Rapper Lyrics Born finds real inspiration in ‘Real People’

Tom Shimura was born in Tokyo, spent some of his childhood in Salt Lake City and is currently based out of the San Francisco Bay Area. But his latest album is a New Orleans record through and through. The rapper, better known as Lyrics Born, says he’s entranced by Louisiana’s liveliest city.

“I grew up in Berkeley, and I grew up around weirdoes, castoffs, hippies, thugs, techies, Black Panthers, you name it,” Shimura said during a recent phone interview. “New Orleans is that kind of place. It’s crazy, it’s unique. After years of going there, it kind of gets in your blood.”

Shimura, who closes out this year’s Elkfest, first got into hip-hop the same way a lot of children of the ’70s and ’80s did: He heard Sugarhill Gang’s breakthrough single “Rapper’s Delight” and learned every word. He went on to co-found Solesides Records, a California-based rap collective that also included the hip-hop duo Blackalicious and influential producer DJ Shadow.

His newest album, “Real People,” was mostly recorded and produced in New Orleans. Shimura says he fell in love with the city, its people and its vibrant culture during tour stops there over the years.

“It’s arguably the first and last true music town in America,” he said. “For a guy like me who just loves to perform and loves to rap and loves funk, I don’t think there’s a better place for me.”

This album is even more heavily infused with funk, R&B and jazz than previous Lyrics Born releases, but it doesn’t just blatantly copy the sound of the city. It boasts appearances from New Orleans-based musicians like Trombone Shorty, Ivan Neville and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and it’s these collaborations that ended up forming the musical backbone of “Real People.”

“I love collaborating with people,” Shimura said. “I just feel like you don’t get beyond your own limitations until you work with other people, especially other great artists. They really bring the best out of you and they force you to do things that you wouldn’t do if left to your own devices.”

Shimura’s lyrics often deal with issues he’s encountered in his own life, especially as a kid – the immigrant experience, the struggles of the lower middle-class, the importance of family. On the “Real People” track “WTF?” he tackles “the state of the world in post-recession America;” on “Second Act,” the process of “setting goals, achieving them and then resetting once you hit a certain stage in life.”

And all of that came about through the music: Shimura says that being constantly surrounded by and immersed in the Creole culture inspired the underlying concept of “Real People.”

“It really is an ode to real people,” Shimura said of his LP. “It’s a very earthy, folksy, organic, funky album. I think music and the music business in general has taken a kind of narcissistic turn in the past few years. That’s what this album is about. This album is not about me, it’s about us. … I wanted to make a very real, tangible album that sort of speaks to the experience of authentic human beings and not some pie-in-the-sky celebrity version of who we are.”