Nujabes on Vinyl: Where to Start and Where to Go Next

Some producers make beats. Jun Seba, the Tokyo musician who recorded as Nujabes, made weather. He built his alias by spelling his own name backward, and he spent the late 1990s and 2000s folding jazz records, soul sides, and Brazilian pressings into hip-hop drums until the seams disappeared. The result felt less like sampling than like remembering. He founded the Hydeout Productions label in 1998 and ran the Guinness Records shop in Shibuya, growing a small catalog with the patience of a man who knew exactly what he wanted a record to feel like.

That catalog reached the rest of the world through an anime. When Shinichiro Watanabe hired him to help score Samurai Champloo in 2004, Nujabes gave a samurai story set to boom bap its heartbeat, and a generation found him through late-night television and, later, the endless study-beats streams his work quietly invented. He died in a traffic collision in Tokyo in 2010, at 36, with two studio albums finished and a third on the way. In the years since, he has become something close to a patron saint of jazzy, unhurried hip-hop.

GOOD TASTE Records carries the official Hydeout reissues of nearly everything he released, pressed in Japan and finally easy to find on vinyl, CD, and cassette. Here is where to start, and where to go once the first needle drop has done its work.

Nujabes - Metaphorical Music

Nujabes announced himself fully formed. Metaphorical Music, his 2003 debut, sets the template he would spend the rest of his career refining: warm upright bass, brushed drums, and looped horns that breathe, with guest verses from Cise Starr, Substantial, and other kindred spirits arriving like old friends. Nothing rushes, and nothing is wasted.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• His 2003 debut LP, the record where the Nujabes sound arrives complete
• Jazz-sampling production with guests including Cise Starr and Substantial
• Official Hydeout reissue on vinyl, imported from Japan

Nujabes - Modal Soul

If you own one Nujabes record, make it this one. Modal Soul, from 2005, is his masterpiece: gorgeous, melancholy, and generous, built around cuts like the feathery "Feather" with Cise Starr and Akin and a run of instrumentals that have soundtracked more late nights than anyone could count. It is the album most people mean when they say his name.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• His 2005 second album, widely held as his finest hour
• Includes the beloved "Feather" and a peerless run of instrumentals
• Official Hydeout reissue on vinyl, imported from Japan

Nujabes - Hydeout Productions: First Collection

The Hydeout compilations are where Nujabes worked as a bandleader as much as a producer. Hydeout Productions: First Collection gathers the label's early singles from 2003, including the opening chapter of the "Luv(sic)" series with the rapper Shing02, a collaboration that would stretch across a decade. Treat it as the connective tissue between the studio albums.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• The 2003 label compilation, drawing together Hydeout's early singles
• Home to the first chapter of the "Luv(sic)" series with Shing02
• Official Hydeout reissue on vinyl, imported from Japan

Nujabes - Hydeout Productions: 2nd Collection

Hydeout Productions: 2nd Collection continues the story in 2007, and for many listeners it stands equal to the studio albums. It carries "Luv(sic) part 3" with Shing02 alongside collaborations with Substantial, Pase Rock, and the wider Hydeout circle, refining the label sound into some of the most quietly moving beats Nujabes ever committed to tape. With the First Collection, it completes the pair that maps his years as a label boss.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• The 2007 Hydeout compilation, a peak of the label catalog
• Features "Luv(sic) part 3" with Shing02
• Official Hydeout reissue on vinyl, imported from Japan

Nujabes - Luv(sic) Hexalogy

The "Luv(sic)" collaboration with Shing02 ran in six parts from 2001 to 2013, the final chapters finished after Nujabes died. Luv(sic) Hexalogy collects all six in one place, and heard together they play like one long letter about love and time, Shing02's verses maturing over the years while the beats stay eternally young. It is the most complete way to hear his defining partnership.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• Collects all six parts of the "Luv(sic)" series with Shing02 on one release
• Spans 2001 to 2013, with the closing parts completed after his passing
• The definitive document of his longest creative partnership

Nujabes - Samurai Champloo Music Record (20th Anniversary)

This is the music that carried him around the world. For Shinichiro Watanabe's 2004 series Samurai Champloo, Nujabes composed alongside Fat Jon, Force of Nature, and Tsutchie, and his contributions, from the "Battlecry" theme with Shing02 to the hushed "Aruarian Dance," remain the emotional core of the score. The 20th anniversary 7-inch boxset gives those tracks a proper collector's home.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• Collects Nujabes' work from the 2004 Samurai Champloo score
• Includes the "Battlecry" theme with Shing02 and "Aruarian Dance"
• A 20th anniversary 7-inch boxset, imported from Japan

Nujabes - Other Side of Phase

For the listener who has worn out the albums, Other Side of Phase gathers shorter Nujabes material onto a single EP, the kind of tracks that once lived only on hard-to-find singles and Japanese pressings. It is a small record, but every Nujabes groove counts, and this one fills a real gap on the shelf.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• A short EP collecting Nujabes tracks from outside the main albums
• Rewards listeners who already know the studio catalog by heart
• Imported vinyl for the completist

If You Like Nujabes

• J Dilla: the Detroit producer whose off-kilter drums and soul samples are Nujabes' closest spiritual sibling in American hip-hop.
• DJ Krush: the Tokyo turntablist and elder statesman of Japanese instrumental hip-hop, darker and dubbier but cut from the same cloth.
• Uyama Hiroto: a Hydeout collaborator and protege who carries the label's live-instrument, jazz-minded sound forward.
• Fat Jon: the Cincinnati producer who scored Samurai Champloo alongside Nujabes and shares his warm, hazy touch.
• Onra: a French beatmaker whose vintage-sample funk and jazz sit comfortably next to the Hydeout catalog.

Where to Go From Here

Nujabes sits at the crossroads of two shelves worth wandering: our hip-hop section for the beats, and our jazz section for the records he learned from. When you are ready to hear the whole story, browse everything by Nujabes in one place. It's all in GOOD TASTE.