Meet Jero, who is being described by the press as the “first black enka singer in history:”. This 26-year-old American in hip hop clothing is actually a popular professional enka singer in Japan! (enka is traditional Japanese folk music). I love the completely genre inappropriate dance routine that opens the song.
According to the biographical information on his JVC Music site, Jero’s Japanese grandmother exposed him to enka music, building a great love in him for traditional Japanese music. Jero hadn’t planned on becoming a musician, and had actually graduated from the University of Pittsburg as a computer engineer, but a chance runner-up victory in a karaoke contest led JVC Music to scout him.
