10 Best Anime With Hip Hop Soundtracks

Despite their apparent differences, anime and hip-hop share a long and intimate history. Both are rich in themes of overcoming adversity, tales of ordinary people achieving greatness, and instances of the oppressed speaking truth to power. There is a good reason artists like Megan Thee Stallion are big anime fans. While the connection between the two is most obvious in anime themed around hip-hop, it’s also observable in the large and growing population of anime shows incorporating hip-hop elements in their musical soundtracks.

While anime is first and foremost a visual storytelling medium, music – mainly in the form of anime soundtracks – has become a vital element in creating mood, influencing emotion, and enhancing the viewer’s overall watching experience. Music has also helped increase anime’s reach outside its traditional Otaku fandom.

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10 Megalo Box Mixes Hip Hop, Sci-Fi, and Boxing to Great Effect

Inspired By the Manga Ashita no Joe by Asao Takamori & Tetsuya Chiba

In homage to the groundbreaking Ashita no Joe, Megalo Box follows Junk “Joe” Dog, a promising boxer who believes he has the skills to be a champion. But his work for a criminal gang – throwing fights – all but eliminates his chances of a legitimate title fight. However, a chance encounter with the current champion in an off-the-record bout – and the champion’s challenge to Joe to fight his way to the top – gives him the opportunity, and motivation, he needs to prove he’s a contender.

Composed by well-known hip-hop musician and producer Mabanua, Megalo Box’s soundtrack creates the perfect atmosphere to tell Joe’s hard-knock win-or-go-home story. While the soundtrack includes a few pop and rock tracks, its overall hip-hop theme is what makes it stand out, especially considering how it seamlessly integrates into the story. This is best demonstrated with COMI-CHI and Baku’s “Gearless Joe”, a buoyantly chaotic tribute to Joe’s intense fighting spirit.

Watch On Crunchyroll

9 Initial D Fifth Stage Gives a Hip Hop Edge to a Classic Series

Based on the Manga By Shuichi Shigeno

Initial D Fifth Stage continues the story of the street racing collective known as Project D. Having conquered the raceways of the team’s homebase in Gunma prefecture, as well as, the race system in Tochigi, the crew now sets its sights on the Kanagawa – the toughest street racing circuit in Japan. While lead driver Takimi Fujiwara and master road strategist Keisuki Takahashi are more than up for the task, the Kanagawa crews join forces to make it as difficult as possible for the outsiders to win.

While the music of the prior four Initial D series was unmistakably pop rock, the Initial D Fifth Stage soundtrack stretches its lead with the introduction of a more hip-hop-based vibe. The soundtrack’s larger hip-hop profile matches Initial D Fifth Stage’s move from the more rural areas of Gunma and Tochigi to the gritty urban environs of Kanagawa. The series’ musical evolution is best illustrated with m.o.v.e.’s opening theme to the series – “Raise Up” – a throbbing track that layers traditional Initial D Eurobeat electronica over a boisterous hip-hop beat track along with razor-sharp rhymes and the lead singer’s syrupy harmonies.

Watch On Crunchyroll

8 Tonkatsu DJ Agetarou

Based on the Manga By Yipiao & Yujiro Koyama

Tonkatsu DJ Agetarou centers on twentysomething Agetarou Katsumata who seems destined to follow in his parents’ footsteps as the proprietor of the family’s tonkatsu (port cutlet) restaurant in Tokyo’s Shibuya District. That is, until a food delivery to a local nightclub turns him into Tokyo’s glamorous DJ scene. Finding uncanny similarities between spinning vinyl and plating the perfect tonkatsu rice bowl, Katsumata decides to become the best tonkatsu chef/hip-hop DJ in the history of food and music.

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Being an anime about DJing, it’s only natural that Tonkatsu DJ Agetarou’s soundtrack is heavy on hip-hop tracks. But two elements of its soundtrack set it apart as being exceptional. First, the plethora of top Japanese hip-hop talent who are included on the soundtrack, such as Mubuana and Shingo Suzuki is incredible. Even though it’s a soundtrack, Tonkatsu DJ Agetarou is also a hip-hop album that can stand on its own as an impressive sample of contemporary Tokyo hip-hop music. Second, like all great soundtracks, the music sticks to the anime’s themes, enhancing and making the viewing experience more entertaining.

Watch On Crunchyroll

7 Jujutsu Kaisen Brings a Modern Hip-Hop Energy to Battle Shonen

Based on the Manga by Gege Akutami

Jujutsu Kaisen follows a group of young sorcerers from Tokyo and Kyoto learning how to master their abilities while protecting the world, and themselves, from the deadly spirits called cures and evil sorcerers hellbent on devouring and enslaving them.

Perhaps no other top-tier anime has bought into hip-hop culture quite like Jujutsu Kaisen. This is especially surprising considering its supernatural and battle-centric themes. While the anime’s music includes tracks from a variety of different genres, its hip-hop and rap tracks hit with the force and power of a Black Flash strike. Nowhere is this more obvious than in its ending theme song, “Lost in Paradise”. With its mix of rap and horns over an infectious beat that creates a musical domain expansion that will get everyone dancing – it’s the perfect example of the series’ hip-hop creativity.

Watch On Crunchyroll

Jujutsu Kaisen

TV-MA

Animation

Action

Adventure

Jujutsu Kaisen is a supernatural action anime that follows high school student Yuuji Itadori as he battles against magical curses. After Yuji selflessly saves a classmate by taking a curse into his own body, he is discovered and trained by a powerful sorcerer named Satoru Gojo. Gojo, who also happens to be a faculty member at a high school, enrolls Yuji there to help him and other students prepare themselves against the supernatural forces that plague humanity.

Cast

Junya Enoki , Yuma Uchida , Yuichi Nakamura , Adam McArthur , Asami Seto

Release Date

October 2, 2020

Seasons

3

Streaming Service(s)

Crunchyroll

Franchise(s)

Jujutsu Kaisen

Writers

Hiroshi Seko

Directors

Sunghoo Park , Shōta Goshozono

6 Tokyo Tribe 2 is an Anime Gang Story With an Incredible Soundtrack

Based on the Manga by Santa Inoue

Tokyo Tribes 2 centers on the story of Kai Beguchi and Mera, two inseparable childhood friends who, because of a misunderstanding, ends with Mera hating Kai. The two eventually become leaders of different teen gangs – or tribes – in the Tokyo Metro Area. Now with the power of his gang – the Bukuro Wu-Ronz – and the backing of one of Tokyo’s most notorious Yakuza bosses, Mera decides to take revenge on Kai and his Masashino Saru crew, in a no-holds-barred campaign of violence that threatens to engulf all of Tokyo’s teen gang-scape.

While the story – of youth gangs in Tokyo – is nothing new, the context in which it is conveyed is exceptional, and no other attempts have captured its essence. That context is quintessentially hip-hop. From the clothes characters wear to the slang used in conversation to the music that’s always on in the background – it’s hip-hop at its finest. Nowhere is that truer than in the soundtrack, which features the likes of DJ Munro and De La Soul. The Illmatic Buddha MC’s opening theme “Top of Tokyo” sets the tone for the soundtrack and the Tokyo Tribes 2.

Watch On Zoro

5 Afro Samurai: Resurrection

Based on the Manga by Takashi Okazaki

Afro Samurai: Resurrection is the follow-up to the groundbreaking Afro Samurai series in which Afro succeeds in both avenging his father’s death and obtaining the vaunted “Number One Headband”. In Resurrection, after being betrayed by his former friends who steal his father’s corpse and headband, Afro must once again wear the Number Two Headband and embark on a relentless mission to avenge his father’s death and find peace.

One of the most iconic elements of the original Afro Samurai was RZA’s soundtrack, which incorporated bombastic rhythms and pulsating beat tracks into the anime’s retro-feudal style vibe. RZA’s history with Wu-Tang Clan’s kung fu-centric music style shined through in the effort. With the Resurrection soundtrack, RZA doubles down on integrating the music with the story, which achieves an even better effect. With “Bloody Samurai”, for example, RZA delivers an unforgettable track that demonstrates just how well anime and hip-hop can work together with the right creative energy.

Watch On Crunchyroll

4 Devilman Crybaby Uses Rap as a Greek Chorus

Based on the Manga By Go Nagai

Devilman Crybaby follows the adventures of Akira Fudo and Ryo Asuka as they attempt to save the world from a race of demons hellbent on possessing and killing as many humans as they can. Fortunately, they have the help of the demon that Akira has merged with and loosely brought under his control. The problem is that Akira is so namby-pamby sentimental that it’s often hard to keep the demon in him at bay.

While the soundtrack for Devilman Crybaby is not solely dedicated to hip-hop, the genre is a driving thread – a musical prism – that most of the songs on the soundtrack refract through. This is mainly due to the writer’s substitution of rappers for the people in the original story, who bullied Akira as a child. Indeed, the rappers provide a sort of ongoing social commentary for Devilman Crybaby that also plays out across the soundtrack.

Watch On Netflix

3 Ya Boy Kongming! Combines the Old With the New

Based on the Manga By Yuto Yotsuba & Ryō Ogawa

In one of the more interesting isekai stories of the past few years, Ya Boy Kongming! tells the story of the famous Chinese general of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms – Zhuge Liang AKA Kongming being reborn in contemporary Tokyo’s Shibuya District where he assumes the role of young singer Eiko Tsukimi’s marketing and social media strategist. It’s a job in which his military instincts prove to be extraordinarily useful. On the way to helping Eiko become “the next big thing”, Kongming also meets and helps others in Eiko’s circle of aspiring musicians, including up-and-coming rapper Kabe-Taijin.

Being a series focused on music, the soundtrack for Ya Boy Kongming! is a joy to anyone who digs anime-based music. However, with Kabe-Taijin being – in essence – a member of the Eiko Tsukimo tour group, hip-hop is given a significant place among the soundtrack’s musical offerings. Most importantly, its hip-hop tracks do not fail to impress. Of particular note is Kongming’s rap battle with Kabe-Taijin which is an awesome tribute to the freestyle rap battles that were common at the beginning of the hip-hop revolution.

Watch On HiDive

2 Yasuke Gives a True Story an Anime & Hip Hop Refresh

Original Anime Created By LeSean Thomas

In another series that reimagines the story of a historical figure, Yasuke centers on the adventures of Yasuke, a Sixteenth-century African immigrant to Japan who would go on to serve as a close personal assistant to Oda Nobunaga – the Japanese political leader who played a major role in the unification of Japan under the current imperial family. The anime, however, retells Yasuke’s tale with an eye to the events in his life that couldn’t or weren’t reported in the official history.

When it came time to score the series, Yasuke creator LeSean Thomas called on his colleague and friend Flying Lotus to do the honors. Previously, both had worked at Adult Swim, and Thomas clearly appreciated and respected Flying Lotus’ work with hip-hop infused animation tracks. Flying Lotus did not disappoint. His tracks have less of the beat-heavy – “boom bit” sounds that are so common in traditional hip-hop styles such as RZA’s Afro Samurai work. Instead, they resemble the layered musical approach of latter-day hip-hop fusion styles. This works so well in delivering Yasuke‘s feudal Japanese hip-hop sound.

Watch On Netflix

1 Samurai Champloo Has the Greatest Hip Hop Soundtrack in Anime History

Original Anime Written by Shinji Obara and Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe

Samurai Champloo follows the story of Fuu, Mugen, and Jin, three young adults living in the Edo Period. As fate would have it, a chance encounter between Fuu, a tea shop worker, and the two unexpected heroes – Mugen and Jin – unfolds when a spilled tea mishap brings them all together. That accident sets off a chain of events in which Fuu, Mugen, and Jin are branded outlaws by the local government and must go on the run to find a “mythical” samurai who – they hope – has the ability to resolve all their issues.

Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, of Cowboy Bebop fame, Samurai Champloo exudes a similar cinematic style. Rather than a spaghetti western in space, Samurai Champloo is a samurai period piece with a contemporary vibe. It’s visually stunning, with unforgettable characters that are all seamlessly brought together with a vibrant, catchy soundtrack. However, unlike Cowboy Bebop’s jazzy music notes, this time Watanabe goes with a tight hip-hop beat fest. Intuitively, the combination of an ancient samurai story with uptown rhythms seems incompatible. But under Watanabe’s creative design, the reality is Samurai Champloo is the best anime with a hip hop soundtrack.

Watch On Crunchyroll