Table of Contents
Summary
- Hip Hop’s influence on anime is undeniable, as the two share DNA and impact on artistic styles and storytelling methods.
- Black Americans initially shaped interest in Asian pop culture, leading to a lasting connection between anime and Hip Hop.
- Toonami played a key role in making anime popular among Black Americans, impacting music and inspiring famous Hip Hop artists.
From music to fashion to vernacular, Hip Hop’s influence on anime is undeniable. Considering the impact that Hip Hop has had on almost every facet of pop culture, it’s not hard to see why anime was pulled into its magnetism. However, pop culture is rarely a one-way street. Primary influences are changed by what they are influencing. Indeed, over the last decade, anime has become a major albeit less reported influence on Hip Hop – and fans of both are the better for it.
While it might have started as a purely domestic tradition, anime is now a global phenomenon that rivals Hip Hop as a cultural influencer. Moreover, like Hip Hop, anime shows no signs of stopping its impact on both Eastern and Western popular culture. Naturally, being a visual medium, much of anime’s influence is experienced by its impact on artistic styles and techniques, illustrated storytelling methods, and even hairstyles.
But perhaps the most important influence that anime has had on global pop culture is how it has captured the hearts and minds of people in every corner of the world. This impact is even more pronounced with the generations of youth who grew up with as much access to anime as they had with domestic cartoons. Anime became part of their mindset without them even realizing it. As Across The Spider-Verse director Joaquim Dos Santos recently pointed out:
I think now, we’re of a generation where it’s like, an entire generation has grown up with it as part of their artistic influence.
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Anime’s Influence On Hip Hop Has Its Roots In The Kung Fu Flicks Of The 1970s
Black American interest in Asian pop culture began with the first wave of Asian martial arts movies
While anime’s impact on music – in general – is easily demonstrated by the rise of the anime soundtrack and how intertwined it has become with the enjoyment of the anime, what is less known is anime’s particular influence on Hip Hop music specifically. Indeed, although anime and Hip Hop music are rarely considered in the same breath, the truth is contemporary anime and Hip Hop share a significant amount of the same DNA. To understand why this is true, it’s important to understand the impact of Asian pop culture on urban Black American audiences.
According to Phil Hoad, writing for The Guardian about Peter McCormack’s 2011 documentary, I am Bruce Lee, Black American interest in Asian pop culture began with the first wave of Asian martial arts movies to premiere in the West during the early 1970s. While this was largely deemed a money-losing effort due to the fact that most Americans at the time were turned off by the subtitles, the movies were nevertheless quite popular with one segment of the American public – Black Americans. The popularity of Asian martial arts films in the Black American community was further deepened with the stardom of Bruce Lee.
Bruce Lee Was probably the greatest African-American star of the 70s. – Phil Hoad,
The Guardian
Indeed, Lee had been inspiring Black American youths since the 1967 television series Green Hornet where, starring in the role of the Hornet’s sidekick Kato, Lee proved himself against one of the symbols of American mainstream superheroes, Robin. Moreover, he was one of the few Chinese martial artists who agreed to teach Black students martial arts, when few others at the time did.
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Anime Filled The Void Left By The Decline Of Martial Arts Entertainment
The connection between anime and Hip Hop owes its existence to the prevalence of anime in the Black American community over the last three decades.
According to McCormack, Black American interest in Asian martial arts films was due to a number of elements. First, there was the fact that the films offered heroes who were cool, and not white. They depicted a world where non-whites can win the day and look good while doing it. Second, there was the fact that many of the stories told in the films featured members of oppressed populations throwing off the yokes of their repression and defeating the powers that be.
This idea mirrored similar ideas of the Black Power Movement that were circulating within the Black American communities of the time. Lastly, many of the Asian martial arts films featured the “butt-kicking” action of the blaxploitation films that were also popular within the Black American communities at the time, such as Shaft, Superfly, and Foxy Brown.
All Roads Lead To Dragon Ball
In the subsequent decades, as the martial arts films of the 1970s faded into history, the Black American community’s interest in Asian pop culture continued. One alternative outlet for that interest became anime. Indeed, while anime had been available in the U.S. since the 1970s, it was only in the 90s and early 00s that it became commonplace. Like the martial arts film revolution a decade before, the Black American community was among the earliest groups to show a deep interest in anime.
While the Black American community’s initial interest in anime was facilitated by its previous interest in Asian martial arts movies, subsequent interest was largely organic. In other words, the Black American community found a direct resonance with anime. Indeed, while Bruce Lee might have been a gateway for young Black Americans into martial arts entertainment, Dragon Ball, especially among those also interested in Hip Hop, was a key facilitator of a deeper interest in anime.
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Toonami was massively popular among Black Americans
Like the martial arts movie era, a key reason for this was access. According to a 2022 video for AJ+, the host of Amazon Prime Video’s Anime Club, Cheyenne The Geek, Toonami – a Cartoon Networks programming block that ran from 1997 to 2008 and centered on anime series – had much to do with this outcome. At the time, Toonami was one of the most popular entertainment hubs for Black Americans at the turn of the century.
Naturally, its consistent showing of Dragon Ball Z made the series a popular choice. But other elements of Dragon Ball also resonated. In his 2009 book, The Tao of Wu, RZA, the musician behind Afro Samurai‘s legendary soundtrack, said that Dragon Ball Z, had more than a few parallels to his own life.
The voyage represents a journey to enlightenment. But to me, Dragon Ball Z also represents the journey of the Black man in America. – RZA
Of course, Dragon Ball wasn’t the only popular anime within the community. Naruto, One Piece, Sailor Moon, and Cowboy Bebop were all popular among young Black Americans. Indeed, not only did many of the stories resonate, but fans were also drawn in by the fact that anime was just different – in a good way – from what was previously available. Now, from Snoop Doggy Dog to Drake, some of the biggest stars in Hip Hop count themselves as fans of anime.
Ultimately, the connection between anime and Hip Hop owes its existence to the prevalence of anime in the Black American community over the last three decades. Young Black Hip Hop artists were undeniably influenced by anime characters, storylines, and mythologies. It’s no wonder then that many of those elements of anime have found their way into the music of Hip Hop artists who consider themselves anime fans.
Sources: The Guardian (1),(2), AJ+
