Joshua Lawson, Eric Koffi and Ray Rodney Jr. have done something that would be hard for them to imagine happening without “the elder statesmen,” Keddren Payne.

 With Payne’s help as manager and liaison, the no-name trio has created “Abare houda” – a new CD that hits the stores on Oct. 31. But that’s not the unusual part.

The uniqueness is that this Hip Hop offering is in Japanese, which each musician speaks fluently.

“It’s Memphis, Southern Hip Hop, but it’s in Japanese,” said Rodney. “We are not doing it their style. We are doing it our style in Japanese. It’s never been done before.”

The release of the CD release coincides with a tour to Japan.

From left: Ray Rodney Jr., Keddren Payne, Joshua Lawson and Eric Koffi have collaborated to produce “Abare houda,” a hip hop CD in Japanese. Each is fluent in the language. (Courtesy photo)

By the way, “Abare houda” essentially means “get wild, do what you want,” said Rodney.

This is a story of three African- African musicians who see music as a global opportunity and themselves as pioneers.

“They are interested in how to move Memphis forward in Japan,” said Rodney Sr., Rodney’s dad. “They are doing that through what is really appreciated in Japan, and that is music; especially hip hop because of their age.”

Eudith Rodney, Rodney’s mother, said it’s all about business, noting the stream of dollars flowing from Japan into Memphis and Tennessee. And that’s not counting tourist dollars.

“Through this vehicle (the Hip Hop music collaboration), Japanese learn about places such as the Wing Factory that they never knew to go before to patronize all of our wonderful facilities here in Memphis,” she said.

Rodney Jr., Lawson and Koffi all are students studying Japanese at the University of Memphis. Each had heard of the other. But it was Payne who brought them together soon after meeting Ray Rodney Sr. and Eudith Rodney, a retired military couple that settled in Japan and lived there for 25 years before relocating to New Orleans, Eudith Rodney’s hometown.

When Katrina chased them out of New Orleans, Memphis took them in, Eudith Rodney said. They were helping some young people with Japanese and their success drew Payne’s attention.

“My first exposure (to Japanese) was when I was at the University of Tennessee at Martin,” said Payne. “My roommate was Japanese and I gained a big interest in it then. . . .then, my dream was to go to Japan.”

Payne’s brother is Rampage Jackson of Ultimate Fighting fame. “He started fighting in Japan and I went to his fights in Japan. Every time I went, I didn’t want to come back home.”

A friend in Japan emailed Payne and told him “there is a guy from Memphis that is here performing in Japanese. He gave me the link and I saw his You Tube.”

The guy was Koffi and it turned out that he lived around the corner from Payne.

“We went there (to Japan) in the end of November last year and did some shows. He already had an album out there in circulation.”

The new CD is being built upon Koffi’s reputation.

Koffi, who is about to graduate, said he wanted to take Japanese in high school but it wasn’t offered. He took French, but later began to study Japanese at the U of M.

“I just wanted to try something different,” said Koffi, who said he really started to pick up the language by exchanging emails and through Internet chat. Much of the exchanges were with females, which he said provided additional motivation.

Lawson is the only one among the group who has not been to Japan. He’s excited about his first trip.

“I started taking Japanese in high school at White Station,” said Lawson, the acknowledged “technological genius” in the group. “I’ve been interested in Japanese since I was a kid because of the video games.”

“Abare houda” is being produced by BFE (Black Folks Entertainment) Group, the label the group created. Any member of BFE will tell you that it’s actually easier to rap in Japanese that it is in English.

“The alphabet itself has a rhythm. It’s a unique rhythm,” said Rodney Jr.

 “We would like to make this (tour of Japan) a productive endeavor and represent well,” he said

 “That is our intention.”

Eudith Rodney turned to an edition of the Tri-State Defender featuring the debut of the newspaper’s Ready for the World series and made reference to the headline: “A world of work – are you ready?”

“In order to be ready, you have to be able to know how to communicate,” she said.

“What we learned about Japan and I believe, subsequently, about all nations in the world, is that once you make that effort to communicate, people are receptive.”

(To purchase the CD and get more information, visit: www.cdbaby.com/cd/kokujintensai.)