Tokyo, Japan · hip hop · j-rap

Creepy Nuts

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A rapper and a world-champion DJ from Japan whose breakneck, tongue-twisting singles became inescapable well beyond hip-hop circles — 'Bling-Bang-Bang-Born' conquered the internet twice over.

Creepy Nuts is the Tokyo duo of rapper R-Shitei and DJ Matsunaga. R-Shitei made his name in freestyle battle competition, winning the Ultimate MC Battle title multiple times, while Matsunaga is a DMC world champion turntablist. The name itself was picked without much thought, chosen before either of them expected to become well known.

The duo's first commercial track appeared on a compilation in 2013, and by 2015 they had signed to Steel Street and released their debut single, "Setsuna." Two independent EPs, Tarinai Futari and Joen Dan'yu-sho, followed in 2016 and 2017, each supported by a tour of Japan.

A major-label deal with Sony Music Japan arrived in 2017, alongside their own imprint, Creepers. Debut album Creep Show came out in 2018, the same year the pair began hosting the radio show All Night Nippon, a role they kept until 2023.

Their music pairs dense, fast, heavily rhymed verses with scratch-driven production, moving between comic self-deprecation and sharp observation. Live, the two work as a conventional MC-and-DJ setup, with Matsunaga's cutting treated as a feature of the set rather than a backdrop.

The single "Nobishiro," from 2021's Case, became their first release to pass 100 million streams. Wider recognition came through anime tie-ins: "Bling-Bang-Bang-Born," written for Mashle: Magic and Muscles, topped Japan's charts in 2024 and reached number eight on the Billboard Global 200 on the back of an international dance trend, followed by "Otonoke" for Dandadan.

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