The "Hypnosis Mic" franchise recently announced three new releases for its "2nd Division Rap Battle".
"Hypnosis Mic" is a multimedia project where fictional anime-style characters grouped into "Divisions" based on famous districts in Japan face off against each other in rap battles. The winners are decided by "territory battles", where fans vote
for their favourite Division by using the codes featured in CDs or merchandise they have purchased.
The Shinjuku Division Matenrou was the winner of the "First Rap Battle", which took place in 2018, and the "2nd Division Rap Battle" is currently in progress.
Each "battle CD" will feature a track where the two participating Divisions battle head-to-head and one solo track for each group, as well as one audio drama track for each Division that advances their story and fleshes out the characters. While
the tracks are performed by the voice actors for the characters, various musicians are enlisted to write the music and lyrics for each group.
The first battle will be between the Osaka Division Dotsuitare Hompo and the Ikebukuro Division Buster Bros!!!, and its CD will be released on February 24th. Their battle track will be Joy for Struggle, which was composed
by MZO and Potyomkin of hip-hop unit Gaki Ranger. The Osaka Division's solo track Waraoosaka! ~What a OSAKA! was composed by Tortoise Matsumoto, the vocalist of rock band ULFULS, with lyrics he wrote in collaboration with rapper SHINGO★Nishinari. Buster Bros!!!'s track Re:start!!! features music by GeG and lyrics by WILYWNKA and VIGORMAN.
The Nagoya Division Bad Ass Temple and the Shinjuku Division Matenrou's battle CD will hit stores on March 10th. Its battle track will be Light & Shadow, which was composed by Koji Ide, with lyrics by rapper KEN THE 390.
Bad Ass Temple's solo Kaigen was composed by Shoji Ikenaga of Arakajime Kimerareta Koibito-tachi e, with lyrics by AFRO from MOROHA. Matenrou's track TOMOSHIBI was composed by DJ KRUSH, with
lyrics by rapper
GADORO.
The final battle CD will pit the Shibuya Division Fling Posse and the Yokohama Division MAD TRIGGER CREW against each other. Their battle track Reason to FIGHT was composed by DJ and producer TeddyLoid, with lyrics by
ALI-KICK. The Fling Posse track Black Journey was composed by Kenkaiyoshi and Tanaka (formerly known as Boku no Lyric no Bouyomi), with lyrics by Tanaka. The MAD TRIGGER CREW track HUNTING CHARM features music
by Dirty Orange and lyrics by members of hip-hop unit ICE BAHN.
