When was the last time you heard the genre, ‘nu-metal’? Personally, I was about eleven, headbanging to ‘Will You’ by P.O.D. While it’s definitely not a dead genre, it’s not something I’ve consciously thought of since the name became mainstream in the early two-thousands. Today we’ll revisit nu-metal with Tokyo-based rapper sic(boy), as well as look into the history of nu-metal and identify the differences between nu-metal and rap-metal. Hopefully, we’ll have a clearer idea of how to describe the rapper’s unique sound.
Who is sic(boy)?
sic(boy) was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1998. After his older brother introduced him to the song “Bless” by the Visual Kei band, L’ Arc en Ciel, sic(boy) became interested in music. He thus joined the high school music club and continued music even through college.
He played guitar in a band for a while, but due to a falling out, sic(boy) went solo. Using type beats and hip-hop samples, he began to produce his own music on SoundCloud. He is most known for his song “Akuma Emoji’, which is featured on the album that garnered over 80 million streams: CHAOS TAPE.
(sourced from Apple Music biography and Universal Music Japan)
Since his major debut in 2020, he’s produced several songs and albums under producer ‘KM’. With his growing fame, he’s also had a chance to collaborate with a variety of artists such as keyboardist AAAMYYY from the funk/psychedelic J-rock band, Tempalay; rappers vividboooy, JESSE, JUBEE, and Chaki Zulu. As a result, sic(boy) has been able to weave elements from R&B, hard rock, metal, hip-hop, and pop into his music.
In July of 2023, he released his thirteen-song album, HOLLOW. One of the songs from it ‘Dark Horse’ was my introduction to sic(boy). I was instantly drawn by the mix of screams, aggressive rapping, and heavy guitar riffs. It was what made me first think of him as a nu-metal artist. However, after listening to the rest of the album, HOLLOW is probably more of a rap album with metal elements.
So, with that being said, what’s the difference between nu-metal and rap-metal…if there is one? Before we compare, first let’s understand what nu-metal is.
What is nu-metal?
Nu-metal is pronounced ‘new metal’ and denotes what it implies. It’s a new type of metal that is characterized by the fusion of a variety of genres such as rap, funk, and hip-hop. The unique sound is often credited to the California nineties band, Korn, and became more prevalent in the early two-thousands with bands like Staind, Coal Chamber, and Deftones.
Just like with any alternative genre, nu-metal had its following, but it wasn’t until Linkin Park released their album Hybrid Theory in October of 2000 that nu-metal became mainstream. Some claim the album is a staple to nu-metal.
Yet, when you compare Korn and Linkin Park, you don’t really feel like they’re in the same subgenre, do you? Yes, they’re both part of the general rock community and inevitably have similarities, but Korn definitely sounds a lot more aggressive than Linkin Park.
To be honest, before writing this article, I had no idea that Korn was nu-metal. I always just thought of them as a hard rock band. Like I said in the introduction, when I think of nu-metal, I think of P.O.D, which is indeed nu-metal but has more hip-hop/rap elements like Linkin Park.
Even so, Linkin Park is starkly different from what I always thought to be nu-metal. I don’t mean that they can’t be or that it even matters, but that’s how diverse the genre is. As a result, I think a lot of nu-metal fans or people interested in the genre struggle to identify it.
Nu-metal vs Rap-metal
Now that we’ve explored the diversity of nu-metal, let’s dig further into the genre you may see come up when looking into nu-metal. There are some songs of sic(boys) that may even fall under it: rap-metal. So, when does music become nu-metal, and when does it become rap-metal?
From what I could find on Reddit and scrolling through Wikipedia, nu-metal is a subgenre of alternative metal and encompasses a variety of metal/rap-metal musicians. Some people wrote that rap-metal focuses more heavily on the rap element, whereas nu-metal doesn’t necessarily have rap.
Nu-metal is more characterized by the hip-hop sound (turntables and sampling), and syncopation, which refers to the deliberate disruption to the rhythm. In other words, playing off-beat. That doesn’t mean that the song is off but imagine a piano and violin playing together: they often bounce off each other, rather than follow the same rhythm to make the composition a bit more interesting.
When it comes to nu-metal, I think because it incorporates rap, metal, and groove guitar, playing off-beat is almost a necessity to marry such diverse rhythms. Here’s a video on the examples of syncopation in music to help you get an idea of what it is. Even if you’re not a musicologist, you’ll find that it’s an extremely familiar sound.
In short, we can say that nu-metal has elements of rap-metal, but the rap in rap-metal is what sets the two genres apart.
Here’s a a side-by-side comparison:
Nu-metal in Japan
Before we return to sic(boy), let’s look at nu-metal in Japan, since sic(boy) is a Japanese artist. After all, genres can sound different across cultures, so what exactly does nu-metal sound like in Japan?
We’ll look at three early nu-metal artists: Head Phones President, Rize, and Dragon Ash, all of whom made their debuts in the nineties and early two-thousands.
Similar to Western artists, Rize and Dragon Ash include the familiar rock and rhythm of the West, but to a deeper extent. I wouldn’t say they’re heavier, but the groove element is much more prominent. If nu-metal is identified by the instrumentation, rather than simply the rapping, it’s a bit more convincing to call these groups nu-metal.
In contrast, I’m not really sure why Head Phones President is considered nu-metal. They’re a great metal band, and the vocalist’s ghostly singing style is reminiscent of hard rock bands like Flyleaf and Kidney Thieves. However, even those bands are a far cry from what we’ve learned about nu-metal.
Looking into the band, they were heavily influenced by Korn and Limp Bizkit, but I think they might be considered nu-metal for the gritty and raw lyrics more than the instrumentation. Maybe. They’re a good band, but it’s a bit confusing to toss them under the nu-metal label with Rize and Dragon Ash.
To read more on nu-metal in Japan, here’s a great list of old and new artists!
Conclusion: where does sic(boy) fall?
Considering sic(boy)’s incorporation of rock guitar, aggressive rap, and hip-hop samples in HOLLOW(songs like “Afraid??” and “Dark Horse”) and CHAOS TAPE (songs like “Set Me Free” and “Ghost of You”), it may be a fair argument to call him nu-metal, even though he does have stronger pop elements in his songs.
Personally, I consider him to be a rap artist with an emo/grunge appeal. Maybe ‘rap-rock’, rather than ‘rap-metal’ or ‘nu-metal’. He’s certainly made songs that fall under a variety of genres, including nu-metal, but maybe we can call him a very flexible rap artist.
In any case, what’s clear is that this young Tokyolite has range. He loves music and pushing the boundaries across genres. Perhaps he’ll end up creating a new genre, but for the time being, I’ll enjoy his unique sound.
Take a listen for yourself on Apple Music and Spotify! How’d you classify him?
that foreign music blog🌎 
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