Daichi Yamamoto believes Japanese rap has been enjoying a particularly good half-decade.

¡°I just think the music itself has gotten better, to be honest,¡± the 28-year-old rapper says. ¡°I feel like Japanese rappers have become more comfortable rapping about their own experiences.¡±

He¡¯s coincidentally describing the very attributes that have made him one of the most exciting new voices to emerge in the genre. The Kyoto native has become a fixture in the domestic hip-hop scene by turning stories from his own life ¡ª the usual stuff like breakups to more specific experiences stemming from his life as a biracial kid ¡ª into songs that are backed by catchy beats that reference everything from golden-age U.S. hip-hop to modern electronic sounds.