GENTEN: First Steps, Episode 1: Roots

November 21, 2011

GENTEN: First Steps, Episode 1: Roots

This summer I had the pleasure and the honour to travel to Onitsuka Tiger’s hometown of Kobe and interview five of the men responsible for the founding of the brand and its early growth. From the birth of some of our most iconic products to the design of the logo script, I got to hear so many first hand stories about where Onitsuka Tiger comes from, which will hopefully play a big part in where we’re going.

Please take some time to view the first episode of the series we worked on in Kobe, “Roots,” which explores the connection between Onitsuka Tiger and Kobe.

Thanks also go out to Ian Lynam, the team at AQ, Toshiki Senuoe and the ASICS team at Headquarters for helping this come together.

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Category: ASICS, Fashion, Film & Movies, GoFore, My Thoughts, Onitsuka Tiger, Travel, Work

Tags: Episode 1: Roots, First Steps, GENTEN, Japan, Kobe, Onitsuka Tiger, Travel.

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- If this song was a Seinfeld episode it would be called “The New York Love Song” if it was a Friends episode, it would be called “The One With All the Red,” but I hated both of those shows, so it’s called Cherry Coloured.
  
  The beat is sampled from one of my favourite 80’s bands, The Cocteau Twins and it really felt like a breakthrough when I completed it. Not a lot of people know that I produce most of my own music, and I really felt like I was discovering something when I made this beat, because I was drawing from a frame of reference that not a lot of people in Hip-Hop were drawing from. My next tape, which I’m working on already, contains a lot of sounds like this, and I think Cherry Coloured and Introduction are probably the most indicative of the sound of that next tape.
  
  I think this song also shows a lot of what Michael brought to the table, originally he was just supposed to mix the project, but he ended up having such a huge impact on the overall sound that I can’t call him anything less than a co-producer. “Cherry Coloured,” was one of the songs that he gave a completely new life, the demo of it were pretty hip-hop, and he took it in a bigger, more ambient direction and took it to another level.
  
  Even without the title, the original song always made me think of red. It probably sounds weird but the music just feels red. Red is my favourite colour for a lot reasons, and more than that, it felt like a running motif during that time in my life.
  
  Without getting into all the details, (hint: they’re in the song,) during what was otherwise a low period for me, I was blessed to fall in love with a non-traditional woman, in a non-traditional way and “Cherry Coloured” tells that story.
  
  Listening to it now, it reminds me that the worst of times can also be the best of times.
  
  02/21/12

GENTEN: First Steps, Episode 1: Roots

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