There’s nothing more disorienting than turning on the TV in your hotel room and wondering if there’s something wrong with the sound button on the remote. Wide-angle shots of “urban” graffiti and other MTV retro-signifiers of hiphop are edited together into a fast-paced montage to the soft sounds of a traditional Japanese ballad. Something doesn’t seem right. Then I remember that I am in Tokyo.

Meet DJ Jero. He is killing it as the first African American enka singer in Japanese history.

Pittsburgh-born Jerome White, Jr. (also known as DJ Jero) came to Japan in 2003 and went straight to the top with his first single titled Umiyuki (Marine Show), released in February of this year by Victor Entertainment.

Enka can be compared to American country and western music. The modern enka developed in the postwar period, and has long been replaced by J-Pop as the young Japanese audience’s music of choice. It’s not exactly the most obvious type of thing to get into as a young contender trying to make your mark, which is probably why Jero’s Wikipedia profile still says “Singer, Computer Engineer.”

The typically xenophobic Japanese media is starting to use the term kirofune (”black ship”) to refer to Jero, normally reserved for foreign celebrities who break into the Japanese entertainment scene. The term supposedly comes from the fleet of warships led by Commodore Perry in 1850’s, opening up Japan to the West.

When searching online, there appears to be some future work for copyright lawyers. DJ Jero is NOT to be confused with DJ Jero of Sex, Drugs, Bitches and Ho’s Jumpmix (22 nasty jump tracks in 9 minutes) fame.

Jero’s Umiyuki music video