HOME MADE KAZOKU

HOME MADE KAZOKU (Home Made 家族, translated in English as Home Made Family) is a Japanese hip hop trio signed to Ki/oon Records, a subsidiary of Sony Records.

BiographyHome Made Kazoku is a three member band consisting of members Micro, Kuro and founding member, DJ U-Ichi. The band was originally created in 1996 under a different name and went through many members before finally settling on being a trio with the name Home Made Kazoku in 2001. From 2001 to 2003, the band performed independently in various Nagoya nightclubs. In early 2004, the band was chosen to be part of a country-wide tour known as the Japan Club Tour. During the tour, the trio gained many fans from their club performances as well as finally being signed to a major label, Ki/oon Records.

Shortly after being signed, the group released a mini-album containing the song "Home Sweet Home (Reborn)". The song became wildly popular and went on to become one of the most requested songs of Japanese radio stations for the year. In July of the same year, their first single, Summer Time Magic, was released and sat at a comfortable 15th on the Oricon charts for nearly 10 weeks. After a series of singles, including Thank You!!, which was used as the second ending theme to the popular anime Bleach and Shōnen Heart, which was used as an opening theme to the anime Eureka Seven, the band's first full length album was released. "Rock the World" entered the Oricon charts and peaked at 5th in its first week. It would stay in the top 20 for the next two months and end up selling 191,744 copies as well as becoming the 78th best selling album of 2005, a sign of the band's new found popularity.

After their first album, the group went on a series of tours and released a string of singles as well as their second and third albums, "Musication" and "Familia". Of special note, tickets to their second tour were sold out within the span of one hour, a record in Japanese music. In January 2007, it was announced that they would perform the first ending theme to the anime Naruto: Shippūden entitled Nagareboshi (Shooting Star) which entered the Oricon charts at 10th place. One of the group, Micro, was featured on the abingdon boys school song "Lost Reason" as it appeared on their self-titled album. Home Made Kazoku has performed for a promotional commercial for a product called "Walky Walky" with their song "Easy Walk". It was also announced that their new single NO RAIN NO RAINBOW will be used as the movie theme for the second Naruto Shippūden Movie which will be out on the 2nd of August 2008.

Style
Home Made Kazoku usually displays a very up-beat mood in their music, sometimes described by fans as "feel-good music". The pace of the songs may vary from moderately slow and calm to moderately fast and energetic. Following a trend within Japanese pop, the group makes use of english phrases within the music. This use is rather extensive, as nearly every song contains some amount of english. Most songs utilize the language in the refrain as well as in isolated instances throughout a song.

The subject matter of the music usually concerns love, harmonious communication with others, and summer festivities. Additionally, most of the music videos seem to take place in the spring or summer, harkening back to their up-beat mood and liveliness.