Lyrics Born (born Tsutomu "Tom" Shimura), is a Japanese American rapper. He is one half of the group Latyrx with Lateef the Truthspeaker.
Through his childhood, Shimura lived in Tokyo, Japan, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Berkeley, California. He is the son of Japanese author, Takao Shimura, and an Italian/Jewish-American union organizer, Charlotte Arzio-Shimura. Shimura's parents were divorced by age 2, at which point he moved with his mother from Tokyo to Salt Lake City, Utah, and then finally to Berkeley California.
Shimura attended Berkeley public schools from the time he was 6 yrs old, often excelling in creative writing. "I think I got my gift from my father. Not only the talent, but the work ethic and lifestyle. Being an author and all, I saw how hard he worked, the hours he kept, and how much focus it required." He began dabbling in Hip-Hop and rapping when he entered Berkeley High School. He left after one year, and entered Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland. He left again after his sophomore year, and graduated from St. Mary's High School, located in Berkeley, California in 1990. Shimura began his hip hop career while at college at University of California, Davis, where he was a DJ at the college station KDVS. He is a founding member of the seminal, independent record label, Quannum Projects. He came up with fellow Bay Area and UC Davis companions Gift of Gab, and Chief Xcel of Blackalicious, Lateef the Truthspeaker, DJ Shadow, Joseph Patel, and Jeff Chang (formerly known as DJ Zen).
He changed his stage name from Asia Born to Lyrics Born in 1995 citing the desire to have his career based on his merits as opposed to his ethnicity.
In 1993, Lyrics Born released his first single "Send Them", under the moniker "Asia Born", on the independent record label Solesides. In 1996 he formed the group "Latyrx", with Solesides label mate and fellow Bay-Area native, Lateef The Truthspeaker. Latyrx is a combination of the names, "Lateef" and "Lyrics". In 1997 Latyrx released the seminal album, "Latyrx-The Album". The album was well-received and is often regarded as a classic within underground circles. 1 year later Solesides was disbanded and reformed as the current Quannum Projects label. In 1999, to commemorate the transformation of Solesides to Quannum, the label released "Quannum Spectrum", a label compilation executive-produced by Lyrics Born. The album spawned the international hit single and video, "I Changed My Mind". This would also signify Lyrics Born's first collaboration with German Funk group, The Poets of Rhythm, whom he would later executive produce for the Quannum label.
Lyrics Born released his first solo LP on Quannum Projects, Later That Day, in October 2003, which spawned the hit single, "Callin' Out". The album features guests such as Cut Chemist of Jurassic 5, Gift of Gab, Lateef the Truthspeaker and Born's wife Joyo Velarde. In April 2005, he released a remix album, Same !@#$ Different Day which was again released on his own Quannum Projects label. The album features remixes of five songs from Later That Day along with a number of new tracks which feature guests such as Bay Area legend E-40, hip-hop icon KRS-One, Stereo MCs, Casual of Hieroglyphics, Evidence of Dilated Peoples, DJ Shadow and Joyo Velarde. Also in 2005, Born released The Lyrics Born Variety Show: Season One CD, which was essentially an old-school mix tape vibe with remixes and blends of his studio albums as well as guest appearances on other artist's songs in addition to exclusive tracks.
He has toured relentlessly for years in North America, South America, Australia, Europe and Japan and averages 150 shows per year.
Early in 2005, Lyrics Born replaced his usual DJ, D-Sharp with a live band. The original band consisted of versed Bay Area musicians Kevin Choice (keys, vox), B'nai Rebelfront (guitar, vox), Darius Minaee (drums) and Uriah Duffy (bass, vox). Over the years the line-up has also consisted of other various musicians including bassist Marcus Phillips, drummer Thomas McCree and keyboardists Mike Blankenship (Lauryn Hill) and Kat Ouano of fellow Bay Area group Crown City Rockers.
In 2006, he released The Lyrics Born Variety Show: Season Two CD mixed by DJ Enki, comprised once again of remixes, guest appearances, collaborations and exclusive material.
Lyrics Born's first live album Overnite Encore: Lyrics Born LIVE was released on October 31, 2006. It was recorded in Australia and features half of the album from Sydney and the other half from Melbourne. The album is a live set featuring his backing band, as well as three new bonus studio tracks including the hit song "Knock Knock" produced by Hallway Productionz. The album received a 3.5 out of 4 star review in Rolling Stone magazine and featured artists such as Mistah F.A.B., Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Pigeon John and Tim "Herb" Alexander of Primus. The CD was the first live album to be released by Quannum Projects.
His third mixtape, "The Lyrics Born Variety Show Season Three", featuring guest appearances by Chali 2na of Jurassic 5, The Gift of Gab, Lateef the Truthspeaker, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, Joyo Velarde, Jake One, Pigeon John and more, was released in February 2008. The album was first released as a limited edition download available only on his website for $1.99. The mixtape featured exclusive tracks from his then upcoming new album, "Everywhere at Once", as well as previously unreleased studio tracks.
Lyrics Born in April 2008
Lyrics Born released his 2nd full length studio album, "Everywhere at Once" on April 22, 2008 on Epitaph/Anti- Records. The album is the MC/Producer's first studio release to integrate members of his live band instead of primarily sample-based loops. The record also features Chali 2na of Jurassic 5, Joyo Velarde, C-Holiday, DJ D-Sharp, Myron Glasper and hip-hop producers Jake One and Trackademicks who co-produced some of the album's tracks.
The album spawned a video for the hit single, "I Like It, I Love It" which features the MC in various character costumes including Merlin the Wizard, Army Soldiers, Mr. T and more. The video was directed by Neon and was featured on MtvU, Australia's Rage and MySpace. The song itself was featured in the 2009 reboot of the movie, Friday the 13th, which was #1 at the box office its first week out.
Other singles off the album that followed were "Hott 2 Deff", "Differences", "Top Shelf" and "Whispers", the latter of which also spawned a music video showcasing images of the MC's late friend and one-time Solesides alum, Benjamin "Mack B-Dog" Davis (whom the song was written about) intercut with performance footage of Lyrics Born. The video was directed by HKL Films and included in Pitchfork.com's top videos of 2008.
Everywhere at Once was the most downloaded hip-hop album of the week on iTunes in its second week out.
In March 2009 Lyrics Born released "Funky Hit Records", the first single off of his forthcoming new album, 'As U Were'. The track was released on the internet as a free download to fans and was quickly picked up by Australia's Triple J Radio who began to play the song on air. Similar instances happened in the US when KEXP in Seattle began playing the track as well. The Lyrics Born/Trackademicks-produced song's launch included a music video which was featured on YouTube, gaining nearly 250,000 views to date. Riding the momentum of the song's buzz, the track was worked to college radio where it ended up at #1 on both RapAttack and RapNetwork charts.
Lyrics Born released a fourth mixtape in his hit franchise, 'The Lyrics Born Variety Show', featuring collaborations, remixes, exclusives and special guests. The mixtape is released via Born's own Mobile Home Recordings in conjunction with VTech. The mixtape's release date was July 7, 2009 and features artists such as Kasabian, Soulico, Dosmoccos, Joyo Velarde, J-Boogie and more. Coinciding with the mixtape release was a new single and music video for the Latyrx reunion track, "Pushed Aside, Pulled Apart". The track features Lateef the Truthspeaker while the video was directed by Ra LaMotta from ApSci.
Lyrics Born released a second proper single from his album As U Were titled "Lies X 3" with a video directed by Yoram Benz in the summmer of 2010. The album As U Were will be released on Decon Records and Born's own Mobile Home Recordings on October 26th, 2010.
