Hi I was wondering if anyone could help. My friend is Traveling to Tokyo in April and staying in Shinjuku. He is a rapper here in NYC and was wondering if there were any clubs in that area that may let him perform a set. Any help would be appreciated, take a look at his freestyle that was on MTV. Let me know if you know of anything or where he could look.
Japan seems to be more "West Side" "Dirty South" friendly rather than the East Coast style of rapping. But in any case Shinjuku is not the place. Try Roppongi. Club Midas , or Nature. Yokohama, Shibuya. But not Shinjuku.
There are smaller but popular hip-hop clubs in Shinjuku such as IZM.
I've never been there cuz I'm not really into hip-hop but they seem pretty friendly.
I dunno if hip-hop clubs work the same way but the way many small-mid sized trance and psyche clubs in Tokyo work is that DJ groups book out the clubs for their events, so if someone wanted to perform, it would be best to get friendly with a DJ group rather than the club itself. Not 100% sure if hip-hop clubs work the same way but I'm sure at least some of them do. if this is the case, he may be able to contact some of the DJ groups online first to see if they'll invite him as a special guest performer.