Fitted cap with the tags still on... check.
A fresh white du-rag... check.
Hip-hop gear dripping from head to toe... check.
Platinum chain and ice in each ear... check.
Jerome White Jr. easily passes the rapper certification exam with flying colors. He even has the ladies going crazy over him, whenever he performs.
The only difference.... these women are well into their sixties and they're all Japanese.
"Jero" as he is officially called, is Japan's newest musical sensation with his hugely successful singles on top of the pop charts. But he sure ain't successful singing in English or about anything remotely associated with hip-hop. Instead he croons about love lost on lonely Japanese cliffs in an old Japanese form of music called Enka (basically Japanese blues)
The 26 year-old singer, who's from the north side of Pittsburgh, for years had been covertly memorizing Enka with his grandmother in the home. He painstaking learned how to speak and write Japanese largely because of his love for the music.
Says one Japanese fan:
"I love the way he looks," gushed Sakura Takagi, a soap opera extra in her mid-30s who had traveled two hours by train to look at Jero. "He looks very kind and you can tell he is pure of heart."
So basically what you're telling me is that if I brush up on my Rosetta Stone and rock some generic hip-hop gear, I can be a Japanese superstar? Hmm...
I guess everybody has got their thing. Besides Japan does have a history of liking and doing some weird things. I give you exhibit 1, exhibit 2, and exhibit 3, just in cause you think I'm joking. So kids there's a lesson out there to all of you aspiring rappers and entertainer's, there's another way... you just have to be willing to learn three forms of Japanese, love Japan, and be obsessed with old Japanese blues.
Good Luck!
Jerome White Jr. Pictures
Entertainment-Japan-US-music, by Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura US Enka or Japanese ballade singer Jero (C) performs the hip hop dance with dancers during his debut live stage on his song "Umi Yuki," or Marine Snow at a music store in Tokyo on Feburary 20, 2008. Jero, the 26-year-old African-American -- who had a Japanese grandmother -- has wowed audiences old and young with soulful singing in perfect Japanese combined with hip-hop style.
(Photo credit TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images)
26-year-old US Enka or Japanese ballade singer Jero sings his debut song "Umi Yuki," or Marine Snow during his debut live stage at a music store in Tokyo on Feburary 20, 2008. Victor Entertainment started selling Jero's CD and cassette tape from Feburary 20 in Japanese market.
(Photo credit TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images)
26-year-old US Enka or Japanese ballade singer Jero shows off his first music CD, "Umi Yuki," or Marine Snow during his debut live stage at a music store in Tokyo on Feburary 20, 2008. Victor Entertainment started selling Jero's CD and cassette tape from Feburary 20 on Japanese market.
(Photo credit TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images)
Entertainment-Japan-US-music, by Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura US Enka or Japanese ballade singer Jero sings his debut song "Umi Yuki," or Marine Snow during his debut live stage at a music store in Tokyo on Feburary 20, 2008. Jero, the 26-year-old African-American -- who had a Japanese grandmother -- has wowed audiences old and young with soulful singing in perfect Japanese combined with hip-hop style.
(Photo credit TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images)
Entertainment-Japan-US-music, by Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura US Enka or Japanese ballade singer Jero sings his debut song "Umi Yuki," or Marine Snow during his debut live stage at a music store in Tokyo on Feburary 20, 2008. Jero, the 26-year-old African-American -- who had a Japanese grandmother -- has wowed audiences old and young with soulful singing in perfect Japanese combined with hip-hop style.
(Photo credit TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images)
Entertainment-Japan-US-music, by Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura US Enka or Japanese ballade singer Jero (L) shakes hands with a young fan during his debut live stage on his song "Umi Yuki," or Marine Snow at a music store in Tokyo on Feburary 20, 2008. Jero, the 26-year-old African-American -- who had a Japanese grandmother -- has wowed audiences old and young with soulful singing in perfect Japanese combined with hip-hop style.
(Photo credit TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images)
Comments: (22)
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By: Ms. Unique on 6/08/2008 9:19PM
Hey, I am from Pittsburgh, PA and never heard of this dude representing the (Burgh)? I am trying to not to laugh and his voice is not going with his appearance and it's messing me up? I applaud him for learning and singing the language but, come on? The above poll I took the above poll and the only way that dude sound can catch on the U.S. is if, there was a remix with Akon and T-Pain 100%! But first, he would have to get another CHOREOGRAPHER, some NEW DANCERS, a STLIST, and get Chris Robinson or somebody to shoot his video! This was a "HOT MESS" in the "PROCESS"!
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By: Ms. Unique on 6/08/2008 9:21PM
Hey, I am from Pittsburgh, PA and never heard of this dude representing the (Burgh)? I am trying to not to laugh and his voice is not going with his appearance and it's messing me up? I applaud him for learning and singing the language but, come on? The above poll I took the above poll and the only way that dude sound can catch on the U.S. is if, there was a remix with Akon and T-Pain 100%! But first, he would have to get another CHOREOGRAPHER, some NEW DANCERS, a STLIST, and get Chris Robinson or somebody to shoot his video! This was a "HOT MESS" in the "PROCESS"!
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By: Ms. Uniique on 6/08/2008 9:28PM
I forgot to add to #1. If this guy is going to have this look, he should RAP not SING and again, have a remix with Akon and T-Pain, then people here in the U.S. might CONSIDER? That's a BIG MAYBE
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By: Ms. Unique on 6/08/2008 10:34PM
I know, he could make a lot of $$$$ over in Japan and I'm thinking, maybe he knows there money over there? He does have a good voice and I am not disrespecting him but, um...?
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By: Ms. Unique on 6/08/2008 10:36PM
I know, he could make a lot of $$$$ over in Japan and I'm thinking, maybe he knows there money over there? He does have a good voice and I am not disrespecting him but, um...?
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By: Cherry on 6/09/2008 12:34AM
I respect him, because he is not another Bob Sapp. I love the way he respect Japanese culture and songs. He deserve his big success in there. He's just doing what he likes and dreams about. God bless him.
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By: dd on 6/09/2008 5:28PM
I respect his hustle. I am not really feeling the music or the video but, as black people we always keep ourselves down by not being open to new and different ideas.You go boy!!!!! I can see the unlimited possibilities here.
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By: myss_krys on 6/11/2008 10:02PM
for the whole time i was in korea, every now and then i would actually listening to japanese music, i never heard of or seen him.
i like his voice and he's cute and i applaud him for learning to speak and write in japanese, but that video had NOTHING to do with the song. that was just BAD. whatever real talent he has needs to show.
and to the writer/ editor why not look up Insooni and write about a blasian woman, who has made it in the music business, who's got quality.
in the mean time Jero needs to work harder in the music business, cuz this won't pass in the U.S.
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By: MadSapien on 6/10/2008 11:00AM
I applaud this young brotha!! It takes a lot of guts to, #1 learn and master another language and adapt to the culture. His love of the music took him beyond the boundaries of the morally decadent U.S. music industry. 2 thumbs up!!!
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By: Shell on 6/10/2008 6:18PM
Great Job Nephew, Follow your dreams and trust God and you can do anything.
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