Who Is 5lack? The Rapper Who Controls the Making, Mixing and Release
5lack is a rapper, beatmaker and producer from Itabashi, Tokyo. He first became widely visible as S.L.A.C.K., issued two solo albums in 2009, and formed PSG with his older brother PUNPEE and GAPPER. His official profile confirms those roles and relationships.
The most useful way to understand him, however, is not as a recluse or a rapper who simply avoids promotion. It is to follow the order of his work. He can write through recording, build the beat, mix the result and decide how it reaches listeners. Since 2011, his own imprint, Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho, has been the recurring name on his solo releases.
For 5lack, independence is not the absence of collaborators. It is control over sequence: who enters the room, what gets finished, when the audience hears about it and when the record appears.
That distinction explains why his catalog can include PSG, SICK TEAM, BudaMunk, ISSUGI, LEX and Nariaki Obukuro without weakening the independent structure around his solo work. It also explains one of his sharpest release moves. At the end of his September 23, 2023 Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall show, he announced the Try & Error EP. Streaming began at midnight, only hours later. The files necessarily had to be delivered in advance; the point was that the public sequence could be designed around the room.
This profile follows that method from the first DOGEAR records through PSG, the name change from S.L.A.C.K. to 5lack, Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho, his microphone-first writing process, the 2024 report EP, 2025’s Karibu, and the 2026 joint album Icchola (Japanese title: 一張羅).
5lack at a glance
| Field | Verified summary |
|---|---|
| Primary name | 5lack |
| Earlier and alternate names | S.L.A.C.K.; Goraku |
| Origin | Itabashi, Tokyo; later based in Fukuoka |
| Roles | Rapper, beatmaker, producer and mixing engineer |
| Groups | PSG with PUNPEE and GAPPER; SICK TEAM with BudaMunk and ISSUGI |
| Family relationship | PUNPEE is his older brother |
| Independent imprint | Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho, active on his solo catalog from 2011 onward |
| Early DOGEAR solo run | Two albums, My Space and Whalabout?, followed by the nine-track EP Swes Swes Cheap |
| Latest major project checked | Icchola (Japanese title: 一張羅), a joint album with Nariaki Obukuro, released August 1, 2026 |
The thesis: independence as control of sequence
There are several easy but incomplete descriptions of 5lack. One calls him elusive. Another treats his loose cadence as pure instinct. A third presents his label as proof that he works alone. The documented record complicates all three.
He has given relatively few long interviews, but his release and performance histories are not empty. He has also worked inside durable units: PSG, SICK TEAM and repeated collaborations with BudaMunk, ISSUGI and Olive Oil. In 2024, he used the only guest slot on report for LEX. In 2026, he made an eight-track album with Nariaki Obukuro and mixed every track.
The continuity is therefore not solitude. It is that the final stages keep returning to his side of the desk. This is clearest in three kinds of evidence:
- his own account of recording directly at the microphone rather than finishing lyrics on paper first;
- the current phonographic copyright lines attached to a long run of solo releases;
- release timing that connects a live room to a digital launch without a long public campaign between them.
The interpretation in this profile begins from those records. It does not claim access to private contracts or internal decisions.
2009-2010: DOGEAR’s two albums and one EP
The early solo sequence needs to be counted carefully. It consists of two albums and one EP on DOGEAR RECORDS, not three albums.
My Space: the first album
My Space arrived on February 18, 2009 under the S.L.A.C.K. name. 5lack’s own profile calls it his first album, while a contemporary Tower Records profile identifies it as a 2009 DOGEAR release.
The important starting point is already visible here: he was not only the voice. The official profile identifies him as a rapper, beatmaker and producer. That makes the later move into mixing less like a separate career and more like an expansion of an existing practice.
Whalabout?: the second album
Whalabout? followed on November 18, 2009. Contemporary retail documentation from WENOD identifies it as the second album and a DOGEAR release. It also credits S.L.A.C.K. with most of the production, alongside beats from BudaMunk and 16FLIP.
That same year, PSG released David. The result was an unusually compressed public run: two solo albums and one group album within a year. A December 2009 ele-king review argued that PSG pushed away from realism as a compulsory measure of hip-hop. That was a critic’s reading, not a statement by 5lack, but it captures why the trio’s comic and speculative world felt distinct in its moment.
Swes Swes Cheap: the EP
On August 4, 2010, S.L.A.C.K. released Swes Swes Cheap, a limited nine-track EP on DOGEAR. A contemporary ele-king review records the nine-track structure and the production split: six tracks by S.L.A.C.K. and three by BudaMunk. Disk Union documents the later clear-blue vinyl edition.
This is the corrected early count:
| Date | Release | Format | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 18, 2009 | My Space | Album | DOGEAR RECORDS |
| November 18, 2009 | Whalabout? | Album | DOGEAR RECORDS |
| August 4, 2010 | Swes Swes Cheap | Nine-track EP | DOGEAR RECORDS |
The sequence matters because it prevents two distortions at once. 5lack did not begin fully outside label infrastructure; DOGEAR was a real early platform. But his producer role was already central before he established his own imprint.
PSG, PUNPEE and the limit of what the record proves
5lack’s official profile states that PSG began in 2007 with his older brother PUNPEE and PUNPEE’s friend GAPPER. The family relationship is explicit: PUNPEE is the older brother and 5lack the younger. It should not be inferred from surnames, ages or fan lore.
PSG’s importance is both musical and structural. It gave the brothers a shared group identity while leaving room for separate solo architectures. Public release pages show PUNPEE’s later catalog presented through SUMMIT, while the nine 5lack releases audited below currently carry Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho in their phonographic copyright lines.
That difference can support a narrow conclusion: their public release credits are organized differently. It does not prove how either brother negotiates, finances or privately approves a project. Nor does it make one arrangement more independent than the other.
The two paths remained connected. In November 2025, the brothers co-headlined their first billed two-man show at Tachikawa Stage Garden. The venue listing records the date and ticket information. It is better read as a reunion of two established solo systems than as a story of separation.
2013: from S.L.A.C.K. to 5lack
The change of name was not a dramatic reinvention. In a March 12, 2013 ele-king interview, 5lack treated names more like changing nicknames than formal institutions. The visual substitution was simple: the numeral 5 could stand in for the letter S.
The transition also did not begin with the August 2013 solo album 5 Sence. His January collaboration with Olive Oil, 5 0, already used the 5lack name, and the March interview likewise treated the change as complete. 5 Sence is best described as the first solo album under the newer spelling, not the first appearance of the name.
Goraku is another documented alias. The Japanese word can be translated as entertainment or amusement, but it functions as a name here and should not be converted into an English stage name.
Recording without a finished lyric sheet
A 2024 FNMNL interview provides the clearest account of 5lack’s writing process. After moving from Tokyo to Fukuoka, he described removing the separate step of writing lyrics next to the microphone. Instead, he records immediately, tries flows and revises through the act of recording.
This should not be flattened into the claim that every verse is a one-take freestyle. His account describes a workflow: the recording session carries work that another writer might finish on paper before the microphone turns on. The distinction is important because it connects the sound of his delivery to a repeatable process rather than to a myth of effortless talent.
He also explained that recording alone made it easier to test flows without embarrassment. In a 2021 J-WAVE conversation, he discussed becoming deeply interested in engineering and mixing while spending more time at home.
Taken together, those accounts trace a practical shift. A separate writing stage became smaller; recording and mixing became larger. The relaxed surface of the songs is therefore not evidence that little work occurred. It is evidence that the work moved.
Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho: what nine current copyright lines show
5lack established Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho in 2011 and released Waga Toki Omou Ai and Kono Shima no Ue de through it that year. The imprint did not end his relationships with the DOGEAR circle. Also in 2011, he formed SICK TEAM with BudaMunk and ISSUGI. The unit’s first album was issued by P-VINE, whose official product page dates it to June 2, 2011.
The useful distinction is between the solo catalog and group or joint work. As checked on August 19, 2026, the Apple Music pages for these nine major solo releases all display “Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho” in the phonographic copyright line:
| Release | Current Apple Music phonographic copyright line |
|---|---|
| 5 Sence | 2013 Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho |
| Yume kara Same. | 2018 Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho |
| KESHIKI | 2018 Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho |
| Kono Keshiki mo Koete | 2020 Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho |
| Title | 2021 Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho |
| Try & Error | 2023 Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho |
| report | 2024 Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho |
| Turnover | 2024 Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho |
| Karibu | 2025 Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho |
This table makes a deliberately limited claim. It records what the nine store pages display on the check date. It does not prove that every historical contract, distributor or rights arrangement stayed unchanged for fifteen years. The 2018 date currently shown for Yume kara Same., for example, is the store-page date attached to that edition, not a reason to erase the album’s earlier release history.
The repetition still matters. Nine separate pages, spanning albums and EPs, present one imprint as the rights-bearing line. The phrase “his own label” is therefore not only biography copy; it has a visible catalog footprint.
What self-directed release timing looks like
The Hibiya sequence is the cleanest case. On September 23, 2023, 5lack played Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall. Near the end of the show, he announced Try & Error. A TuneCore Japan report records that the five-track EP went live on September 24 and included “Change Up” with ISSUGI and BACHLOGIC.
The sequence should be described accurately. He did not finish an unplanned EP onstage and upload it within hours. Store delivery had to happen before the concert. What he controlled was disclosure: the audience in the room received the news at the end, and the public release followed at midnight.
The Shiroi Enban Series shows the same control in another form. From October 2021 through December 2022, ten tracks were released one at a time. OTOTOY traces the project to a private CD-R that had circulated among associates. Instead of turning ten songs into one conventional album campaign, the sequence made ten separate release decisions visible.
Neither method proves that frequent singles are inherently better. They show that the shape of a campaign can follow the material rather than a fixed label calendar.
report, Turnover and the weight of one guest slot
The six-track report arrived on April 3, 2024. FNMNL’s release report identifies “5xL feat. LEX” as its guest collaboration. The official 5lack profile also names LEX as the featured artist on that track.
It is tempting to turn one feature into a sweeping claim about succession. The evidence supports something smaller and stronger: on a compact project with one guest-billed track, 5lack selected an artist from a later generation. The choice carries weight because the available space was limited, not because it appoints an heir.
The following November, Turnover arrived as a five-track EP without guest billing. A FNMNL report attributes its production to 5lack. These two short projects place two working modes next to each other: one carefully chosen outside voice, then a self-contained set.
For the other side of that connection, read the published HIPHOPCs English profile of LEX. The relationship should be read through the credited track, not inflated into a private mentorship that neither public source establishes.
Karibu and the return to album scale
Karibu was released on September 20, 2025. Its Apple Music page lists eighteen tracks, forty-seven minutes and the 2025 Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho copyright line. ele-king described it as his first full album in four years and noted contributions from BudaMunk, 16FLIP and Kid Hazel.
The album is useful evidence against the idea that independence means doing every task without another producer. The imprint and final release structure remain consistent while multiple producers enter the project. Control and collaboration are not opposites here.
Icchola (一張羅): a joint album finished through 5lack’s mix
On August 1, 2026, Nariaki Obukuro and 5lack released the eight-track joint album Icchola, titled 一張羅 in Japanese. The linked TuneCore English release metadata uses Icchola; its track-level credits name 5lack as mixing engineer on every track and Isao Kumano as mastering engineer.
The page also shows that writing, composition, production and instrumentation vary by track. That is why “5lack mixed all eight tracks” is the precise claim. It would be inaccurate to turn the joint album into a solo production credit or to imply that Obukuro handed over every creative decision.
The project began in connection with the two-man concert Gaia. An official Sony Music announcement documents the August 1 concert at LINE CUBE SHIBUYA, and 5lack’s official news page records the album and venue-only LP sales. The TuneCore release page says the project expanded from an intended short EP into an eight-track album.
The public rights line changes appropriately for a joint work: “TOKA / Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho.” That is not a break in the independent thesis. It is the thesis operating in partnership. Both sides remain named, and 5lack’s role in the final sound is documented track by track.
Live history: fewer solo shows does not mean only three
5lack does not tour like an artist who depends on a large annual solo circuit, but the record contains more than three headline shows. Confirmed dates include LIQUIDROOM in March 2018, Akasaka BLITZ in October 2018, Kyoto and Itabashi dates in 2019, Hibiya in 2023 and another Itabashi show in 2025.
The supporting pages are direct: 5lack’s official LIQUIDROOM notice, the SMASH listing for Akasaka, and Natalie’s report on the 2019 dates.
The distinction matters because a false scarcity story can become a substitute for criticism. There is no need to make his performance history smaller in order to make the recorded work look independent.
DOGEAR in 2026: a continuing connection, not a severed past
DOGEAR RECORDS turns twenty in 2026. The anniversary event “Dogear Four Marks Deep” is scheduled for August 27 at Spotify O-EAST, after this profile’s August 19 fact-check date. CINRA’s event notice lists ISSUGI, KID FRESINO, Senninsho and 5lack.
The tense is important: the concert is scheduled, not completed. It also closes a useful circle. DOGEAR issued 5lack’s first two solo albums and early EP. ISSUGI later became his SICK TEAM partner. In 2026, those relationships remain publicly active even though the solo catalog has long carried 5lack’s own imprint.
Independence here is not a clean break from the people who helped at the beginning. It is a change in how the solo work is issued while the relationships continue.
Six entry tracks and why they matter
This is not a ranking. Each track opens a different part of the documented story.
“White Out” with SEEDA and ZEEBRA (2010)
The single placed S.L.A.C.K. beside two artists from earlier generations. It remains the clearest compact document of his movement beyond the immediate DOGEAR and PSG audience.
“Swes Swes Cheap” (2010)
The title track represents the early limited-run EP period and the working relationship with BudaMunk. Hear it as part of a nine-track project, not as proof that the project was a third full album.
“Feelin’ 29 feat. Kojoe” (2016)
The Apple Music page and physical-release documentation place the track inside the Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho era. It shows the self-directed system operating beyond digital-only releases.
“24365 feat. KOHH” (2016)
The single later appeared on KESHIKI. Its timing connected two rappers who were simultaneously being invited into projects outside hip-hop’s narrowest lane.
“Kimi no Mirai no Tame no” (2020)
This donation single had a specified public purpose. Spincoaster reported that proceeds were intended to support children and people facing severe hardship.
“5xL feat. LEX” (2024)
The only guest-billed track on report is the cleanest bridge from 5lack’s catalog to a younger artist. It is evidence of one deliberate placement, not enough evidence to invent a formal mentor relationship.
Timeline: 1999-2026
| Period | Documented development |
|---|---|
| 1999 | Begins making music in Itabashi after PUNPEE starts creating music; uses the early name Arara. |
| 2007 | Adopts S.L.A.C.K. and forms PSG with PUNPEE and GAPPER. |
| February 18, 2009 | Releases first solo album My Space through DOGEAR RECORDS. |
| October 2009 | PSG releases David. |
| November 18, 2009 | Releases second solo album Whalabout? through DOGEAR. |
| August 4, 2010 | Releases the nine-track EP Swes Swes Cheap through DOGEAR. |
| December 22, 2010 | Releases “White Out” with SEEDA and ZEEBRA. |
| 2011 | Establishes Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho; releases two solo projects through the imprint. |
| June 2, 2011 | SICK TEAM releases its first album through P-VINE. |
| January-March 2013 | The 5lack spelling is already in use on 5 0 and in the ele-king interview. |
| August 8, 2013 | Releases 5 Sence, the first solo album under the 5lack spelling. |
| Around 2014 | Moves from Tokyo to Fukuoka; later explains a microphone-first writing process developed around this period. |
| 2018-2019 | Headline dates include LIQUIDROOM, Akasaka BLITZ, Kyoto and Itabashi. |
| 2021-2022 | Releases the ten-part Shiroi Enban Series one track at a time. |
| September 23-24, 2023 | Announces Try & Error near the end of the Hibiya show; the EP streams from midnight. |
| April 3, 2024 | Releases report, including “5xL feat. LEX.” |
| November 27, 2024 | Releases the five-track Turnover EP. |
| September 20, 2025 | Releases the eighteen-track album Karibu. |
| November 3, 2025 | Co-headlines the first billed two-man show with PUNPEE at Tachikawa Stage Garden. |
| August 1, 2026 | Releases Icchola (Japanese title: 一張羅) with Nariaki Obukuro; 5lack is credited as mixing engineer on all eight tracks. |
| August 27, 2026 | Scheduled to perform at DOGEAR’s twentieth-anniversary event; this remains a future event as of August 19. |
Place matters: Itabashi, Tokyo and Fukuoka
5lack’s origin is not a generic “Tokyo” label. The official profile names Itabashi, and PSG’s early work joins him to a specific family and neighborhood-based production history. HIPHOPCs places him among the core acts in its published Tokyo Rap Atlas.
Fukuoka is equally important, but for a different reason. It became a living and recording base rather than a retroactive claim that he emerged from the Fukuoka scene. His own interview account ties the move to daily life and to the workflow that reduced the separate lyric-writing stage.
The careful formulation is therefore: Itabashi is the documented origin; Fukuoka became the later base. Both places matter, but not in the same way.
Further reading in HIPHOPCs English
- Tokyo Rap Atlas — the city map that places 5lack and PSG within several coexisting Tokyo traditions.
- LEX profile — the later-generation artist selected for report‘s only guest-billed track.
- COCOSPIN interview — an English conversation about Zeebra, history and learning across generations.
- Japanese Rap News — current English reporting across the Japanese scene.
- Exclusive Interviews — HIPHOPCs interviews in English.
- Artist Profiles — the full English profile archive.
Frequently asked questions
Are 5lack and S.L.A.C.K. the same person?
Yes. S.L.A.C.K. is the earlier spelling. The 5lack form was already in public use by early 2013.
Is PUNPEE 5lack’s brother?
Yes. 5lack’s official profile identifies PUNPEE as his older brother. Together with GAPPER, they form PSG.
What were 5lack’s first three solo releases on DOGEAR?
The corrected sequence is two albums and one EP: My Space in February 2009, Whalabout? in November 2009, and the nine-track Swes Swes Cheap EP in August 2010.
Does 5lack produce and mix his own music?
He works as a beatmaker and producer as well as a rapper, and public credits document extensive mixing work. That does not mean every release is entirely solo-made. BudaMunk, 16FLIP, ISSUGI, BACHLOGIC and others have documented roles across the catalog.
What is Takada Ongaku Seisaku Jimusho?
It is 5lack’s independent imprint, established in 2011. As of August 19, 2026, the nine major solo Apple Music pages audited in this profile all display the imprint in their phonographic copyright lines.
Why does 5lack say he does not write lyrics?
His interview explanation concerns workflow. He reduced the separate act of writing on paper and moved composition into immediate recording, experimentation and revision at the microphone. It should not be summarized as “every verse is improvised once.”
What is 5lack’s newest major project?
At the August 19, 2026 fact-check date, it is Icchola (Japanese title: 一張羅), the eight-track joint album with Nariaki Obukuro released on August 1. TuneCore credits 5lack with mixing all eight tracks.
Sources, method and limits
- Fact-check date: August 19, 2026.
- Primary and official records: 5lack’s official profile and news pages, TuneCore’s artist and track-credit pages, Apple Music’s current release pages, Sony Music’s concert notice, P-VINE’s product record and venue listings.
- Contemporary secondary records: ele-king, Tower Records, FNMNL, Natalie, J-WAVE, WENOD, Disk Union, OTOTOY and CINRA are used where older official catalog pages are incomplete.
- DOGEAR count: My Space and Whalabout? are treated as albums; Swes Swes Cheap is treated as a nine-track EP. PSG’s David is a group album and is not counted as a solo release.
- Copyright table: the nine lines reproduce what the linked Apple Music pages display on the check date. They do not substitute for private contracts or a complete rights history.
- PUNPEE comparison: only the family relationship and public-facing release credits are asserted. No private business arrangement is inferred.
- Future event: DOGEAR’s August 27 anniversary show is described as scheduled because it had not occurred by the check date.
- Editorial interpretation: “control of sequence” is HIPHOPCs’ reading across the documented workflow, credits and release timing. It is not presented as a quotation from 5lack.
How should 5lack be evaluated?
5lack’s strongest independent achievement is not that he refused every institution. The record shows the opposite: DOGEAR provided the first solo platform; PSG and SICK TEAM remained important; outside producers kept entering; Obukuro became a joint album partner.
What remained unusually stable was the point at which the work returned to him. Recording, production, mixing, imprint credit and release timing repeatedly sit close together. The result is a catalog whose looseness is engineered rather than accidental.
In 2009, the speed was visible as two solo albums and one PSG album in a year. In 2023, it was visible in the transition from a Hibiya announcement to a midnight EP. In 2026, it was visible in the all-track mixing credit on a joint album. The form changed; the control of sequence did not.
Featured image: original English typography card created by HIPHOPCs. No photograph, artist likeness, logo, album artwork or other third-party visual material is used. Copyright HIPHOPCs; all rights reserved.
