Monday Playlist: Yababababa

Today's tracklist features (primarily femme) Japanese rappers and hip-hop artists. They are either explicitly singing about gyaru, are gyaru themselves, or the song reflects the spirit of being wild and sexy. 

The title of this playlist is derived from relatively recent gyaru-go. It's a play on the very versatile Japanese word "yabai" which can mean anything from terrible to amazing to "omg." It's not uncommon for "yabai" to be shortened to "yaba," and now, gyaru (in our infinite wisdom) have added extra "ba's." It's cute and fun to say. 

やばばばばばば ( ✧Д✧)

Monday Playlist: Agepoyo

This was inspired by Rookie Magazine's (rest in peace) Friday Playlist, which I listened to religiously as a depressed high schooler. I used to burn CDs for all of my friends, and I wish my stupid MacBook still had the capacity to burn CDs, but it doesn't even have a USB port anymore. (ꐦ¬_¬)

Anyway.

I loved how homespun the Rookie playlists were, with the curator's hand-drawn tracklist and personal blurb. It was warm. This is my homage to that.

Agepoyo is old gyaru-go. 

"Age" means to raise, whereas "poyo" means... well, nothing really. It just sounds cute (and isn't that enough?) Combined, it's used as an expression of enthusiasm, a la exclaiming, "I'm pumped up!" or "I'm so excited!" That's the mood I wanted to capture in today's inaugural Monday Playlist. The songs featured are either explicitly about or convey (through melody or rhythm) a sense of pure excitement. The sort that bubbles up inside you, and when it reaches its peak, you can't help but say, "Agepoyo!"