WREP: live radio from Shibuya

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Dusting off the needle…

Shibuya, Japan

WREP

Shibuya, noon, no small talk.

Japan's first all hip-hop station, Zeebra's own.

WREP opened on 1 April 2017 in Shibuya as Japan's first station given over entirely to hip-hop, founded by the rapper Zeebra and run by Global Hearts from a studio on Dogenzaka, five minutes' walk from the station. It broadcasts around the clock, and Zeebra hosts LUNCHTIME BREAKS himself, a weekday hour of news and current affairs in the middle of the day, cut with records, which then hands straight over to an hour of live DJ mixing from whichever selector is working the room that day.

The rest of the grid is DJs rather than presenters. WREP 6 gives its weekday evenings to a different pair each night, among them the pairings of DJ K.DA.B and YOU-KID, DJ HAZIME and DJ HATSUNE, and MR. BEATS a.k.a DJ CELORY with BULL, while Ryo Matsushima brings a Sapporo perspective. Between shows the station runs its own playlist, rotated fortnightly.

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Shibuya, Japan

WREP

Shibuya, noon, no small talk.

Japan's first all hip-hop station, Zeebra's own.

WREP opened on 1 April 2017 in Shibuya as Japan's first station given over entirely to hip-hop, founded by the rapper Zeebra and run by Global Hearts from a studio on Dogenzaka, five minutes' walk from the station. It broadcasts around the clock, and Zeebra hosts LUNCHTIME BREAKS himself, a weekday hour of news and current affairs in the middle of the day, cut with records, which then hands straight over to an hour of live DJ mixing from whichever selector is working the room that day.

The rest of the grid is DJs rather than presenters. WREP 6 gives its weekday evenings to a different pair each night, among them the pairings of DJ K.DA.B and YOU-KID, DJ HAZIME and DJ HATSUNE, and MR. BEATS a.k.a DJ CELORY with BULL, while Ryo Matsushima brings a Sapporo perspective. Between shows the station runs its own playlist, rotated fortnightly.