This rap song is a crash course in Okinawan culture
When you think of Okinawa, you probably think of beautiful beaches, blue waters and smiling people, but Okinawans actually are an oppressed people who suffered great injustices throughout history. They were colonised by the Japanese, suffered immense losses in World War II and still their rights are being violated by, among other things, the presence of American military bases on their lands.
“We Okinawans cry when we smile”, rapper OZworld sings in the above video, “getting drunk on big sister’s Habushu”. Habushu is an Okinawan liquor, named after a venomous snake.
Rasa in Okinawa is a song written and performed as part of a Red Bull Japan project called “Rasa”, which means “spiral”. Apparently the project brings artists together and the rappers here, Awich, 唾奇 (Tsubaki), OZworld, CHICO CARLITO are all Okinawans, although Awich now lives in Tokyo. Awich you may remember from the Christmas song I posted here 2.5 years ago.
The song contains many references to Okinawan culture, from the musical samples to the language in which OZworld raps. Each rapper takes the viewer to places in Okinawa that have special meaning for them, from the iconic Hoshinmon to the site of Shuri Castle, destroyed by fire in 2019, to restaurants, markets and a strip club. The video is a crash course, so to speak, in Okinawan culture. (PB)
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