Afro Samurai is the cartoon that I recall being the first Anime that had rap culture in it. Afro Samurai embraced rap music, staring Samuel L Jackson as one of the main characters. Having a black samurai raise his blade against other opponent just to fight the character Justice. An antagonist who killed his father so he can obtain the number one headband. Rza had production credit for this Anime as well.
Hip-hop culture also appeared in Manga’s like Naruto and Samurai Champaloo. Naurto had Killer Bee, a Jinchuriki that raps any chance he gets. Samurai Champaloo having Dj scratches as apart of their show stylistics. Anime started to hold cultural structure in our genre of music. The two cultures started dancing with hip-hop for sometime, creating a new breed of rap artistry.
People that we’re infatuated with hip-hop culture and Anime started making AMVS. A short collage of fight scenes with a hip-hop music bed. The most popular AMV currently is Naruto Vs Sasuke final fight, Suicide Boys plays as the two collide. AMVS are used for cool promotional visuals for songs. The anime world has a lot of story-lines revolving around; drama, romance, family ties and vengeance. Why not have a genre that has the street struggle and glory: embrace these type of story lines.
I can name a bunch of rappers that used Anime as apart of there music and image. One of the most popular I can remember is Lupe Fiasco. By nature being a skateboarder, he became etched into the fabrics of nerd core hip-hop. Lupe has always been known as a fan of street-fighter. Rapper Rob Bank$ heavily embraces Anime and rap culture. His lyricism centers around Anime references. Comparing himself to cracking seals like the Akatsuki, the way one would crack seals on promethazine.
Growing up in a predominate black school getting reduced lunch as a young kid. We all use to trade Yu-Gi-Oh cards and talk about Dragon Ball Z. I remember fights use to break out over Yu-Gi-Oh and we played that game like we was playing at the gambling house. I had homies that use to hustle out Yu-Gi-Oh cards during morning time. It got real over that game, we all use to meet up just to play during breakfast and lunch. I remember when our cards had got confiscated, we use to creep in the teachers room when she was not there. Just to steal all are sh*t back that got taken away from us. I always thought the confiscation rule was a load of bullSh*t. In my opinion it was another form of stealing. Fast forward down the line, we all grew into our now early twenties and are still going hard for Anime world.