Reading Sonsi’s “FUSUMA” Lyrics: A 93-Second Audition Track That Ends Where It Began

Sonsi opens “FUSUMA” with his grandmother at home and fusuma—the traditional Japanese sliding doors—behind him. Released on September 23, 2026, the track runs just one minute and 33 seconds. “H2O Daddy” arrived the same day.

Born in 2004, Sonsi is from Kagoshima Prefecture and lives in Kanoya. He made the final five from a field of 6,780 applicants on ABEMA’s rap competition Rap Star 2025 (ラップスタア2025).

“FUSUMA” was his submission for the show’s video audition round. He also closed his set with it at last December’s final. Announcing the releases, he wrote that both tracks were “made on Rap Star 2025.”

When the music video came out on September 26, he wrote that the song had helped change his circumstances after he performed it on Rap Star.

Grandma Is Home, Fusuma Behind Him

The hook’s opening line places his grandmother—“BBA,” Japanese slang shorthand for “old lady”—alongside the fusuma.

BBA in da house, fusuma behind me

Living off that BBA pension money

His grandmother is home, and the fusuma are behind him. He moves straight from that scene to a life supported by her pension. Right there in the hook, he even admits to having dipped into that money in the past.

Then his father enters the picture. He confronts him knowing he will get hit. His father is a big man; Sonsi is thin.

He hates his hometown, but he will not forget it. His head is a mess. He mentions autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and admits the chain around his neck is fake.

Flashing real diamonds is a rap staple; Sonsi says up front that his chain is fake. The hook alone carries his grandmother, money, his father, his hometown, his own traits and the fake chain. It is no list of triumphs.

His grandmother keeps appearing in his music. His debut album Nisemono (“Fake”), released in June, opens with “BBA in da House,” and in July he released “BBA Spice” with STUTS. “BBA Spice” has passed 1.9 million streams on Spotify.

It had been announced that Nisemono would not include the tracks he made on Rap Star. Those songs, including “BBA Spice” and “FUSUMA,” have been released separately with AbemaTV listed in the rights credits. His grandmother opens the album and runs through the singles that came out of the show.

From NEET to Rap, a Life Story in One Breath

The verse rattles through his path so far. He went from being a NEET—neither working nor in education or training—to rapping, name-checks judge SEEDA, and piles on scenes of scrambling to meet deadlines. His run on the show flows straight out of his home life.

The verse then turns to conversations with friends in Kagoshima dialect and the misfortunes around him. His previous home burned down, he says.

One line brings up the burned house. The next says there is plenty of pension money and love to go around. He never lets the heavy material settle into melancholy, and follows it with a plan for an oddball to rise to the top.

He raps that his father sent him to Osaka while he was in middle school, where he worked construction. After saying he did not want to work, he raises his voice to declare that he fled to a police station.

He does not explain what led him there. In this account of family life, a police station becomes somewhere to seek refuge. That pairing weighs on me.

At the end of the verse, he refers to his disability and says he will show himself as he is. After describing himself rapping late into the night, he returns to the opening hook.

The Final Hook Is the Same as the First

The structure is simple: hook, verse, hook. At one minute and 33 seconds, it ends without adding another episode. Heavy stories flash past within that short span. Before the listener has time to feel sorry for him, the next line arrives.

“H2O Daddy,” released the same day, is about his father. “FUSUMA” contains both his grandmother’s pension and his father’s fists. Put the two tracks together, and Sonsi’s family story comes through from both sides: his grandmother’s and his father’s.

HIPHOPCs previously covered his SoundCloud track featuring raraso. We have also examined Rap Star as a show.

• Sonsi — “Nanika ni Naritakute” feat. raraso | An In-Depth Review of a Hidden Gem (Japanese)
• Rap Star’s ¥10 Million Prize Debate: Why Japanese Rap Has No Equivalent to the M-1 Comedy Contest (Japanese)

What stays with me is that the final hook is identical to the first. After the verse takes us through Osaka and the police station, he returns to the same line: his grandmother is home, and the fusuma are behind him. There is no ending in which he looks back from a place of success. His grandmother, his father, and the fake chain are all still there.

Even as the song moves from the show’s stage to streaming platforms, it ends on that scene.

That is why, to my ears, the fusuma in the title do more than describe his home. They raise a question of what to reveal and what to conceal. Sonsi does not choose only the stories that make him look good. He volunteers even the things he might want to hide. Before the listener can open the fusuma, he slides them open himself.