Lotus Juice — the artist project of Japanese American rapper Kenji Nakamura — finished his tour across the United States on August 23.
Best known as a longstanding musical collaborator of the “Persona” video game series, his discography includes contributions to “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” and “Soul Eater,” as well as four albums of original solo material. You may not know his name, but if you’ve been on the internet recently, odds are you’re already familiar with his work.
His track “It’s Going Down Now,” a battle theme from the video game “Persona 3 Reload,” has escaped the JRPG (Japanese role-playing game) bubble and experienced viral success on TikTok and Instagram; “Color Your Night,” from the same game, has seen similar acclaim. Together, the two songs have amassed almost 250 million streams on Spotify alone. Newer generations have embraced the franchise with open arms. Lotus Juice has worked with the Persona team for twenty years, and yet his stardom might be at its peak right now.
elevASIAN spoke with Lotus Juice before his show in Los Angeles. Sitting by himself backstage at the Lodge Room, he discussed his journey, influences and experience as a composer and performer.
The following conversation has been edited for clarity.
Q: “How are you finding Los Angeles so far?”
A: “Didn’t really get to see it. I love the weather, though. I mean, it’s hot, but it’s less humid than Japan. I’m hoping to come back next year for another tour because this is my first time working with my business partner. It’s been nothing but -- nothing but amazing. [The] last tour I had was in November, and it was kind of tough for me to concentrate as a musician because I had to do all the work. This guy made everything so easy for me. So yeah, we’re doing pretty good, and we’re already discussing more cities, probably eight, nine cities. Yeah. Everything’s new. We’re in a risky business, but it’s all for fun.”
Q: “What was your first experience with music like, if you remember?”
A: “I grew up in New Jersey. My musical background is ‘90s Hip-Hop and R&B, like Biggie and Wu-Tang, A Tribe Called Quest. Even living legends like Tupac and Dre. R&B: Boys to Men, Brian McKnight, Joe. So many good artists in the ’90s. That’s what I grew up listening to. In college, my friend asked me to perform at his event, and never in my dreams would I grab a mic, right? And I’d never written a verse before. I still suck at freestyles. But he convinced me to perform, and I had a friend who had a synthesizer, and we just made a beat in like 15 minutes, and one thing led to another. I was performing, and that one performance led me to perform in other clubs as well, and it just went nonstop during college, and yeah, that was the beginning. I wasn’t thinking about [becoming a] professional musician, thinking about any of that, just enjoying music.”
Q: “You have a background in Japan, of course, but you also grew up stateside for your adolescent years. Did having that Japanese American background influence the type of music that you make today, or any aspect of your career?”
A: “I grew up listening to ‘90s Hip-Hop and R&B, and I think that’s the backbone of everything that I do musically, but when I lived in Japan, I was doing shows every weekend in clubs in Shibuya or Shinjuku or Harajuku, and I needed a change. I got to know this R&B duo group called ‘Blitz.’ They kind of shaped me, or introduced me to the music industry in Japan. We toured Japan, and that’s when I started realizing maybe this is what I want to do. Maybe it is something that I could pursue. And talking to them, they love American culture. So we clicked and tried a lot of stuff. And if I didn’t speak English, I wouldn’t be doing ‘Persona’ songs because the only rappers that Shoji Meguro was looking for were English-speaking rappers back then.”
Q: “It’s been twenty years since ‘Persona 3’ came out on the PlayStation 2. How was working on that game? And how has it influenced your career?”
A: “It changed everything. Back then, Atlus (the developer of ‘Persona’) was a small company. Nobody spoke English, right? So when I went to the studio to record “Mass Destruction,” he told me the lyrics were already written. But it was broken English. [It] didn’t make sense. So he allowed me to rewrite it on the spot, and I wrote it, changed it up in 30 minutes and that’s the original ‘Mass Destruction.’ They loved it. So they called me back for songs called ‘Burn My Dread -Last Battle-’ and ‘Deep Breath.’”
“It was actually a company-saving game for Atlus. They were enthusiastic, and they were young producers and directors. So, in about a year and a half, they created [‘Persona 4’]. That was a big hit too, and a few years later we were doing the ‘Persona’ concert, and I believe it was about 800 people, the biggest venue that I ever performed for.”
“Then I got an email invitation to perform in the states. I thought it was a scam at first because in the ’90s, you’d never see an Asian guy performing, not on TV, not anywhere. But so I was asked, and I went, and there were like 800 people, and they all loved me, and they all loved the anime songs that I did, and especially ‘Persona’ songs, and treated me like a star. I’m like, ‘wow,’ and came back often to perform, and [I’d] never in my life dreamt this life, so [‘Persona’] definitely changed everything.”
Q: “In 2026, ‘Persona’ is arguably at an all-time high in terms of popularity. How does it feel to be a key component of what the series has become today?”
A: “It’s a blessing. I don’t take the credit at all. I was just there. I think I was just ready for the opportunity when the opportunity was just given to me. I remember meeting all the musicians in Japan who were already pretty successful. They would party every weekend, and I partied with him, and I was like, ‘I don’t deserve this because I’m not established yet.’ So I said no to all the invitations. I was like, ‘I need to stay in the lab and just work on my craft.’ And I’m glad I did that, [because] when the opportunity came, I caught it.”
“I don’t think I should take all the credit for P3 music. Some of the fans say that if I were replaced by somebody, it wouldn’t [be] the same vibe. I don’t think [that’s] true. I just did it my way, and that resonated with the fans, and I’m happy about it, but. To me, I saw the growth. I saw what happened. I’m happy where we are right now, and I’m happy with Atlus. Right now, I’m really focused on my solo stuff, as well as doing Persona shows. If they invite me every time, you know, who knows when P4 comes out, P6 comes out? [If] they only do P4 and P6 live, I’m not [featured].”
“But I’ll be happy. I’ll be more than happy to just go to see the show because, and I’ll be happy for them. My career is not dependent on the ‘Persona’ series. It was for work, but I was very blessed because I love the series as well. I have so much love for it. I would have been happy if they went in another direction for ‘P3 Reload’ and found another rapper. I’d be like, ‘Cool. I’ll still play it again.’ I don’t own the company. I don’t make the games, so I was happy that they called me back. I gave them the best I could. The song is out there. It was nominated at MAJ (Music Awards Japan), great. But to me, the songs that we created, that’s the past now. I don’t want to stay in the past. I want to live in the moment, for the future. So that’s what I’m doing.”
When he got onstage later that night, Nakamura appeared to be living in the moment. The crowd was energetic for his solo material, and even more so for the “Persona” songs he played near the very end of the night. The audience shouted for an encore until he returned to the stage, clearly flattered by the chants’ volume.
Nakamura remained at the venue until its doors closed, talking, signing autographs and taking photos with the fans who had come to see him perform. Twenty years after his big break, it’s clear there’s something about Lotus Juice’s music that still resonates with its listeners, and he knows it.
During the interview, he shared his belief that “there could be many other artists” who could have shaped the “Persona” soundtrack the way he did. We’ll never know for certain, but it seems a lot of people would disagree.
Edited by Justin Ha