During the late ’90s and early ’00s, I was very much into the neo-soul scene. I was obsessed with artists featured on Okayplayer and beyond. I loved vibing to music from D’Angelo, Floetry, Les Nubians, Musiq Soulchild, The Roots, Jill Scott, Goapele, Bilal, Dwele, Lucy Pearl, Erykah – the list goes on and on.
I discovered the Asian R&B artist Toshinobu “Toshi” Kubota. An established Japanese singer, Toshi began to make his way into the American music scene in the mid-90s. I didn’t discover him until 2004, when I was a hip hop/R&B reporter for one of those pre-blog era music websites.
The first song I heard by him was “Living For Today” from his 13th studio album, Time to Share. The song featured Mos Def, and the album featured collabs with the late, great Angie Stone and the iconic Renée Neufville from the legendary R&B duo Zhané, which also included Jean Norris-Baylor.
In the same year, Toshi appeared on Soul Train and his music was featured in the Japanese dub of the American remake of Shall We Dance (2004) starring Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez, and Susan Sarandon.
Toshi is still making music today. On March 11, 2026, Toshi celebrated the 40th anniversary of his first best-of album, The Baddest.
I love seeing folks from the Asian diaspora pay homage and have a blatant respect for R&B music.
