELGIN, Kenzo) — about five of us — and on the ground he treated us exactly the same as always. Called me “brother.” After we ordered, the staff said, “Bun B has already covered the entire bill.” He had paid for everything.
Cook: Damn, that’s wild.
Cz TIGER: So I really felt: he sees us as family.
Cook: That’s incredible (laughs).
Cz TIGER: The man is too great. But honestly — anyone naturally connected to rap is, in fact, absolutely influenced by him. Lean, cars, grillz — trace the roots of rap and you arrive at him. Same with Pimp C. I even went to the house Pimp C used to use, and got to record a podcast there. Bun B doesn’t just want people to push him alone; he’s always thinking about all of Texas. Even as a star, he makes time for fans, for me. You see clips of him carrying things himself for others — that kind of conduct is hard to believe. It still surprises me.
Cook: Which makes it clear it’s not the kind of relationship you buy by paying for a feature. There’s a real bond there.
Cz TIGER: There aren’t many people who pick up on that nuance. So when someone like you, Cook, catches it — that means a lot. Really.
Cook: No, really. Bun B feels like family with you, doesn’t he.
The 2 Chainz Project Is Also in Motion — “Both His ████ and Mine Are Lined Up”
Cook: Last time we spoke, the 2 Chainz thing — did that one fall through?
Cz TIGER: We met in person at Street Execs Studios. The conversation is moving forward.
Cook: Seriously?!
Cz TIGER: It doesn’t stop, honestly. Pretty much everything is going right.
Cook: That’s amazing. So there’s a chance he’ll be on the next album?
Cz TIGER: Very much so. Look forward to it. Tracks are already done and music videos already shot with Skooly, Jose Guapo, and Mook. We also have one with Mike Jones done. And there’s a Texas artist named Kirko Bangz — got one with him too.
And what’s in motion right now is T.I., plus King (T.I.’s son) and Zonnique (T.I.’s daughter). She’s an R&B singer.
Cook: That’s a stacked lineup. I’m a little stunned.
Cz TIGER: On top of that, Snootie Wild’s son — a kid called Lil Snootie. We’re still deciding whether to put him on the album too.
In Atlanta Before 2015 — “They Know I’m Not Here for the Fashion”
Cook: Just going to Atlanta in the first place takes guts. But because you went, real connections like this could happen.
Cz TIGER: Coincidentally, I started going to Atlanta around 2015 — right before the first wave when everyone started saying “fashion” and “trap.” That timing was huge. The people there understand that I’m not in this for the fashion. That’s where I differ from a lot of other rappers right now, and I’m conscious of it myself.
Cz TIGER: Atlanta right now is locking in pretty hard — uniting and saying, “let’s do this together, as Atlanta.” The culture’s been taken too much; the streets have escalated; the beefs have gotten serious; in the end the police get involved. They’re very aware that the culture is being taken worldwide as fashion. That’s the thing that’s shifted the most this time — staying there properly, you can feel it.
Two Hours One-on-One With T.I. — “I Wasn’t Nervous At All”
Cook: Cz TIGER, you really are a man of action — no doubt about it.
Cz TIGER: I just genuinely love music (laughs). Once you love it, you want to know all of it — history and everything. So I’m a complete nerd on that. Plus action. I don’t really think of myself as “brave” or anything. When I sat across from T.I. for two hours, one-on-one, I wasn’t nervous at all. That comes from a confidence inside me, and an absolute respect for their culture that I’ve carried into everything I do. That’s why we could talk as equals. I was able to make even T.I. say, “Hold on — this guy might actually have it.”
Cz TIGER: Hip-hop is, ultimately, American. You know that feeling — when a non-Japanese Asian plays a samurai, or Hollywood gets Japanese culture wrong — that off feeling? You want it to be authentic. That feeling is the same in me. They see that, they understand that’s where I’m standing.
Cz TIGER: A while back, everyone just thought, “If it sells, it’s good.” But lately the artists themselves are talking — even behind the scenes — about: “Now that hip-hop has gotten this huge, where do we take it from here?” Jose Guapo, and others — I felt them all talking about it seriously.
Day One — Family Since Age 12, From Las Vegas, and Guapo’s “Now, Now, Now”
Cook: Two hours one-on-one with T.I. — that’s wild.
Cz TIGER: Day one we landed at the airport, brought all the bags, met up with friends. My family over there lives in Atlanta — Black guy named Puncho, from Fulton. He’s been living with me for a long time, since he was 12 and I was around 21. I covered his food, his school fees, everything. Pretty much my little brother. He’s family now. So part of day one was getting everyone together — my Japanese crew and Atlanta — in one place. I figured day one would be that, and was trying to keep some space, but —
Cz TIGER: Jose Guapo hits me up: “Where you at right now?” (laughs) I started explaining — “Gonna check into the hotel first, then…” — and he cuts me off: “No no, before any of that, come now. Now. Now.” Exactly the vibe of being back in your hometown (laughs). “Car okay? Hotel okay? That’s what I’m worried about,” that kind of thing (laughs).
Cook: Hahahaha.
Cz TIGER: “Just come right now,” he says (laughs). I went over, and it was like no time had passed at all — just the usual close conversation, headed to the house. The rest of my crew hadn’t met him yet — the BANNINGS guys with me — so it was a first meeting for everyone. So he told them to wait outside, not in the house.
Cook: Damn, scary (laughs).
Cz TIGER: Right. So we caught up, talked about the plan. Whether to shoot music videos, whether to meet Skooly. And the thing is, XVL (the Atlanta label I’m on) is the most family, the core to me — so I always run things by Guapo. Like, if I’m doing a track with Bun B — “is that cool?” If I’m doing it elsewhere, I always report.
Cook: I see.
Cz TIGER: If I get that wrong, I look like a “dick rider” (slang for someone hanging on others’ clout / clinging to authority) — or just a guy who likes Black people. They have to understand “I’m not that” — or I won’t even be able to meet anyone on the other side.
Cook: Yeah. That’s real. That’s admirable, honestly. And lately even big names move that way, don’t they.
“99% Of It Isn’t on Social Media. Only 1% Is”
Cz TIGER: Pretty much. What I show is, honestly, 99% not online. Maybe 1%. Same on their side. Instagram, all of that, it’s a small slice. What matters is the time you actually spend together — whatever country you’re in. For me, if I had to express a color I represent — not to be confusing, but red. And the people over there are the same. When a color is involved, responsibility comes with it.
Cook: No doubt. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Cz TIGER: So they’re very strict about it. There are people I’d love to meet, but living there, you learn the rules. It’s not for me to reach out to 2 Chainz directly. The flow has to be: he asks for me, we meet in person. That’s been told to me. Same with Bun B. Unless I’ve built the kind of relationship where they ask for me from the other side, I can’t even tell Guapo about it.
Cook: I see.
Cz TIGER: So I focus on first building the deep relationship — being able to enter — and being able to explain. I study for that. And on the other side, they want to know Japan — Japanese history. I love Japan too. I’ve studied Japanese history hard, and I keep studying.
“A Diplomat in the Shadows” — Standing as a Japanese, on the Shoulders of Those Before
Cz TIGER: I think of myself, on my own, as a shadow diplomat — not an official one, but for real. If you don’t go into other countries carrying that level of responsibility, the people who think “Japan is cool” will be let down, or get the wrong idea. But, getting this far — the fact that people tell me “Japan is cool” — that’s thanks to my ancestors.
Cz TIGER: Japanese people did cool things before me. There were the ones who went first — in J-POP, in everything. That carried through, and that’s why “Japan is cool” today. The people who built the cars, the trains, the technology, the medicine, the scientists. So when I’m abroad, I act with the constant awareness that I’m representing Japan.
Cook: I see.
Cz TIGER: A lot has happened on my side too. Losing my partner — that hit me pretty hard.
Bun B, Mook, Guapo — “Everyone I’m Tied To Has Lost the Person Closest to Them”
Cz TIGER: So I get how Bun B feels. I get how Mook feels. Same with Guapo. Everyone I’m connected to has lost the person closest to them. Coincidence, maybe. And the music those kinds of people made has saved me.
Cz TIGER: Take Guapo — “Dub” (the dance move) and “Let’s Get It” — words everyone uses casually now — he made those. So I go directly, greet him in person, and ask: “Is it okay if I officially use this?” I want to seriously get permission for everything. Same when I use Screw — I go through the right channels at Screw and UGK.
Cook: I see.
Cz TIGER: I just hate the idea of using something without permission. Precisely because I love it, doing it sloppy is out. So I always show the proper respect. I’ve been doing it that way — earnestly, almost to a fault — for as long as I can remember. That’s why the other side feels, “Damn, this dude gets it.” There are words you can’t say without understanding.
Cook: Yeah, that’s real.
Cz TIGER: I don’t want to preach it. I’d rather show it with my own back — let people see it that way. Go abroad, bring more of overseas back to Japan — that’s the best approach.
Cook: No doubt.
Cz TIGER: Because it’s not mine to begin with — I immediately put respect on it and say “Shout out ◯◯.” Shout-outs really are important when you’re moving as a rapper.
Cook: Yeah.
Cz TIGER: Yellow Bucks used to come to my shows privately — before he blew up — and he’d tell me, “Taiga-kun, I think your style is dope.” That’s how we got to doing a track together.
Cook: Really! That’s a side tangent, but you’ve been in a music video with Yellow Bucks too, right?
Cz TIGER: Yeah. He’s serious about it too. Genuinely loves music.
Cook: Wow.
On Zone 3 — “Six Administrative Zones, And This Is the Third”
Cook: I wanted to ask about Zone 3. I don’t fully understand it. How would you explain it?
Cz TIGER: Got it. The state of Georgia is huge, and Atlanta is one city within it. But Atlanta is by far the biggest, so it’s pretty much the only one people know. Inside Atlanta, the administration has divided things into six zones, 1 through 6.
Cz TIGER: When I wasn’t around, Kenzo from BANNINGS asked someone on the ground: “What’s Zone 3 like? What’s the power structure?” And apparently the answer was: at the top, Peewee Longway, Lucci; below them, Guapo and Cz TIGER on roughly the same level; below that, this guy Skooly; and below that, Future, Young Thug, Lil Baby. That’s the order he heard from a regular ████ guy in Atlanta. Kenzo was shocked too.
Cook: I see.
Cz TIGER: My territory — my jurisdiction — is Zone 3. Inside Zone 3 I can stay anywhere, sleep at anyone’s place, even be alone. But outside of that, the safety can’t be guaranteed, so right now the territories are divided. So “Zone 3” for me means: that’s my territory, my home zone.
Cook: I see. Then, being based in Zone 3, has your view of Atlanta changed?
Cz TIGER: Yeah. Outside of hip-hop, there’s really no work. Tech companies have moved in, sure, but there’s nowhere to even get a basic part-time job. Music is literally the only work. So saying “I represent all of Atlanta” — that would be presumptuous, even impossible. As a Japanese, if I’m going to represent properly — spread it to the world without embarrassing anyone — I need to position myself somewhere specific.
Same Birthday as Jose Guapo → “Twin From Another Country”
Cz TIGER: So naturally — without even saying it — Guapo and I both turned down a contract offer from the same major label. The path is the same. And our birthdays are the same.
Cook: Same birthday?
Cz TIGER: Yeah. That’s why we signed it as “Twin.”
Cook: So that’s why it’s written “Twin From Another Country”?
Cz TIGER: Yeah, exactly.
Cook: “Same Birthday” was written too, right?
Cz TIGER: “Same Birthday,” yeah — same age, too. “You’re literally a twin,” that kind of feel. We really are close in that sense. And this Zone 3 family — calling it “my second hometown” this time. The reason I deliberately don’t put it all out in photos: when you go home, when you gather with relatives, you don’t post the family group photo in real time, right? It’s like that — we’re living it as family. My values and theirs line up that closely.
End of Part 1 — Eleven Names Assembled Under One Condition: “Loved and Respected”
Part 1 closes here. Let’s reset and look again at the position Cz TIGER occupies right now, as it surfaces through what he’s said.
First, look forward to the Japan album dropping in 2026.
And alongside it, an overseas album — with T.I., Mike Jones, Kirko Bangz, Skooly, Jose Guapo, Mook, King, Zonnique, and Lil Snootie as potential guests — is being built piece by piece, based in Atlanta. Bun B drove himself to dinner on the day of his wife’s surgery, and quietly paid the bill before anyone arrived. Jose Guapo called him out on day one — “Come now. Now. Now.” He sat with T.I. one-on-one for two hours. The ████ with 2 Chainz is in motion.
None of this is something you can buy. It’s a view that only emerges from more than a decade of accumulation: the home recording, the English study in the library, the visits to Pimp C’s house, the places Screw and UGK left behind, a single call to Guapo, the proper bow to Bun B — the stubborn, earnest insistence on going through the right channels. As he says himself, “Because it’s not mine to begin with, I immediately put respect on it and say ‘Shout out ◯◯.’” Cz TIGER is a man who has walked the land he stands on and bowed his head, one by one, to the people who left their names on that ground.
In Part 2, we’ll dig deeper: what was said in those two hours with T.I., how the overseas album is taking shape, and what Cz TIGER is pouring into the Japan album of July 2026. How will he return the trust he earned in Atlanta back to the Japanese scene? As before, the editorial team will not intervene; we’ll lay out the exchange between the two as it happened.
For the original first connection with Bun B and the “Let’s Get To It” production process, please read alongside this piece: “The Japanese Rapper Who Built Connections in the South — Cz TIGER and Legend Bun B (UGK) on the Making of ‘Let’s Get To It’.” This piece is the sequel, recording ten months later.
In Part 2, we’ll go even further into his trajectory. Stay tuned.
Written by: Cook / HIPHOPCs
Interview date: April 2026
Interview cooperation: Cz TIGER (Dexfilmz CEO / Founder)
This article is based on information as of the April 2026 interview.
