BLAISE on Codein Dreaming with $AINT STØNE: Capturing Shibuya as It Happens
English translation of the original HIPHOPCs Japanese-language interview. Originally published in Japanese on May 22, 2025. Ages, plans and references to the present reflect the original interview, not a new interview conducted for this translation. The introduction, afterword and repeated phrasing have been condensed for this English edition.
HIPHOPCs spoke with BLAISE, the Shibuya-based rapper from the Killa crew, about Codein Dreaming, his collaboration with BSTA producer $AINT STØNE. The album grew out of their time together in Shibuya, with rough edges deliberately left in the sound.
Q1. What did you want to express on Codein Dreaming?
BLAISE:
What I want to get across more than anything is that this is a collaboration with $AINT STØNE, a member of BSTA. We hang out a lot, and we put the emotions and things that naturally happened during that time—the things we actually experienced in Shibuya this year—into sound as they really were.
Ito:
I see: songs carrying very real emotions from those particular moments. Looking at the number of tracks, had you been planning this release for a long time?
BLAISE:
There’s a power to something that takes shape on its own, rather than something you set out to make. I’d love listeners to experience Shibuya as it is now from the same perspective as us.
Ito:
So it came about as something inevitable rather than calculated. That feels like the reason Shibuya’s atmosphere lives in the music so directly.
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Q2. What did you focus on in the sound and its texture?
BLAISE:
I paid particular attention to the texture. Rather than just making everything beautiful and tidy, I deliberately left a little roughness to capture Shibuya’s crowds and raw atmosphere as they are. A big part of this record’s appeal is the reality that comes through precisely because it isn’t perfect.
Ito:
You deliberately left those rough edges while developing it together. I also felt there were a lot of punchlines in the lyrics.
BLAISE:
Working back and forth with $AINT STØNE and bringing our different perspectives together gave the record depth without making it feel forced. I’d like people to hear it as a snapshot of this moment, rather than something we carefully built.
Ito:
Almost an improvisational feeling, then. Thank you for speaking with us.
After the Interview
Listening through the album, I felt that the flow was excellent on every track. I especially liked the way he expresses the melancholy inside the anger through a low, rough voice that feels uniquely his.
In “東京人” (Tokyo-jin), the hook brings together BLAISE’s Black and Japanese heritage and his identity as a Tokyoite. I hear conflict, pride and acceptance in the idea of being mixed; for me, the line captures something of Shibuya at that moment.
On “NAMAKA,” the flow and lyrics also feel as though they lock together perfectly. Hearing the album in full may make you want to play it again.
Enough of my impressions: listen through the links below and experience it for yourself.
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Release details
• Title: Codein Dreaming
• Artists: BLAISE & $AINT STØNE
• Release date: May 15, 2025
• Available on Spotify, Apple Music and other major streaming services
• Producer: $AINT STØNE (BSTA)
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Tracklist
1. GRAVE WALK
2. BENZ
3. A Messy Paradaise
4. AND1
5. 東京人
6. NAMAKA
7. Skit BRUV
8. kiLLa way
9. MAHOUTSUKAI
10. High Soda
11. COLD SUMMER
12. ELC
Catalog note: Artist billing and the tracklist have been corrected against the official release listing; the original Japanese edition listed eleven tracks.
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Links
• Spotify
• YouTube
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Editor’s note:
The perspectives and layers of sound that BLAISE and $AINT STØNE brought together made me feel less like a listener and more like a witness.
Related reading
In a later HIPHOPCs interview, BLAISE and D-SETO discuss making HUMAN JUNCTION.
For a wider view of the city, explore the Tokyo Rap Atlas.
In Their Words: Japanese and English
BLAISE この作品には作ろうとして作ったものではなく、「生まれてしまったもの」としての力があります。
There’s a power to something that takes shape on its own, rather than something you set out to make.
