The one and only “Keyboard Crusher” is back, and hopes Japan will buy his new gangsta rap album.
Anyone who owned a computer in the mid-aughts ought to remember that young German boy who smashed his own keyboard in a fit of rage while playing Unreal Tournament. But just in case a decade of Chocolate Rain, Leave Britney Alone, and PPAP has eroded your hippocampus, here’s a refresher.
While funny, there is also a sad element to the video. This kind of notoriety at such a young age had to be hard to deal with, and it would be awful if it caused his life to go awry. Hopefully he had the right guidance and discipline to keep his head up this whole time.
If you thought so too, you’ll be pleased to hear that it turns out the boy in video is doing okay and has grown into a rather gigantic looking 26-year-old man. What’s more, he recently posted a special message for the people of Japan on his YouTube channel under the name Hercules Beatz.
While still asserting his prowess as the “Keyboard Crusher” Hercules showed a surprisingly calm demeanor while politely inviting Japanese people to enjoy his self-produced rap album and other videos on YouTube.
Now, you might wonder why Hercules is promoting his German language rap album by giving an English language message to the people of Japan. To answer that, let’s flashback to the year of our Lord two-thousand and seven.
The world was suspiciously optimistic when a plucky CEO by the name of Steve Jobs unveiled a shiny new gadget called the “iPhone,” and the second Alien vs. Predator movie was released, but was so dimly lit no one actually saw it.
And while much of the world had moved on from the angry German kid by this time, the video had just begun to permeate Japanese culture online via the video site Niconico Douga. Here he was given the name “Keyboard Crusher” and his voice was chopped up, harvested, and converted into a makeshift vocaloid (artificial singing voice) so that people could make songs with it.
▼ Keyboard Crusher “vocaloid” singing the theme to the children’s show Anpanman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHimmh3ejfs
▼ Keyboard Crusher singing the popular Hatsune Miku song Senbonzakura
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFW2ZudWY8U
So, Keyboard Crusher, aka Hercules Beatz, was actually showing some marketing savvy by reaching out to Japanese fans in his video message as they were the ones who probably kept his fame alive for the longest and perhaps sensed his latent musical talents more keenly than anyone else.
His message seems to have worked as well, judging by some of the comments left by Japanese viewers.
“Your childhood is very popular in Japan but I wish you will also be popular as an artist.”
“We are cheering for you!”
“I’m surprised Keyboard Crusher can speak English. I never understood when he spoke German in his videos but now I am happy he made such a message to Japanese people that I can understand.”
“The guy from that video I saw in junior high became hot…”
“Cool! You were very famous in Japan and now you have the power to become famous again! Good Luck!”
“I thought you were a really cute kid and now you have grown into a wonderful adult. I will keep supporting you.”
“You break keyboards and rap too?!”
“Actually you are more famous in China where we call you ’German boy’. It’s because in that famous video, some German sentences sounds like Chinese.”
It was a pretty strong outpouring of positivity all around, and a promising sign for the aspiring rap star. His album Killer Instinct will be released on 1 June through major online music services such as iTunes, Google, and Amazon. Here’s a track from it called “Daywalker.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YyrlFNBx6I
We wish Hercules Beatz much success in this endeavor, because it would be an amazing feat to behold for a German rapper to find success with a largely Asian following. But as Hercules has shown us, he’s not one to let anything – especially keyboards – stand in his way.
Source: YouTube/ Hercules Beatz, My Game News Flash
Top Image: YouTube/masato0120