Tigarah (born 1982 in Tokyo, Japan), is a Japanese Baile Funk emcee whose music contains elements of Grime, Crunk, and Baltimore Club. She performs both in English and Japanese, and has a growing following in both Japan and the United States. She currently splits her time between her home in Tokyo and Los Angeles, California. Tigarah, by her admission, means “girl like a tiger.”Tigarah became acquainted with baile funk, a Brazilian version of Miami Bass, by Brazilian classmates when she attended Keio University. The political science major was so captivated by the music that she traveled to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to learn more about the music and to immerse in culture it came from. During her stay in Rio de Janeiro, she met Mr. D, a Swiss-German DJ/producer who splits his time between there and Los Angeles. In 2003 the two decided to form a duo, having the same musical tastes and interests, performing under Tigarah’s name. In 2006 they signed a major record deal with Universal.

Although without a major label deal for a long time, Tigarah has been featured on NPR and by national American publications like Blender Magazine, URB, “XLR8R”, “Dazed & Confused” and the Los Angeles Times. Her music has also been used in the television programs Numb3rs and The L Word, in the games Need For Speed: Carbon, FIFA 07 and most recently in FIFA 08. She has also been featured on G4TV’s FreeStyle 101, freestyling in japanese.Her music has also been used in commercials for the mobile ring-tone service Mobizzo. She has been compared with fellow genre-bending emcee M.I.A., who also rose to prominence from Internet buzz.

Tigarah on the web:

www.tigarah.net
www.myspace.com/tigarah
www.youtube.com/user/tigarah
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigarah
www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/681095/Freestyle_101_Tigarah.html

Thanks to fmeyer for the tip!