ANARCHYIt's something I've been thinking about for a while, but the biggest impetus was Lauryn Hill's concert in Japan at Billboard Live in 2015. The ticket was 40,000 yen. To be honest, I thought it was expensive until I went . But after seeing the concert, I thought it was not expensive at all. I thought, "That's what it's all about. I also wanted to put a price on what I do. iTunes Store allows you to buy any song for 250 yen, or an album for 2,500 yen, and there is a set price for each song or album. A CD that costs only 500 yen is sold for 2,500 yen. But that is the way I see it, and to someone else, it may be worth 13,000 yen. The work we make has people who make the tracks and design the jackets, and so on. I wanted to put a value on it. So the price could be anything. However, I thought that 4,000 yen or 5,000 yen would not be interesting. I really wanted to set the price at 130,000 yen. ( lol ) Finally, I decided to set the price at 13,000 yen because this album was based on the theme of "13," and I had sessions with 13 rappers, including myself. However, I was afraid that the record company wouldn't go for it (laughs). . I had to negotiate hard to get them to go through with it, and they did. In exchange, we agreed to do distribution and subscriptions as usual.

ANARCHYIf you are a painter, if the artist says 100 million yen, the work is 100 million yen. Only music has a standard price that is not decided by anyone, and I feel very uncomfortable about that. It is often said that CDs do not sell well in this era. I wondered why. Rappers put their lives on the line to make their music, and I felt that if I could raise the value of these rappers a little, it would be a good thing. I wanted to raise the value of these rappers, even if only a little. Everyone puts in a lot of effort, whether they are younger or older than me, and I don't think it's cheap.

ANARCHYThat's right. This time I worked with a lot of people who I thought could create something I couldn't do alone, and I wanted to do it on the other side of the field as well. I always wanted to be competitive! But I don't have that feeling on this album. I think there are songs where the other guy sings a better verse than I do. In the past, I would have stuck to songs where I was the baddest verse, but on this album, there are songs where the other guy is better looking than me! But it's okay if the other person is cooler than me. Jin Dogg sings in the middle verse, and it's really cool. I made it in such a way that it is used to its fullest. I wanted to make it work as a song in that way.

ANARCHY. I'm not the type of person who usually does not feature. I don't like the idea of having two or three features on an album. I feel like it would be too disjointed. I have always preferred concept albums. But this time, I wanted to have fun with the session and make what I could do with the help of the people I was working with.

ANARCHYI guess so. I had the feeling that I could only do so much. I asked for everyone's help. That's how I always feel when I do a feature. Whenever I see an interesting person coming up, I want to teach him or her how to do it! I'm like, "When I see someone interesting, I'm going to ask them to show me how to do it. This time, I'm working with young guys like Willy Wonka, Young Coco, and Leon, but I feel like, "Can I try to sing with their flow? I want to continue to grow. I still want to grow, and I want to rap in various ways and have fun. I was able to make an album where I could play what I wanted, with everyone I wanted, in the way I wanted. But that was just the case with this album, and next time I want to make something that surpasses the first album. I've been releasing albums in two-year cycles since then, but this next album will contain everything I've learned over the past 30 years. I am a wordsmith. I don't really feel like a musician. I hope to create words that I can deliver properly.

ANARCHYI think, consciously, each rapper thinks that he or she is the king. I'm the king. When I say, "I'm the king," the other rappers say, "No, I'm the king! Wouldn't it be more interesting to have a scene where I say, "No, I'm the king! I say out loud, "I'm the king," but I want the scene to be full of people who hear that and think, "No, no, no, I'm the king.

ANARCHYBecause there are no places like that these days.

ANARCHYAs for fashion, I think it's just a fad. . There is always a trend in front of you, isn't there? It is up to me to ignore them or accept them, and if I have a proper style, I can make what is in front of me my own. I don't want to be the kind of person who takes in everything. I want to always be selective. I want to take in what is good. Of course I like clothes. But fashion is largely about trends, isn't it? Hip-hop is linked to fashion nowadays, isn't it? . But hip-hop doesn't have to be linked to fashion. I believe that hip-hop is always on the cutting edge. I think there is a part of it that is too much linked now.

ANARCHY. When I released my first album, it was a time when hip-hop was stagnant in Japan. It was not a time when it was easy to get big deals. Things are getting better and better now, aren't they?

ANARCHY. actually, I recently started listening to their 1st and 2nd albums. I thought, "Oh, he's saying good things, that's why they sell so well" (laughs). (Laughs) At the time, all I heard were rough parts, but they were saying things that could only be said at that time, and there were songs that resonated with me now, songs that I came to like. That is something that makes me happy. Although the price of "The KING" is higher than usual, I am happy when people who buy it are happy with it. When you buy something expensive, you take good care of it, whether it is an item of clothing or something else. I hope this album will be something like that for the people who buy it.