Creepy Nuts brought Japanese hip-hop to the National Stadium, opening the Singapore leg of The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn Tour with a set of anime favourites, club beats and turntable flourishes.
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Rapper R-Shitei and DJ Matsunaga make a compelling double act. R-Shitei packs his verses with quick, tightly controlled syllables, while Matsunaga cuts into the beats with scratches and rhythmic accents. Their sound gives the ear plenty to follow: the pace of the rapping, the shifting percussion and the hooks that emerge from all that activity.
‘Biriken’ opened the set with a bouncing Jersey club rhythm, followed by ‘Yofukashi no Uta’ and the jazzy ‘Daten’. The mood grew darker with ‘doppelgänger’ and ‘Chxxai’, whose pounding beats and electronic textures brought the selection closer to a late-night club set.
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A dedicated DJ routine gave Matsunaga the spotlight midway through. Scratching, quick cuts and beat juggling are central to his performance style, making the decks an instrument with their own rhythmic voice. The placement gave both halves of the partnership their due before the instantly recognisable ‘Bling-Bang-Bang-Born’.
From there, the duo moved through ‘Mirage’, ‘Fright’ and ‘Nidone’, saving ‘Otonoke’ for last. The DAN DA DAN opening theme was a crowd favourite, rounding off their energetic set before The Weeknd took the stage.
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