dj honda

At the age of 17 Honda relocated to Tokyo, where he launched his DJ career one year later. Throughout the mid-1980s he honed his craft at local clubs and events before relocating solo to New York in 1992. That year he earned second place at the DJ Battle for World Supremacy, an achievement that represented the first time a Japanese DJ received recognition within the hip-hop community and thereby launched dj honda’s recording career.

His major-label debut album “h” arrived in 1995 and peaked at number 90 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The follow-up “h II,” released in 1997, reached number 57 on the same chart and number 16 on Heatseekers; its single “Travellin’ Man (feat. Mos Def)” climbed to number 17 on Hot Rap Songs and logged 16 consecutive weeks on the tally, cementing Honda’s presence as a Japanese DJ inside American hip-hop. He next issued “h 2000” in 1999 and “h III” in 2001.

Over the years he shared stages with pivotal figures from hip-hop’s Golden Age, among them Gangstarr, Redman, Jeru the Damaja, Mos Def, Fat Joe, M.O.P, The Beatnuts, KRS ONE, Common, De La Soul, and EPMD.

In 2009 “h IV” appeared in simultaneous worldwide release. The track “The Incredible,” featuring Limp Bizkit vocalist Fred Durst, left a lasting cross-genre impression. That same year Honda returned to Japan and concentrated on domestic production work.

He supplied beats for every track on leading Japanese jazz musician Terumasa Hino’s albums “Aftershock” (2011) and “Unity -h factor” (2013), then served as bandleader for the accompanying nationwide tour. Subsequent collaborative projects with prominent Japanese rappers include B.I.G.JOE’s “Unfinished Connection” (2015), Benisakura’s “DARK SIDE” (2019), ill-bosstino’s “KINGS CROSS” (2021), SIMON JAP’s “Golden Age” (2022), and TWIGY’s “RAPATTACK” (2022). He has also delivered genre-spanning remixes for GLAY and Maki Ohguro.

Sixteen years after his previous full-length effort, Honda issued his first albums under his own name in 2025: “hV” and “hV -Japan Edition-.” Entirely self-produced, the project also features lyrics written by dj honda himself. His artistic development shows no sign of slowing.