CityBaby Interview: “On Me,” “Artist” and a Move Beyond “Rapper”

LucieAugust 19, 2026Updated August 20, 2026Exclusive Interviews20 min read

CityBaby interview about On Me, Artist and moving beyond the rapper label — CityBaby interview — original English-edition artwork by HIPHOPCs.

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Translation and verification note: This English edition was translated and edited from HIPHOPCs’ Japanese interview published on July 2, 2026. CityBaby’s first-person meaning and the question-and-answer order are preserved. Release titles and dates were checked against TuneCore Japan, Apple Music, CityBaby’s official YouTube uploads and Netflix’s official pages on August 19, 2026. The Japanese edition’s supplied photographs are not reproduced here.

For an artist, remaining a spectator can become painful. The moment CityBaby saw himself looking up at somebody else’s stage, he felt both powerlessness and the fear that everything he had built was beginning to blur.

So he chose to stand up again—from the person looking up to the person others look up to, and from “rapper” toward the larger word “artist.”

CityBaby entered 2026 with a different pace. His run of singles and music videos included collaborations with Swag Dawg Mafia, 136Youngboss, Kfk Vega of Link Hood and Sadboiterra. On July 1, he released the single “Artist.”

Before that release, HIPHOPCs spoke with CityBaby about his upbringing, his ideas about being an artist, his work as a radio host, and the making of “On Me” and “Artist.” What does the word “artist” mean to him now? Interview and original Japanese text: Lucie.

Table of Contents

A mother’s record shelf

Lucie: Please introduce yourself.

CityBaby: My name is CityBaby. I was born on April 10, and I am from Fukuoka Prefecture.

Lucie: Your artist biography says that Michael Jackson made a strong impression on you when you were young. How did you first encounter Black music?

CityBaby: The biggest reason was that my mother loved Black music. There were many records and CDs at home from the time I was small, so I had many chances to hear it. I was too young to know which song was by which artist, though. [Laughs.] My mother ran a jazz bar until just before she gave birth to me, so R&B and music from overseas were always close. Her presence had a very large influence on me.

From the nightlife world back to music

Lucie: You began writing lyrics at eighteen, then hit a wall and spent several years in what you call the “nightlife world.” How do you look back on that period now?

CityBaby: I think it was necessary. I learned how society works and how to make money, and parts of that experience are useful in my music career now. So I think I needed that time.

Lucie: You resumed making music seriously in 2019. What made you try again?

CityBaby: I really love live shows. Even while I was working, I always made time to see artists perform. After watching many kinds of shows, I suddenly thought, “Music really is what I want to do.” I was around twenty-two or twenty-three and felt that, if I did not try once more while I was young, I might lose the chance. My work was stable and I was earning enough to live comfortably, but I wanted the challenge more than I wanted to continue that life. So I shifted to music.

A changing sound and a wide community

Lucie: After working in a crew, you became a solo artist. Around the 2022 album No Time, your style leaned more toward a rugged boom-bap sound. From 2023, it broadened into trap, drill and rage. Did your mindset change?

CityBaby: The biggest thing was that the music I considered cool kept changing. When I was in high school, KOHH—now Yuki Chiba—and AK-69 were popular, and of course I listened to them. But I am from Fukuoka, where I had many chances to hear boom bap, so that style felt natural at first. From there, I encountered other genres one by one and brought them into my own expression.

Lucie: Does Fukuoka have many artists with that rugged style?

CityBaby: I listened a lot to what you might call gangsta rap—artists such as SHITAKILI IX and BIG Iz’ MAFIA. My impression is that Fukuoka has many people working in that kind of style.

Lucie: Your community is broad too: Swag Dawg Mafia from your home region, 136Youngboss from Kyoto, Kfk Vega from Chiba’s Link Hood, Sadboiterra and others. How did those connections happen?

CityBaby: I have always been in the street scene, so some connections happen naturally, while others come from coincidences piling up. Maybe we also have similar ways of hanging out. A lot of those people drink heavily. [Laughs.] Many friendships began at parties.

Why he invests in songs and music videos

Lucie: Your credits include mastering engineer Hiroshi Shiota, and the investment in the music feels substantial. The videos are polished too. Do you think consciously about presentation?

CityBaby: I do. I pay attention to branding and to how everything is presented, from the song to the video. I plan to put even more into it.

Lucie: Even more? It already feels like a lot.

CityBaby: Absolutely. I think I will become even more particular. I am seriously considering moving into overseas markets, and I want to become an artist who can compete globally. That is the central aim. I have also always loved shows in which lighting, sound and the whole staff build one stage together. When I stand somewhere that leaves no room to hide, I want to be able to perform properly. That is why I make every detail with the eventual performance in mind.

The period when he stopped performing

Lucie: Around 2025, there was a period when you deliberately limited live activity. Why, and what did you gain from it?

CityBaby: I was struggling badly with songwriting. If you cannot make new songs, you have to keep performing the old ones. That is not fun, and it is disrespectful to the audience. I wanted to make music I could be satisfied with first and then return to the stage. I decided to limit shows until I had a set list. I stopped until around April.

Lucie: Almost like writer’s block. What set it off?

CityBaby: Many young artists were emerging. Suddenly there were more artists and friends whom I thought were doing something cooler than me. At the time I went to clubs every week and constantly heard the newest sounds, but I could not process any of it into songs. My life became chaotic, and people around me were growing. I think I became negative and started wondering whether I could do it anymore.

Lucie: But you have come through that now.

CityBaby: Yes. This year I finally began making songs I could be satisfied with, and I could increase the release pace. I now have a clear picture of how I want to move over roughly the next year, and I am following it.

Between Japan and Thailand

Lucie: You are also moving into Thailand and other parts of Asia. Why Thailand?

CityBaby: I simply like Thailand very much, and I feel comfortable there. At first I invested in a business locally. Then I happened to connect with a Thai rapper, so I began spending more time there. Now I am based in both places.

Lucie: What is Thai hip-hop like?

CityBaby: It feels very street-level. There is more energy and power than in Japan. You can feel that people are fighting to survive wherever they are.

Baby Radio, another role

Lucie: You started posting Baby Radio in 2025. It is close to a podcast, with conversations featuring guests such as Sadboiterra and Nia Varan. What made you begin?

CityBaby: I had wanted to make something for a long time. At that moment, a conversation format felt like the most interesting thing I could do. I chose the form that I personally found most enjoyable.

Lucie: How do you want to expand it?

CityBaby: I plan to make it much bigger. More people have become involved, and now we work as a team of around nine. I want to broaden it as a piece of content.

“On Me” and “Artist”

Lucie: You had just released the “On Me” music video. How did it come together?

CityBaby: Everything for “On Me,” from making the song to the video, was completed in Thailand. I went there with the beatmaker TKS, and we spent three days and two nights at a cottage, hanging out and making it casually. A camera operator was there and filmed us, but at first we were not even planning a music video. As the filming continued, I thought, “This could become the video exactly as it is,” so we began adding lip-sync shots partway through. The whole experience is a good memory.

Release-date note: The official music video premiered on June 13, 2026; Apple Music lists the streaming single release on July 15. The video and DSP release were separate dates.

Lucie: Then came the July 1 single “Artist.” What kind of song is it?

CityBaby: There is a Netflix drama that people have been talking about, Straight to Hell. I rapped over a UK Garage beat that samples its theme. I found the series very interesting, and it had become a personal trend for me, so I asked DOC, a beatmaker from Wakayama, “Can you make something with this?” An incredible beat came back immediately, and before I knew it, the song was complete.

Editorial rights boundary: CityBaby described the beat as sampling the theme associated with Netflix’s Straight to Hell. HIPHOPCs has not independently reviewed the sample source, composition credits or clearance documentation.

Lucie: That theme is iconic. Listening to you today, I also hear the side of you that runs a business. I wondered whether you saw something of yourself in the drama’s Kazuko Hosoki.

CityBaby: Maybe. I had a label called CityBaby Entertainment through which I released my music, and this year I incorporated it as a company. In a sense, it was another start. I plan to make it much bigger.

Official release: CityBaby, “Artist” on TuneCore Japan.

Trying to shape an era

Lucie: You have one side that makes music and another, through Baby Radio, that spreads culture as a messenger. Where do you ultimately want those two sides to lead?

CityBaby: I want to become somebody who can shape an era. I want to go far enough to leave clear proof that I lived. I like running a business and using my head; I am not doing those things unwillingly. But I think about everything with music as the central axis, and maybe I have not fully grasped that goal yet.

Lucie: So right now you are betting everything on music.

CityBaby: Yes. At the time of this interview, I was planning two more releases in July in addition to “Artist,” and I expect the releases to keep coming. Please look forward to them.

From calling himself an artist to proving it

“Artist” places CityBaby’s direct statements of value, ambition and everyday reality over a UK Garage beat by Wakayama producer DOC. The important line here is attribution: the sampling account belongs to CityBaby, while the official TuneCore release page independently confirms the title and July 1 release date.

Netflix’s own description of Straight to Hell presents Kazuko Hosoki’s rise from postwar poverty through Tokyo nightlife, business and national media fame. CityBaby connected that story, in his own reading, to his experience in nightlife and to incorporating CityBaby Entertainment. The parallel is interpretive; it does not make the two lives equivalent.

From Fukuoka and the nightlife world, CityBaby now divides his time between Japan and Thailand, creates across musical styles, hosts conversations and runs a company. He is trying to move the word “artist” from a title he uses to something his work can demonstrate. That process is still under way.

Official context and further reading

Interview and Japanese text: Lucie / HIPHOPCs
English translation and verification: HIPHOPCs editorial team
Japanese-edition photographs: supplied to HIPHOPCs by CITYBABY ENTERTAINMENT; not reproduced in this English edition
English-edition artwork: original HIPHOPCs editorial design