When Kero One was aged 6, he started listening to old-school hip hopon the radio. The first hip hop song he heard was by Boogie Down Productions. He has since collected records with genres spanning hip hop, 70s soul, funk, jazz, Latin, soulful house, electronica and rock. Kero One originally worked as a web designer, making 50 copies of his first single with home equipment and personal credit cards. He released his first 12" record, Check the Blueprints in 2003 on his own imprint, Plug Label. Of the 50 copies that were eventually distributed around the world, one reached a tiny record store in Tokyo, Japan. A few weeks later, it was found by a Japanese DJ who played it at a club that night and received dozens of inquiries, including a Japanese label executive who immediately contacted Kero One and asked for 3,000 copies of the record. Check the Blueprints became an underground hip hop classic in Japan, selling almost 15,000 copies, and Kero One was invited to tour the country just a few months later. He performed in cities throughout Japan. Kero One finished his first album, Windmills of the Soul, in 2005, handling everything including playing instruments, rapping, and sound engineering. Without a strong label backing or a street team, he handled almost all the business himself. From promotions and marketing, manufacturing, finances, art direction and web design, Kero One personally handed out promos to tastemakers anywhere he could find them. Eventually the hard work paid off, and Windmills of the Soul garnered respect in many circles for its thought-provoking lyrics and musical soundscapes which fused live instrumentation with dusty analog samples. Kero One quit his job as a web designer in 2006 to pursue music full-time. Since then, he has been awarded the title of Best HipHop Album of 2006 from Japan's Remix magazine; topped iTunes hiphop charts; received praise from artists all over the world like Will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas, Stevie Wonder, Emmy-nominated jazz singerJaime Cullum, and multi award-winning Korean hip hop groups Epik High and Dynamic Duo. Kero One's Music has been heard in Printemps Mall in Paris, France, Takashimaya Mall in Tokyo, Hyatt hotels, and TV shows like Anthony Bourdain's The Layover and Fuse TV. Kero One has collaborated with acclaimed artists from all over the globe like Aloe Blacc, Tuomo, Ben Westbeech, DJ Deckstream, Fashawn, Shing02, Dumbfoundead, The Sound Providers, DJ Mitsu, and Abstract Rude. In 2012, Kero one released his fourth solo album, Color Theory, which raised over $10k from fans to pay for the mastering and engineering costs through Kickstarter. The album received praise from fans as his "best album to date". His lead single "What Am I Supposed to Do" charted on Radio Nova, J*Wave Japan, and WDR Funkhaus europa radio in Germany. The song received a major endorsement from Stevie Wonder, who asked Kero One to perform it at Wonder's 17th Annual House Full of Toys Benefit Concert on December 15, 2012 at Nokia Live Theatre with Bruno Mars. Later, Kero One formed a new collaboration project, Kesna Music with YouTube singer Esna Yoon. They released their single "Is It Love?" on July 16, 2013. In 2015, Kero One brought his signature jazz-hop sound to Korea, producing a song called "Ordinary Love" for Korean rapper Park Kyung of Block B and Park Bo-Ram, which hit #1 on Melon charts. Later that year, Kero One released a future soul album under the alias "Kero Uno", called Reflection Eternal which made it to Reddit's ListenToThis best of 2015 albums list. Also in 2016, South Korean longboarder Hyo Joo Ko used Kero One's 2012 song "So Seductive" in one of her Instagram videos. When Kero One reposted the video on his Facebook page it went viral, reaching 26 million views. The viral video brought Hyo Joo Ko international fame and renewed interest in Kero One's older song.
