AUDIO RADICAL Interview: Corporate Life, Genre Collisions and AI
Interview and original Japanese article by Rei Kamiya
This English edition was translated and edited from the Japanese interview. The order and meaning of all 22 questions and answers have been preserved; minor conversational repetition was tightened for clarity. English translation and editing by HIPHOPCs.
Hannya. Kojoe. Ryofu Karuma. JESSE of RIZE and The BONEZ. YDIZZY. Jinmenusagi. Playsson. Young Zetton. Kamui. HIZAGUTYA. ShowyRENZO. e5.
The names do not line up neatly by generation or style. The beatmaker connecting all of them is AUDIO RADICAL.
In 2025 alone, his range ran from Hannya’s “konnichiwa” in June to “HIGHER” with Kojoe in September and “ICHIMOTSU” with Ryofu Karuma in November. The genres moved just as freely: boom bap, trap, rage and hyperpop.
His single “noroi” with e5 arrived on August 4, 2026. At the time of this interview, he was also preparing “IN SYNC” with AIRIE and Elee Tia Vivi for an early-September release.
There is another part of his story that had rarely appeared in public: AUDIO RADICAL also works full-time as a manager at a publicly listed company. In this interview, he explains how corporate sales sharpened his music pitches, why he starts making beats at 6 a.m., and why he sees AI as a collaborator rather than an enemy.
Why the Name Starts With “AUDIO”
HIPHOPCs: First, tell us who AUDIO RADICAL is. What led you into music production, and how did the name become a serious project?
AUDIO RADICAL: I played in a mixture-rock and nu-metal band when I was at university. After the band broke up, I started making hip-hop beats because I wanted something I could do alone.
I began operating properly as AUDIO RADICAL around 2022. The first Japanese rap song I produced was Young Zetton’s “Dirty Fuck Night,” which was uploaded to his SoundCloud at the time but is no longer there. Before that, from around 2020, I was quietly selling beats to people overseas through BeatStars.
I chose AUDIO RADICAL because so many artists I liked had names beginning with “Audio”—Audioslave, Audio Active and Audio Push, for example. I decided to follow that pattern.
HIPHOPCs: If you had to define your sound in one phrase, what would it be?
AUDIO RADICAL: I would call it a mixture.
Just as mixture rock absorbed reggae, industrial music and other styles beyond hip-hop and rock, I try any genre that makes me want to create.
His November 2023 debut album, CROSS OVA, made that principle literal. Trap and boom bap sit beside cyberpunk and nu-metal across the record. TuneCore’s official page records a No. 80 peak on Apple Music Japan’s Hip-Hop/Rap albums chart in November 2023 and another appearance on Japan’s iTunes hip-hop/rap albums chart in August 2025.
Why He Had Not Publicized His Corporate Career
HIPHOPCs: You work full-time and hold a management position at a publicly listed company. Why had you not made that background part of your public story, and why discuss it now?
AUDIO RADICAL: There was no particular advantage to writing it anywhere, so I simply did not. I spoke about it normally with rappers I met in person.
Now that I have built up a body of work and release music consistently, I thought the career itself—working at a listed company while operating as a hip-hop producer—might be an interesting part of the story. That is why I decided to discuss it in the media for the first time. Maybe “not being thug at all” is part of my identity too. [Laughs]
HIPHOPCs: Corporate life and hip-hop can look like distant worlds. Having experienced both, where do they overlap, and where are they completely different?
AUDIO RADICAL: In any world, the people who have earned real respect tend to show strong manners, consideration and basic humanity toward others. That is genuinely common to both. [Laughs]
The obvious difference is that the cultures and codes of conduct are different, so the shared language people take for granted is different too.
“My Conversion Rate on Beat Pitches Keeps Rising”
HIPHOPCs: Can you give a concrete example of how management or business experience has helped your music career?
AUDIO RADICAL: There are many ways my corporate experience helps, especially in negotiation. Whether I am offering a beat or requesting a feature, I think about whether the rapper is busy on tour, whether the beat fits the direction they are moving in, and whether I am proposing a style they have already exhausted.
I worked in business-to-business sales, so I developed the habit of asking what proposal makes sense now, based on the other company’s budget, operations and business plan. That instinct carries directly into music. You could say the conversion rate on my beat pitches keeps rising.
Of course, people still decline or do not reply at all. [Laughs] Not being discouraged by every individual rejection is another kind of toughness I learned in sales.
Business also taught me to think through data. I check Spotify for Artists every day. I compare the first 12 months after release and look at how each track moves—for example, whether a song continues to be heard long after its initial peak. Music is not a numbers game, but those figures teach me how my work is being received.
For promotion, I am still running a plan-do-check-act cycle on questions such as what kind of submission copy communicates a song’s appeal and background clearly enough to support playlist consideration.
The Turning Point Was Not a Rap Session
HIPHOPCs: You have worked across generations and styles, with artists including Hannya, Kojoe, Ryofu Karuma, JESSE, YDIZZY, Jinmenusagi, Playsson, Young Zetton, Kamui, HIZAGUTYA, ShowyRENZO and e5. What made that breadth possible?
AUDIO RADICAL: Put simply, initiative. [Laughs] Regardless of genre, curiosity keeps giving me ideas about what kind of beat I would like to propose to a particular artist.
At minimum, before I begin, I study the fundamentals of the genre they work in—the drums and synth tones, rhythmic patterns and use of effects. Otherwise I do not think the beat reaches the threshold where they can imagine their own rap on it.
At the same time, if the beat becomes completely absorbed by that genre, it may stop being interesting. I do not research to the point where I can claim to be its professor.
Hannya’s June 2025 single “konnichiwa” credits Hannya as lyricist and Hannya with AUDIO RADICAL as composers. In September, “HIGHER” paired a dusty boom-bap drum bed with an electric-piano beat switch, giving Kojoe room to move between tension and release.
HIPHOPCs: Was there an artist or project that changed how you thought about being a beatmaker?
AUDIO RADICAL: The thing that most visibly changed my outlook was not a session with a rapper. It was an interview with TRILL DYNASTY that I read somewhere.
I do not remember the exact wording, but the point was that many beatmakers wait for opportunities, and nobody will discover you if you only wait. I thought, “That is completely right,” and began pitching much more aggressively. That was the biggest turning point.
The “Mixed-Up” Quality Is the Signature
HIPHOPCs: You do not lock yourself into boom bap, trap, rage or hyperpop. Is that a deliberate strategy, or simply the result of following what interests you?
AUDIO RADICAL: It connects to what I said earlier: I simply want to try all of it. [Laughs]
The rough sample work in boom bap sounds great. The weight of trap 808s sounds great. The flood of electronic sound in rage and hyperpop is exciting. Every one of those things makes me want to try it.
HIPHOPCs: If AUDIO RADICAL’s identity does not live in one genre, where does it live?
AUDIO RADICAL: When I approach a new genre, I ask myself which qualities and textures attract me most, and I concentrate those elements in my version of it.
But once you keep jumping between genres, sounds from somewhere else naturally enter the music too. That mixed-up quality is probably what sounds most like me. [Laughs]
One clear example is “ICHIMOTSU” with Ryofu Karuma, released in November 2025. Ryofu Karuma’s direct writing moves over a sampled industrial sound, with mixing and mastering credited to DJ FRIP a.k.a. BeatLab. In one year, AUDIO RADICAL could make a message-driven song with Hannya and an industrial track with Ryofu Karuma.
“noroi,” e5 and a Vocaloid Connection
HIPHOPCs: How did “noroi,” released with e5 on August 4, come together?
AUDIO RADICAL: I was already a fan of e5, so I contacted her and said I would love to make something together.
I made several options: my version of a cute beat, something closer to hard-edged EDM, and other patterns. She chose the cute one.
She told me that beat stood out from the others and that something in its melodic line connected with her Vocaloid roots. The way it handled a slightly dark or wistful feeling through cute pop also reminded her of the Vocaloid music she used to hear. I know almost nothing about Vocaloid, so none of that was intentional on my side.
e5 handled the recording, and KUROMAKU mixed and mastered it. We recently discovered that we live near each other and went out for drinks.
e5’s official TuneCore profile describes a rap singer-songwriter born in 2003 and originally from Kisarazu, Chiba. She began posting music on SoundCloud in 2020, then moved into official releases in 2021. The profile also identifies Vocaloid, Auto-Tune vocal editing, hyperpop and digicore as formative influences.
HIPHOPCs: “noroi” appeared on playlists including Spotify’s Alt J Hiphop and Electropolis and Apple Music’s Latest J-Hip-Hop. How did you receive that response?
AUDIO RADICAL: Alt J Hiphop made me realize our song was being categorized as alternative. As someone who comes from a mixture-rock background, that made me happy.
Electropolis made me feel it had been understood within a hyperpop context. And you cannot assume every release will enter Latest J-Hip-Hop, so I was simply happy about that too. [Laughs]
You cannot place yourself on those playlists, whatever the result, so I always end up riding the emotional highs and lows.
“IN SYNC” With AIRIE and Elee Tia Vivi
HIPHOPCs: At the time of this interview, “IN SYNC” with AIRIE and Elee Tia Vivi was planned for early September. What could you tell us about the song before release?
AUDIO RADICAL: Sometimes I ask artists to write around a particular theme, but I did not do that here.
I handed them the beat. AIRIE wrote first and sent back a song full of poetic expression, which hit me immediately. Then Vivi returned her part, and it had become a dialogue with AIRIE’s questions. The way their lyrics developed together was so stylish that I was overwhelmed. [Laughs]
The two supplied covers make the contrast visible. “noroi” fills the frame with glossy hearts, eyes and stars. “IN SYNC” reduces the image to a blue night beyond a window. Both came from the same producer in the same summer.
HIPHOPCs: When someone hears “noroi” followed by “IN SYNC,” what part of you do you hope they notice?
AUDIO RADICAL: I did not design the two songs as a connected sequence or decide from the beginning to release them consecutively. I hope people approach them like an omnibus.
I do not think e5’s audience completely overlaps with the audiences for AIRIE and Vivi. If the fans around each song discover the other excellent artists involved and enjoy them, that is enough for me.
As for my own style, maybe they will just think, “This guy really commits to the extreme.” [Laughs]
A Day That Begins at 6 a.m.
HIPHOPCs: How do you divide your time between full-time corporate work and this volume of music production?
AUDIO RADICAL: Working from home gives me a major advantage for music.
I get up at around 6 a.m. and make music until the workday begins. In the evening, after dinner and time with my wife, I return to music until late at night. In between I play with our rabbit, Wu-tan—named after Wu-Tang Clan. [Laughs]
HIPHOPCs: Has there been a point when you felt you could no longer keep both lives going?
AUDIO RADICAL: I am completely maxed out right now. [Laughs]
I am not only making beats for my own releases. I receive commissioned work with deadlines, and I also take mixing and mastering jobs. I am constantly thinking about how to make the process more efficient.
HIPHOPCs: Have you considered focusing on music alone? Why continue both careers?
AUDIO RADICAL: If I became so busy that I literally could not sleep, I might leave corporate work. [Laughs]
But I have worked at two large companies. When you are inside a service used by tens of millions of people, the work of your own department can become national news. Working at that scale is stimulating and genuinely interesting, so I do not currently plan to quit.
HIPHOPCs: Has music also improved the way you operate as a corporate employee?
AUDIO RADICAL: Because I work independently in music, I experience the whole commercial path: creating a product, finishing it with collaborators and distributing it to the public. The scale is completely different from the services at my employer, but it still gives me insights I can bring back into company work.
The Man Singing in the Driver’s Seat
HIPHOPCs: Business evaluates numbers and outcomes objectively, while music can carry value that numbers do not capture. How do you separate streams, playlists, social metrics and media coverage from the value of the work itself?
AUDIO RADICAL: Metrics and media coverage are extremely important. They show your position in the market clearly, so I pay attention to them and work seriously on that side.
But the value of a work comes from how deeply it reaches someone, even if that does not happen for a huge number of people.
I once saw a social-media video of a man driving a truck and singing JASMINE’s high hook from “Keep your head up” at full volume. It warmed my heart. I was also thinking, “That key is impossible for you.” [Laughs]
Data cannot show you that your song has entered somebody’s life in that way.
Metrics matter enormously, but the source of my desire to create is the hope that someone out there will enjoy the music that much.
“Keep your head up” brings together JASMINE, JESSE, B.I.G. JOE and AUDIO RADICAL. Its official distribution page identifies it as a charity project for recovery from the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake and says streaming proceeds were intended for donation through ADRA Japan.
Why He Is “Not Afraid of AI at All”
HIPHOPCs: AI composition and beatmaking are developing rapidly. How do you think they will change the work of beatmakers and producers?
AUDIO RADICAL: AI is moving so quickly that I genuinely cannot predict where it will be in five or ten years.
Based only on what I have tried as of 2026, I do not yet hear quality that threatens beatmakers. When I use Suno, for example, the high-frequency range can feel strange. If I ask for trap, I do not get the kind of crushing low end that makes me think it is ready to compete with a commercial record.
HIPHOPCs: If AI eventually produces large volumes of high-quality beats, what value will remain uniquely human?
AUDIO RADICAL: If AI reaches the level of a real beatmaker, maybe the human value will be in choosing samples a model student would never think to pull, or in bringing in some unexpected collision.
I have a beat with a rapper right now where the drums follow a jerk pattern but the melodic layer samples Showa-era Japanese pop. Something like that. [Laughs]
But I honestly do not know. The question of what follows an industrial revolution on the scale of AI is simply too difficult. [Laughs]
I do not think it needs to be humans versus AI. We can coexist. When I am searching for a sound source or effects plug-in, I often give ChatGPT a detailed prompt and ask it to compare options instead of searching the web. If I need a spoken phrase and cannot find it, I may generate material with Suno or ElevenLabs and chop it into a vocal sample. So I am not hostile to AI at all.
Editor’s note: AUDIO RADICAL’s comments about AI describe his own production experience in 2026. They are not a controlled technical benchmark, legal guidance or a statement about every generative-audio system.
“I Have Come Much Farther Than I Imagined”
HIPHOPCs: How has AUDIO RADICAL changed since CROSS OVA in 2023? Is your current position different from what you imagined then?
AUDIO RADICAL: I have come much farther than I imagined.
Where I have reached in roughly three years since CROSS OVA felt, at the time, like a point five or seven years away.
As the hip-hop scene grows more diverse, the number of things I want to try keeps increasing. I may be even more foolishly curious than before.
HIPHOPCs: Finally, what do you still want to achieve? Who would you like to produce, what kind of work do you want to build, and what do you hope people remember about you?
AUDIO RADICAL: First, I want to work with many more Japanese rappers—and, if possible, rappers overseas too.
Recently, instead of only widening my range within hip-hop, I have wanted to connect modern hip-hop with genres outside it, such as trip-hop and psychedelic dub. I have been making beats in that direction. I want to keep trying things without fitting a fixed mold.
Ultimately, maybe my goal is for people in hip-hop to remember, years from now, that there was a producer who made some really ridiculous beats. [Laughs]
He rises at six to make beats, works through the day at a listed company, then returns to production late at night. That repeated routine has already led to Hannya, Ryofu Karuma and e5.
AUDIO RADICAL says he hopes people will remember “the producer who made ridiculous beats.” Three years after CROSS OVA, events have already moved faster than he expected. If that pace continues, the form of that memory may be larger than the one he currently imagines.
AUDIO RADICAL
Beatmaker / Producer
Source and publication note: career details about AUDIO RADICAL’s employers, schedule, private collaborations and personal workflow are his statements in this interview and were not independently verified through employment records or private communications. Public release dates, credits and chart entries were checked against the official distribution pages linked above on August 21, 2026. “IN SYNC” remained an interview-time release plan unless and until confirmed on an official catalog. Artist photograph and jacket images were supplied by AUDIO RADICAL for editorial use; photographer and designer names were not included in the supplied materials.
Interview and original Japanese article: Rei Kamiya
English translation and editing: HIPHOPCs