10 Songs with… Djubumba
Djubumba
Born in 2005. Has been producing music and DJing since their teens. Their productions are defined by a distinctive sense of bounce, with releases both independently and through labels including halo and awaport. In April 2026, they released the mixtape 2024–2025 demotape.
While retaining the unique texture of their own productions, their DJ sets draw heavily from hip-hop, blending Afro and Latin influences to create a sound that feels distinctly their own.
1. What song made you want to start making music?
I THINK – Tyler, The Creator
IGOR was genuinely revolutionary for me. I think my all-by-myself approach to making music also comes from Tyler. Listening back now, I realize The Neptunes and OutKast had already done a lot of what amazed me, but recognizing and drawing from that lineage is intelligence in itself, and I love that. The bridge is ridiculously emotional too.
2. What’s the last song you listened to?
Sugar Honey Iced Tea – Kelis
To me, Kelis is what R&B sounds like when it’s making money without being corny. Even the way she stretches out the phrase “Sugar Honey Iced Tea” still sounds modern. I’ve loved this album forever. The cover art is great too, the Parental Advisory label completes it.
3. A song that reminds you of your first love?
Heartbeat – Tahiti 80
The girl I liked in my second year of junior high was insanely rich. She used to go home in a Tesla Model X with the gullwing doors wide open. It was summer, I got all sentimental, and I told Riku, “Let’s run home from Namikibashi.” Shibuya Scramble Square was almost finished back then. Good memories.
4. What do you listen to after leaving the club?
Don’t Stop The Music – Yurufuwa Gang
I think it was around 2022 when I went to Mana, Soya’s party. I remember listening to this on the walk back from Shimokitazawa afterward. The video is insanely inspiring too.
5. What song did your parents play when you were a kid?
Close to You – Stevie Wonder
The ending theme of The Simpsons that I watched as a kid used Close to You by The Carpenters, but I never knew what the song was called. Then it kept reappearing throughout my life, in Stevie Wonder’s version, on Frank Ocean’s Blonde… Close to You is one of those mysterious songs that keeps showing up at different moments in my life.
6. What’s your favorite song you’ve made?
26-Mar10th Dju&e – DjuBumba & E.O.U
This was recorded when everyone went to Nagano together. E.O.U and I played on this piano that sounded like the strings were about to snap. We’d decided beforehand to write in C-sharp major, but halfway through, E suddenly started playing phrases in C major. I remember feeling like my consciousness shot straight through the ceiling. The next day I brought it up, and E just said, “That was the clouds.” That was crazy.
7. A song that secretly makes you cry?
West – River Tiber ft. Daniel Caesar
I love West. I’ll usually put it on after coming home from a night full of dopamine-fueled fun, sitting alone in my room. Moonlight comes through the gap in the roller blinds, and I start thinking, “I don’t want morning to come.” The music video is beautiful too.
8. A song you wish you’d made yourself?
Summer Girl (Solomonophonic Slooey Gooey Remix) – HAIM
Jack Karaszewski’s remix of Summer Girl. The synth sounds are incredible, and the way the arrangement develops is so tasteful. I really admire it.
9. A song that represents the city you live in now?
朝が来るまで終わる事の無いダンスを – tofubeats
Kentaro Fujii. TBS. Hikarie. Kayōkyoku Night. Connections and money. SoundCloud.
I feel like the people pretending to be culture are somehow the most authentic, while the ones desperately trying to become “the real one” are often the least interesting. tofubeats is obviously amazing. That’s the kind of city this is.
10. What’s a song you’re glad a friend introduced you to?
undercooled – Ryuichi Sakamoto
OBP (One Boiling Point) showed me undercooled. The drums are loose, but every individual sound is razor-sharp, and even Cornelius’s guitar cuts right through. OBP isn’t really a hip-hop person, which is exactly why he notices music I’d probably never discover on my own.
11. What does the joy of making music mean to you?
The tracks on my latest album are all named after dates. It made me realize that making music is kind of like keeping a journal. It’s a way of remembering how I changed and what was happening in my personal life.
Strangely enough, though, the truly amazing days often never become music. Looking through my camera roll is probably a faster way to remember them. Laughs.
But music has brought people into my life that I never would have met otherwise, and it’s given me nights I never would have experienced. Maybe that’s the real joy of making music, being able to look back inside your own mind.