Flashback Friday: Hikaru Utada featuring KOHH (Yuki Chiba) – Boukyaku

It’s been a minute since I’ve done a Flashback Friday post.

With Hikaru Utada kicking off their Science Fiction tour, the rapper formerly known as KOHH being shot into the consciousness of American music listeners as a result of featuring on a Megan Thee Stallion song and the whole world being an absolute piece of shit—this feels as good a time as any to throw back to “Boukyaku”. A song which features Utada, the rapper formerly known as KOHH, with a title which translates to ‘Oblivion’.

Fantôme was an album of numerous highlights and “Boukyaku” was one of them. It felt like something which could have existed on Utada’s first English language album Exodus, which was exciting, because it was acknowledgment of an album that many fans adored and had wanted to see Utada expand upon in some way, and “Boukyaku” felt like an instance of that. The song and video also felt like the poster child of the album, capturing some of the feeling behind the title and also the album cover. And of course, for many of us, it was also an introduction to the artist formerly known as KOHH, who takes up a lot of space on the song, which was surprising to me. But what also surprised me what his look. Tatted up in a diamond choker, a leather body harness and a fur coat. He is the godfather, mother and the holy ghost in this music video, and I am here for every second of it.

In my head canon, Utada and Chiba were sat in the studio. Utada was like ‘I’ve been thinking a lot about gender lately…and I don’t feel like I fit any one gender.’ And Chiba was like ‘Girl. Sometimes I wake up and feel a bit pussy.’ Then they laughed and recorded a song about being depressed.